Gorillaz bassist Seye Adelekan has praised Damon Albarn for never wanting to stand still creatively.
The musician has toured with Damon and Jamie Hewlett’s band since 2017 and says the 55-year-old singer’s “super power” is always wanting to grow as an artist and work with the most exciting and diverse people.
Speaking on the ‘Meet At The Hotel Bar’ podcast, he said: “I think his super power other than his amazing writing, which is great, he puts great people in a room together. He makes sure cool people are in the same room, everyone gets better by having this cool, diverse mixture of people in a room at the same time. I think that’s what he does best, he opens people up to new things because he is allergic to repeating himself.
“He cannot do it, physically it doesn’t work for him. We can play the same song 100 times every time we play it there’s something different about it. He’s also not worried if it goes wrong, we’ve re-started songs on big stages, like, just stop it, start again. If he makes a pure clanger he’s like, ‘Mate let’s re-do that.’ We’ve done it first song of a set before.
“There’s an openness to seeing what happens as well as a high level of professionalism and a high level of work that goes into it. Also, there’s an abandon and a let go of it.”
Seye also described Damon – who began his music career as the frontman of Blur in the 1990s – as a very “loyal” person and artist who sticks by his crew and touring bandmates.
The bass player added: “He’s the biggest musical influence on my life.
“It’s quite hard to put into words, because he’s done so much for me and not just professionally, obviously he’s kept well employed for a decade. When I think of him I think of someone who is loyal, number one. All the crew and all the people in the band have been there for 10 years plus. Especially the crew, it’s the same guys who work with Blur and have been with him since the ‘90s. That says a lot, I think, about him.”