Monday, January 22, 2007

Hallo
Here is an interview I had with Jonathan Ross two days ago.


1.Hey Noodle. How are you?

Noodle: I'm exhausted but well. I've been in guitar training all day with Ted Nugent.

2.So, where are you?

Noodle: Essex. At our base, Kong Studios.

3.Can I ask, who are you? Only Gorillaz are notorious for getting their press officers to write interviews for them - can I be sure that this really is Noodle?

Noodle: No-one other than Gorillaz do our interviews. But if you want to see if I'm real, just give me a squeeze.

4.Please tell me a Gorillaz secret.

Noodle: All the real gossip is in my new book Noodle: My Life Behind The Screen Is that what you want? There are no secrets in Gorillaz. But I'll tell you something... unknown. Despite our blanket success, we are actually far better than you think.

5.What is the most exciting thing to happen to you recently?

Noodle: A couple of VMAs last week, Number One with the single this week, Number One in the US rock charts, er... flying back from shooting footage for a new video yesterday.

6.We enjoyed your interview with foriegn fans on virtual hotel website www.HabboHotel.co.uk [sic]particularly their repeated questions about whether you were Chinese or spoke Dutch. Is that the kind of thing you hoped life in a sort of made-up rock'n'roll band would be about?

Noodle: Many of these kids, for whom English is not their first language, have difficulty in formulating questions. Therefore some of the questions were confused. I cannot see how they could think I was Dutch. Also I think the customary notion of rock'n'roll is outdated.

7.We met your collaborator Ike Turner once [Turner contributes keyboards to the album] and we couldn't help thinking, "OK, he is cool, but did he really have to beat the shit out of his wife like that?" Did a similar thought ever occur to you?

Noodle: I never met Ike. Russel did. I haven't a clue as to the reality of Ike and Tina Turner's relationship adn wouldn't draw any opinions from a Hollywood dramatisation like What's Love Got To Do With It. I know him more through the music I've been playing and the piano parts he sent us. And I would say that when it comes to music, this is an industry that has always drawn people whose personal lives have maybe been a little suspect.

8.Good point. You've just had your first Number One - how did you celebrate?

Noodle: I went to see The Devil's Rejects, but they wouldn't let me in because of my age.

9.If you weren't in the mood to party, could you just rub your mopey mouth out and draw on a smiley one and get on with it?

Noodle: I always know exactly how to party. But nice question.

10.What insights into the human mind did working with Shaun Ryder give you?

Noodle: Shaun is a cautionary tale. But only in so much that you should accept the results of your actions. He's a genuinely warm, funny and friendly person to be around and certainly doesn't seem to be regretful of his position. Although I think he thought we might just be some of his other hallucinations.

11.Did he scare you at any point?

Noodle: Yes, he jumped out at me from behind a door.

12.Ok, your character is a 10-or-something-year-old Japanese girl who plays guitar. Right?

Noodle: I'm now 15, but do go on.

13.So, where were you born?

Noodle: In Osaka, Japan.

14.Shouldn't you be in school?

Noodle: Yes. I cannot lie. I should be in school. But Godzilla smashed by school to smithereens on one of his mad, alcohol-fuelled rampages.

15.Isn't it dull hanging out with these old blokes talkign about dub and early-90s hip-hop?

Noodle: I don't see any significance in the date when a piece of music is released. I'm only interested in whether it moves me or not.

16.You're Japanese, called Noodle and you're into martial arts. Do you, perhaps, have a French friend called Fromage who likes eating snails?

Noodle: I feel you're showing a lot of your own generalisations there. Martial arts are not restricted to Japan and are not the defining characteristic of my personality. The fact that I play guitar, write songs, live in England and tour the world in the most successful and diverse band, musically, creatively and culturally, to come out of England since music began are far more profound parts of my character.

17.When and how do you become the kooky little girl and when do you go back to being the stubby bloke who drinks pints and farts in the bath?

Noodle: I could say it works along the same lines as Freaky Friday, but the reality is more mundane.

18.Have you ever thought, "Fuck me, I wish we hadn't bothered with all this ooh-let's-hide-our-true-identities-behind-cartoon-characters caper"?

Noodle: I think there comes a time in every band member's life when they regret the identifiable traits that made them famous in the first place. I'm sure Ozzy Osbourne is tired of answering questions about eating bats. But it beats writing about rock bands in a newspaper and having to pretend to yourself that you're still genuinely interested. In life we each and every one of us must accept our own history, however we feel it restricts us.

19.Now, there's a good amount of fairly pricey Gorillaz merchandise about: was the bulging wallet of the saddle-sniffing fan-boy obsessive a spur in forming a cartoon band with a Japanese chick in it in the first place?

Noodle: Gorillaz have never released anything musically, visually or in any other medium that has been anything less than superlative.

20.What's Gorillaz' message to the world?

Noodle: I like Funkadelic's line "Free your mind and your ass will follow". You should listen to it. It may take the bug out of your ass. I may be a Gorilla but you've really gone out of your way to rattle my cage today.

21.It's all done with a deep love!

Noodle: Right. Off the top of my head, time is fleeting, there is no such thing as the future and you can create whatever you want. Don't be limited by other people's notiong of the right and wrong way to do things. They're psychic vampires and they're out to slow you down.

22.Thank you Noodle, it's been great fun! And your band's great!

Noodle: You should smile when you say that. Or are you afraid that your face will crack?

-Noodle

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