Damon Albarn's Songwriting Routine, Using Garageband To Create Blur Songs

Damon Albarn & producer James Ford unpack the never heard before demo of 'The Heights' plus hear how Damon uses Garageband for his writing his guitar parts.
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[@TapeNotesPodcast]

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE👉 bit.ly/blurandjamesfordvideo

[@reisakakibara]

those whistles are actually damon writing another album while being interviewed

[@TheFakeyCakeMaker]

Loved this. What so many muso journalists miss is that these guys are musicians, they want to talk about their music not their private lives. We want to hear it. Loved listening to Damon talk about his process and how he gets to the places he does with song writng. Very inspiring.

[@T.I.L.P]

I'm still not over that video of him showing Zane Lowe how he wrote Clint Eastwood. Got to love his honesty.

[@Underfist101]

The Deesser on Damon's vocals must be working goddamn overtime lmao

[@kentbyron7608]

Garage band is underrated for its simplicity. But the elegant user interface is designed brilliantly with great thought put into how to keep the interface simple, and it has far more features and track count than even the Beatles had. That's a mind blower to me, and it's available free on all iPhones and iPads. The amount of creativity possible with GarageBand is up to the artist. As far as software design is concerned Garageband is a masterpiece.

[@yanmetcaluire]

Can't compare myself with Damon but I play Garageband for maybe 12 years and this software still gives me inspiration... A free soft and you can make a song ! Who told a Mac was expensive when you realise all the stuff you get inside to create your world !

[@iawnlad]

if youre in damons position, as in working with a producer when it comes to making an album, garage band is really all you need to get your ideas to come to fruition. I use logic over here and i couldnt get it to open for about a week as i couldnt log into my icloud. so during that i uses garage band and was completely surprised in its depth.

[@Inequities]

What’s garage band lol

[@xero5101]

@@Inequitiesthe basic version of Logic

[@vixo551]

It's a DAW, where you basically record music (digitally) and you can put drum machines and midi instruments and make songs with it. ​@@Inequities

[@Inequities]

@@vixo551 oh ok, thank you!!

[@DiRtYLaWs2007]

GarageBand is amazing. Still using it regularly today after 10 years.

[@SuperMojoRisin]

That demo sounds beautiful

[@wallsfarmpictures]

You said it. It's really all there in Garageband!

[@paulembleton1733]

Never owned a Mac but iPadOS GarageBand is fun, and a great learning tool. It gives a big picture view of music making.

[@steven_uk]

Can we put a de-esser on Damon's mic?

[@benking8610]

He always has the singing s sound because of his teeth

[@KudosCultureCartel]

Sounds like the grandpa from Family Guy

[@KudosCultureCartel]

@@benking8610 why whats wrong with his teeth?

[@GordonPavilion]

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

[@KRDZoom1]

😂😂😂😂

[@clivehunte3026]

Omg, I've not seen James Ford in years, he was a great drummer back in the day and I had the opportunity to play bass alongside him back in the Ear to The Ground days in Manchester.

[@jasongoodwin7373]

He played drums in The Last Shadow Puppets too, he's great

[@DanielKarlMorgan]

Garageband is my go-to for getting ideas down quickly too. I swear by it!

[@mobdividual]

ive been using garageband to mix for years. its fun and easy and can be done on my phone

[@rcdmrl]

“I’m hitting a wonderwall” 🔥

[@acrookedbeat9013]

been creating dub reggae on my imac and garageband for years , sounds great to my old ears

[@DownThePieRateHole]

Love the hell out of this.

[@Newmusicreview]

Damon is morphing into Elvis Costello

[@Hrendelpouchany]

Omg I hope not. Damon is worth 10 Costellos.

[@timadam-smith9107]

Love this

[@sonijam]

I like those microphones.

[@nasuwtsjh8348]

This is great!

[@andrewespada742]

a robot😂 jk love ya

[@trimmtrabb23]

How I still love him

[@phatato]

Was anyone else surprised by how deep his speaking voice is given how high he sings in blur songs?

[@hillyhilltop]

Probably the smokes

[@ganganor4964]

Dude that’s all I’m thinking about the entire video

[@glitterisse]

Um he just get older (55yrs) and yk voice getting bit deep after years of loud singing

[@waltercoyle6393]

@@glitterisse Which is minimal. The smoking is what is really making him sound like a post-menopausal woman.

[@glitterisse]

@@waltercoyle6393 What? Not only cigarettes made his voice deeper. I mean biological aspects. It's going with age and probably all the time when he yelled while he made songs or tours and concerts. And why do you think he has voice like post menopausal woman?

[@GbrElfunk]

Yeah, the energies

[@freddy_cyclone]

dat whistle

[@bobstar76]

Just gave wondamonwall a mighty promo boost

[@andsoistopped]

That Mono T-shirt. 👍

[@willmfoley]

Drink when you hear 'energy'

[@andsoistopped]

3 albums in. GarageBand is amazing.

[@hoisin75]

I just went back from logic for iPad to GarageBand. Much more straightforward

[@callumcoates-keddy9107]

David Sounds like Herbert the pervert from family guy with those whistles.

[@kahyui2486]

Hey chrisssssss

[@hammerecords]

And for tonights performance Graham is being replaced by Garage Band. So funny.

[@LightningJosue]

The quirkier part of St. Charles Square definitely comes out of Graham. Very evident in the demo to album comparison

[@gtabro1337]

So that's what Kenny Beats has been up to in the UK

[@Nick_Barre]

Technical / gear question please: what mics are you using? I've spotted (and admired) them in other high quality podcasts. Thanks in advance ;-)

[@habacuque]

Neumann BCM104?

[@Nick_Barre]

@@habacuque Thankyou-that's kind of you.

[@MScantlin]

I think Damon’s nearly boiled.

[@TapeNotesPodcast]

Hahahaha

[@cph2004]

I like the fact that damon says he uses garageband. A friend of mine uses garageband, and he says how good it is, but i am a loyal Fl Studios user. Sorry.

[@Paul-dw2cl]

That’s Damon’s place, right? He seems to do a lot of interviews there

[@Paul-dw2cl]

@@tasoskont.6716 ahh. ya learn something everyday

[@glitterisse]

Yeah his studio 13!

[@brianthompson1485]

Damon and Kenny?!?! WOAH KENNY

[@danzesociety]

Damon so underrated

[@gman5218]

By who? Even people who hated blur recognised his talent

[@s.r.b.4582]

Man they talk about things being not over processed, and then all we hear is over processed instruments and voices, wtf hahaha

[@swirlysound]

i was just thinking that when i read your comment haha.

[@plummetplum]

Is Damon on 0.5x speed setting?

[@thegroove2000]

If Damon uses it then im gonna.

[@machineagevoodoo2106]

NDH 20

[@JucaNeryGuitar]

That's Pro Tools!

[@jbrenner19]

it sucks bc ive always written random shit on keyboards or shitty daws or whatever but i can never finish a project off. ill like write a few loops for a bassline and chorus or whatever then get completely stuc and i need to know how they do it

[@Hrendelpouchany]

So there is very little about the song writing process here and when they show the DAW it’s not Garageband. I’m wondering if Apple have slipped Damon a few quid 😂

[@davelordy]

Man, people are deluded over AI, everyone cueing up to give out the same tired tropes "it'll never do X" or "it'll never replace Y" . . . it's amazing that their technical insights (lol) just happen to rule out encroachment into their particular area . . . they haven't got a clue what's coming.

[@jamesbaker9342]

Didn’t know Mr Robot was british

[@martinmeister5394]

I was going to record my music two years ago using garageband a while back...I got this big book called garageband for dummies and the more I red the more I realised I'd be making something complicated that was simple...it's ok until you try to play live again and have to find a way to compensate for not having garageband behind you

[@robertjamesonmusic]

Lol, you can use half backing track half live instruments. So many possibilities these days

[@martinmeister5394]

@@robertjamesonmusic I'm just being weird about it lol

[@martinmeister5394]

...why make something in garageband just to take it to the studio to finish 😩

[@robertjamesonmusic]

@@martinmeister5394 because if you bring something at least half or fully finished into the studio then you don’t waste thousands of dollars in the studio figuring out if your song is a piece of shit or not. You’ll know that what you are bringing is something you can use

[@martinmeister5394]

@@robertjamesonmusic you and Damon are making me want to try gb again lol

[@MaxEfpunkt]

what's the song at 07:01?

[@LiveMusic-fj3tc]

Why is he always dropping the F bomb?

[@avandemordes]

Garageband it's the small bro of logic, logic now its on the iPad, I've been using GB for a decade on the ipad, last year i mixed a record, that was mixed also in a Mac using logic pro, guess which one went to the master

[@TapeNotesPodcast]

I'm guessing the GB mix?

[@avandemordes]

@@TapeNotesPodcast that's right ;)

[@new_memeplex]

Thanks or this interview. I am so bored with those interviews by places like the Guardian or the Times where they focus on cliched topics like Britpop, Oasis, heroin etc ALL THE TIME no matter how much time has passed.

[@TapeNotesPodcast]

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it

[@Jamesp1972]

That tune is great with no adornments...they're a bit naff

[@callumcoates-keddypsychesy5954]

What's with the hard whistle?

[@TapeNotesPodcast]

We de-essed the crap out of it but to no avail!

[@callumcoates-keddypsychesy5954]

Damn son! At least you had thee Damon Albarn on your podcast. That is massive.

[@deloreanized]

The problem in recent years is that live recordings with real performers are so, so, so heavily processed (compression, velocity, quantitation, etc) that, at the end of the pipeline, you hear that snare drum, and it sounds like if it was sampled one time and then cut and pasted to the grid.

[@paninovevo1162]

Compression tho has been used a lot since always

[@ThiagoCP]

@@paninovevo1162Have you ever heard Carol Kaye saying that all of her bass track were never compressed?

[@johnmarriott3982]

Whats the song at the end

[@TheFifthBanana01]

It’s the demo or “early” version of The Heights from their new record.

[@johnmarriott3982]

@@TheFifthBanana01 know any way I could listen to it?

[@TheFifthBanana01]

@@johnmarriott3982 probably not, it looks like the only one who has it is Damon.

[@johnmarriott3982]

@@TheFifthBanana01 awww .. sounds really good. Really like the album version though. Peace and love

[@jon_onj]

1:20 Damon Alburn

[@glitterisse]

Dan Abnormal?

[@jon_onj]

@@glitterisse Demon El Burn

[@glitterisse]

@@jon_onj Demon All burnt!!!

[@jon_onj]

@@glitterisse Demon hasborn

[@glitterisse]

@@jon_onj Demon Allblur

[@MrSkunky2009]

Bizarre....

[@sickboy6663]

Didnt know he whistled his 's' until now. Sounds like the old peado from Family Guy

[@nasuwtsjh8348]

The GarageBand being referred to is iPad Garageband...?

[@paulembleton1733]

You weren’t looking at the screen where you? Me neither, yay iPad GarageBand is fun! Someone should do this. But no, that’s a Mac laptop.

[@nasuwtsjh8348]

@@paulembleton1733 the MacBook is running pro-tools. Thanks, it I was referring to the GarageBand on which the original demos were recorded.

[@newbreednet]

pretty sure what Damon was lolling at was that it was one of those "touch instrument" guitars from garageband, i.e. yes from iOS @@nasuwtsjh8348

[@aldocorzo5440]

Prolly. Gorillaz / The Fall (2010) is an album that was made almost entirely on an iPad, according to Damon himself

[@getwetsoon]

but this is not garage band, isnt it?

[@ben_haviour]

Gosh... those Neumann mics really don't favour his "Ssshhh" sizzle.

[@glitterisse]

Jesus just he had problem with tooth :b

[@glitterisse]

But yeah too clear. Neumanns sound

[@_Only_Zuul]

garageband is great for songwriting, maybe not so much for production..

[@alankavanagh3023]

Rockstar is when you can wear Carhartt Workwear and make it look fashionable! Rock on Damon Alburn

[@suites.74]

My take with AI - you can't "REPLACE" the human but you can maybe 80% "REPLICATE" the human. If we have humans to keep making original content, then we can feed these models with new information and they can do cool stuff. But if we get lazy and stop thinking and try to let computers do all the thinking, we'll go around in circles and end up dumber.

[@Itsdivinedivine]

Albarn - not ALBURN.

[@sophiafakevirus-ro8cc]

He ripped off the start of the chorus, who can remember where from?

[@TheSolarwaves]

WTF? I don't see GarageBand anywhere...that is not GB they are using. Is this a piss take?

[@DJTomOke]

Damon whistles when he speaks. Can't tell if it's pretention or not. Either way it's annoying.

[@glitterisse]

Gold tooth problem :(

[@Netlife-001]

Yeah, modern life is rubbish. Just gimme coffee and TV in a chemical world in a chemical world it's very very .. summat or other

[@begoodalwaysbegood9519]

Astronomy domine. In Jesus Christs name we pray amen.

[@billbill454]

Damon Albarn feels like he's being played by Harry Enfield

[@jennaleigh-raine]

Song is alittle weak

[@lboymusic]

This Damon Albarn is one of the most cocky musician ever to live...

[@Blacktaboovideo]