The new Gorillaz album was recorded in response to the "world going f***ing nuts", according to Damon Albarn.
The 49-year-old star has revealed the band’s first album in six years, ‘Humanz’, was inspired by the election of Donald Trump as US president.
He explained: "I told everyone to imagine you’re in America after the inauguration and it’s the worst-case scenario: how would you feel that night? Let’s make a party record about the world going f***ing nuts."
But Jamie Hewlett, the comic book artist who designs the band’s animations, insisted the album isn’t "a statement about Trump", insisting it merely explores the "world in which he could get elected".
James also opened up about his earlier feud with Damon, admitting they can both be "difficult" people to deal with.
He told Q magazine: "We’d lived in each other’s pockets for 10 years.
"Damon’s an artist. He’s one of the few real artists that I know, but that means you can be a little crazy and a little difficult and I can be the same."
Damon, for his part, admitted their relationship soured when James "left" to work on other projects.
He shared: "He basically left and I felt upset by that. There was a fallow period in our relationship.
"I get the sense that sometimes people like getting off my steamroller and doing their own thing for a while and then joining me further down the road."
Meanwhile, Damon recently said the band’s first album since 2011’s ‘The Fall’ sounds like an Earth, Wind and Fire record.
Damon explained: "I think when I start I kind of have this very vague idea of where I’m heading to, but it’s not planned and then one thing leads to another.
"I wanted to make a real funk band like Earth, Wind and Fire or that kind of ilk, that’s what this whole record is kind of, sort of heading towards – that big, kind of, joyous party."
Damon Albarn: The world has gone nuts
