Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett recently spoke to Rolling Stone India about The Mountain, Gorillaz’s ninth studio album. To be released Friday next week, the record is said to be a return to the kind of full-album concepts explored on Demon Days (2005) and Plastic Beach (2010).

“I said to Damon, if we can make an album about death that makes people feel less afraid of the concept of it, wouldn’t that be an amazing gift?” - Jamie Hewlett

Albarn’s father passed in 2023 and 10 days later, Hewlett lost his father too. In the following months Hewlett also lost his mother-in-law, who had suffered a stroke in late 2022. Hewlett spent two months in Jaipur with his wife. He has since been to Mumbai, New Delhi, Amritsar, Rishikesh, Kerala, and Varanasi.

The Gorillaz pair first visited India together in May 2023.

“India brought us back together.” - Damon Albarn

Albarn said he and Hewlett hadn't quite been on the same wavelength since Plastic Beach. They bonded in India, where Albarn was inspired by folk music and recorded parts that were adapted for the new album. Albarn said their friendship has “manifest[ed] itself in a creative outpouring”.

As well as Indian artists including Asha Bhosle (who says the music and lyrics on ‘The Shadowy Light’ “triggered something deep inside”), the album includes posthumous features from Bobby Womack, Dennis Hopper, Mark E. Smith, Proof, and Tony Allen. Albarn worked with the legendary Afrobeat drummer in The Good, the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & the Moon.

“It works beautifully within the idea of reincarnation.” - Damon Albarn

Several tracks address life and death, including ‘The Shadowy Light’, written in the days after Albarn’s father’s passing.

Top photo by Blair Brown, published on Rolling Stone India.