:00:14. > :00:25.I suppose because I have spent a lot of my life playing with huge great
:00:26. > :00:42.groups of people, or being a cartoon... Or being in a band...
:00:43. > :00:49.It's quite a difficult thing for me to do to make a solo record. It is
:00:50. > :00:54.quite an amazing thing to think that he has had a career of 25 years and
:00:55. > :00:59.this is his first album that is lyrically about his life. You
:01:00. > :01:06.definitely get an insight into him on this. There is a lot of very
:01:07. > :01:11.revealing and honest facets of him on display here. I think he's making
:01:12. > :01:41.himself quite honourable with the record.
:01:42. > :01:51.# we are Everyday Robots on our phones, in the process of getting
:01:52. > :01:55.home... It became a record where I was very
:01:56. > :02:01.much singing about my own experiences. How do we know that we
:02:02. > :02:07.really exist, other than that beam of light which is our history. I
:02:08. > :02:11.started going back to places which I felt might give me some sense of who
:02:12. > :02:22.am I now and how do I feel about stuff. So I went back to
:02:23. > :02:32.Leytonstone. Change here for London Underground services...
:02:33. > :02:41.The first time I came back, when I came out of the tube, I literally
:02:42. > :02:52.felt like a giant. Because all my memories are from up to the age of
:02:53. > :02:57.nine. I grew up in 1970s multicultural London. From the
:02:58. > :03:01.smells of food coming out of people's back kitchens, from the
:03:02. > :03:04.people I went to school with, to the music, to the general flavour of the
:03:05. > :03:10.place, I think that definitely played a big part in who I am. I
:03:11. > :03:17.just heard you were brought up here. Yes, just down the road. You
:03:18. > :03:28.still look the same! Still as hot as ever! This is Philippa Road where I
:03:29. > :03:38.grew up. -- 's Brook Road. I lived here with my mum, my dad and my
:03:39. > :03:44.sister. For a brief while, my uncle and his family lived upstairs. And a
:03:45. > :03:55.bit later on, my auntie randomly moved in with a guy to live next
:03:56. > :03:58.door. My mum worked with kids with learning disabilities, teaching
:03:59. > :03:59.them. And my dad worked at the north-east London Polytechnic
:04:00. > :04:21.teaching art. Keith Albarn is head of the Margate
:04:22. > :04:27.project. What is it going to be like? It is a series of capsules.
:04:28. > :04:30.The whole thing depends on the visitor and it is activated by the
:04:31. > :04:35.visitor and comes to life by the visitor. Every time you come back to
:04:36. > :04:44.this, it should be a very different adventure. Both my parents still
:04:45. > :04:50.make art. My sister is the same. We are just one of those families where
:04:51. > :04:55.that is what we did. I was pretty lucky in the sense that there didn't
:04:56. > :05:02.seem to be many boundaries about what you could and could not do. I
:05:03. > :05:05.suppose I grew up in that sort of environment. That more than anything
:05:06. > :05:14.has informed to I am. This is where I grew up, number 21. Very happy
:05:15. > :05:22.memories. I used to enjoy going down that coal chute, can you believe it?
:05:23. > :05:26.I think I was just a very ordinary kid, I liked mucking about on my
:05:27. > :05:33.bicycle. I just remember it being a really nice communal sort of
:05:34. > :05:39.street. There was a synagogue over the other side. Leytonstone
:05:40. > :05:50.represents to me a series of windows into other cultures that felt very
:05:51. > :05:51.accessible. So when I got any opportunity to look through those
:05:52. > :06:28.windows, I did. # on the Hollow ponds, set sail, in
:06:29. > :06:36.the heatwave that hit us all, 1976...
:06:37. > :06:44.Down there is the high road. We are sort of at the edge of Hollow ponds
:06:45. > :06:55.now, which is really the catalyst for the whole record, really. It is
:06:56. > :07:00.quite an eerie, eerie place. Imagine what it is like on a moonlit night.
:07:01. > :07:06.When I came back here, everything started flooding back. 1976, anyone
:07:07. > :07:12.who is my age or older would remember as being an incredible
:07:13. > :07:20.summer. A place like this was like going on holiday. But I do remember
:07:21. > :07:26.it being packed, packed, packed, packed full of people. People who
:07:27. > :07:31.would not normally ever getting a pair of trunks were there. It was a
:07:32. > :07:37.real coming out moment I think for London. London sort of saw itself
:07:38. > :07:46.naked in a way that summer. Then it turned into a song really. 1976 was
:07:47. > :07:50.such a strong date that I thought I could continue taking these
:07:51. > :08:02.snapshots of important moments for me.
:08:03. > :08:12.It is really important, when you are starting a new thing, whether it is
:08:13. > :08:15.a book, an album, a painting or a creative process, you are sort of
:08:16. > :08:18.stepping into, you need a moment where something gives you the
:08:19. > :08:22.confidence to continue, that it is not just an empty page you are
:08:23. > :08:32.staring at. That is what happened when I came here. It really had a
:08:33. > :08:34.very strong effect on me. Look, they have all come to say hello to us.
:08:35. > :09:09.Hello. This is the Pentecostal City Mission
:09:10. > :09:16.Church. I used to cycle up here. I remember vividly stopping on a
:09:17. > :09:17.Sunday, just sort of listening and this amazing sound used to come out
:09:18. > :09:49.of this place. # Mr Tembo is on his way up the
:09:50. > :09:56.hill, to tell you how he feels, where he is now isn't what he
:09:57. > :10:04.planned, where he is now wasn't what he planned. Mr Tembo is on his way
:10:05. > :10:10.up the hill with only this song to tell you how he feels, but to get
:10:11. > :10:17.there, he will need a helping hand, where he is now, it wasn't what he
:10:18. > :10:24.planned... The connection is a mad connection, but this little
:10:25. > :10:27.elephant, Mr Tembo, that I met in Tanzania, the guys who look after
:10:28. > :10:33.him, watch a lot of gospel on television and listen to it all the
:10:34. > :10:39.time, so the elephant has grown up with gospel music. If it ever hears
:10:40. > :10:45.the song, I would like it if it had a gospel flavour to it. Mr Tembo is
:10:46. > :10:49.really honest. It is about an elephant that he saw. I think he
:10:50. > :10:57.thought, do I want to show people this? Yes, definitely. It was very
:10:58. > :10:59.authentic to me. I think it is quite a life affirming record and it has
:11:00. > :11:16.got joyous qualities to it. We are on a bridge now that did not
:11:17. > :11:19.exist when I lived here. I am looking at the skyline which
:11:20. > :11:27.definitely did not exist when I lived here. My old road was cut in
:11:28. > :11:36.half and this huge road was built which is kind of weird because this
:11:37. > :11:42.leads up to Colchester, 55 miles up the road. When I moved to
:11:43. > :11:44.Colchester, I felt like a real outsider. I did not fit in. And
:11:45. > :11:59.everything changed. I think any kid that moves can't
:12:00. > :12:06.help but be slightly affected by that. It was such a different
:12:07. > :12:12.culture. Essentially, very Anglo-Saxon and quite conservative.
:12:13. > :12:23.I would say almost the antithesis of Leytonstone. But it also had this
:12:24. > :12:29.really kind of magical Englishness about it. They are my two
:12:30. > :12:37.influences. Englishness and that multicultural nests.
:12:38. > :12:45.As a kid, you had to have a bicycle otherwise you did not get anywhere,
:12:46. > :12:55.so I did a lot of cycling. This is a mad little place. It has got what,
:12:56. > :13:02.one, two, three, four... About 18 houses and three pubs. You know I
:13:03. > :13:06.was talking about it being quite Anglo-Saxon around here, this is
:13:07. > :13:16.actually the path up to my old house round the back. You get the gist. So
:13:17. > :13:23.you imagine, coming from Leytonstone to hear, it was like... I used to do
:13:24. > :13:30.my paper rounds in there. This is where we moved to, this place here.
:13:31. > :13:38.It wasn't a bakery, obviously, but it is called the old bakery. And
:13:39. > :13:44.that is my bedroom. That is where I lived, in that room. But this is
:13:45. > :13:46.like the back alley of a pub, so you can imagine it was pretty lively at
:13:47. > :14:06.night. I was basically, you are basically
:14:07. > :14:13.on your own. My sister, there were a couple of other kids in the village
:14:14. > :14:21.but it was quite a sort of, you know, not lonely but self
:14:22. > :14:25.introverted. No, that is the wrong word as well. I am finding it quite
:14:26. > :15:06.difficult to talk about this. There is so much of who I am here.
:15:07. > :15:23.# When your body aches # When the dreams we keep
:15:24. > :15:26.# And the bow goes up # Just live the dream
:15:27. > :16:03.# It will be a silent day... # So, this is Aldham Church.
:16:04. > :16:17.I had permission on Saturday mornings to come and play the organ.
:16:18. > :16:26.This is the organ. My mum organised it. You know, there was no-one here
:16:27. > :16:36.so I could kind of play what I wanted.
:16:37. > :16:41.Quite a singular thing to be doing when you're a teenager, to be
:16:42. > :16:50.sitting on your own in a church and be playing an organ. This is when I
:16:51. > :16:57.sort of took classical music quite serious seriously. I had a piano
:16:58. > :17:02.teacher that I went to every week. I enjoyed playing classical music, but
:17:03. > :17:07.found it quite restricting. By the time I was 13, I was probably
:17:08. > :17:11.playing in the cabin at school with Graham so we were thinking in those
:17:12. > :17:12.terms. Not grand terms, but just, sort of, maybe getting a band
:17:13. > :17:27.together at some point. I wouldn't have become musical I
:17:28. > :17:35.don't think in the way that I did if I hadn't have moved here. Everything
:17:36. > :17:38.changed. In my life, it was cataclysmic. Music and cycling in
:17:39. > :18:09.Essex. # Golden brown
:18:10. > :18:14.# Texture like sun... # We are going to Fiddler's Wood. This
:18:15. > :18:18.being the countryside. It's one of many places I used to hang out. I
:18:19. > :18:28.come back here a lot actually over the years trying to find a
:18:29. > :18:33.particular tree that I used to, I don't know, sort of... How can you
:18:34. > :18:42.explain it without sounding really odd? I suppose it is odd, but I had
:18:43. > :18:50.a tree and I used to bury stuff underneath it. You know, just sort
:18:51. > :19:03.of momentos and, I don't know, maybe sort of playing around with
:19:04. > :19:17.schoolboy magic, just a very private kind of thing.
:19:18. > :19:40.The reason why this has some special significance to me is related to
:19:41. > :19:44.something that happened a few years late later when I was walking with
:19:45. > :19:53.my mum in the wood. Locally, this wood's got a bit of a reputation as
:19:54. > :19:59.being a bit sort of other worldly. That afternoon, I was walking with
:20:00. > :20:05.my mum, coming to show her this tree that I'd made my own sort of little
:20:06. > :20:12.special place. And we were standing by it and we suddenly realised there
:20:13. > :20:21.was something slightly different about the space around it.
:20:22. > :20:30.And I looked down and there was this huge great pentangle that had been
:20:31. > :20:37.built around the tree. So you can imagine that that was kind of a bit
:20:38. > :20:42.shocking really. It's really hard to articulate what it meant and I still
:20:43. > :20:51.don't really understand what it meant but it did haunt me for many,
:20:52. > :20:56.many years. That experience is sort of peppered over the album. That
:20:57. > :21:04.singular thing. You know, it's not all just put into one song, it's the
:21:05. > :21:13.feelings around it. My feelings about being back here, they seem
:21:14. > :22:09.very sort of, they seem concentrated here.
:22:10. > :22:18.# In the process of getting home # Looking like standing... #
:22:19. > :22:23.We had to adapt the songs for that context. The streamlines were kind
:22:24. > :22:26.of lifted from the original recordings. It's really about making
:22:27. > :22:30.the songs breathe. The whole atmosphere of the record is this
:22:31. > :22:32.beautiful space so you are really focussed on what the vocal is doing
:22:33. > :22:56.and what Damon is singing about. # In the process of getting home...
:22:57. > :23:01.# Damon clan rates and shares his
:23:02. > :23:05.music. It's personal and he shares it. It's a shared experience and we
:23:06. > :23:10.are all very keen to get across what he's trying to say within songs.
:23:11. > :23:14.Good. Great. Like any enterprise, there's a lot of people involved.
:23:15. > :23:22.It's not just me. It would be very lonely if it was just me. Pf
:23:23. > :23:28.Two reasons so far. Birthday. Chelsea have just beaten Man U 3-1.
:23:29. > :23:31.It's important to allow it to be a bit more multidimensional than just
:23:32. > :23:53.your own thing, especially if it's very personal. It can get precious.
:23:54. > :24:02.I'm always grabbing moments on my own and working on new stuff.
:24:03. > :24:10.Song-writing is a solitary discipline anyway really. The basic
:24:11. > :24:14.idea is something I do on my own in. That sense, it's not really vastly
:24:15. > :24:45.different from what I've done all my life.
:24:46. > :24:53.Sundance is obviously a place where new trends and premiers go. What
:24:54. > :24:57.brings you here to showcase your record? That's an interesting
:24:58. > :25:04.question. It's a good, healthy mix of independent and mainstream. I
:25:05. > :25:12.suppose for someone like me, that's probably my natural environment.
:25:13. > :25:22.Do you want a catch-up or anything? No, we are English. It's hard
:25:23. > :25:27.talking about something I've not presented yet. I'm writing in its
:25:28. > :25:33.infancy at the moment. Tomorrow night is my first public
:25:34. > :25:40.performance. It's really, really hard to imagine what will happen.
:25:41. > :25:47.If you over the years have liked my more sort of melancholic
:25:48. > :25:51.introspective stuff, then you might like this record.
:25:52. > :25:58.I'm delighted to introduce Damon Albarn. I've been a long-term fan of
:25:59. > :26:06.his restless creative output from blur to Gorillaz from the Good to
:26:07. > :26:09.Bad, and he's a solo independent artist. Please welcome to the stage,
:26:10. > :26:48.Damon Albarn. MUSIC: Honourable lady low ponds
:26:49. > :27:03.Leader of the MUSIC
:27:04. > :27:48.Hollow Ponds... If you like him, you'll probably
:27:49. > :27:54.love it. I suppose people could have the opposite reaction as well. This
:27:55. > :27:58.is the difference between someone who's really artistic. You know,
:27:59. > :28:01.it's like how far are you willing or able to reach in and how much of
:28:02. > :28:13.that are you comfortable putting out there for people to see? For those
:28:14. > :28:22.who give a, I'm not assuming anyone does, but hopefully there's a bit of
:28:23. > :28:26.an insight into who I am. Otherwise, it's a neurotic, letch-handed middle
:28:27. > :28:31.aged man talking nonsense out there into the void.
:28:32. > :28:35.-- left handed middle aged man.