It's a truly miraculous sound they create ... There's a whole choir, there's strings, there's soloists, there's amazing percussion. It's a really dynamic and joyous sound, we're so used to seeing Syria through the prism of news, which is entirely a negative thing. This concert will give a completely different perspective.

Damon Albarn

Categorized in : Lifestyle

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

Damon Albarn

speak heart long

In the Sixties people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, people take Prozac to make it normal.

Damon Albarn

addiction life people

Change terrifies people. They like new, but they don't like new with change.

Damon Albarn

people

I've always known I'm incredibly special. All my life. You know? It's not a big deal.

Damon Albarn

deals bigs special

Oasis were like the bullies I had to put up with at school.

Damon Albarn

oasis bully school

I was naive enough to believe it would be enough to replace the government. Well, I made fun of the people in the government and then realized that even if we got rid of them, they were replaced by exactly the same guys.

Damon Albarn

government fun believe

There's need to be some sort of disturbance in your psyche for creativity to be sparked.

Damon Albarn

disturbance creativity needs

And there are no stars and that you're never really sure who's doing what and what voice is what and, you know what I mean? It's supposed to be quite elusive

Damon Albarn

voice stars mean

There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers.

Damon Albarn

elements hips hip-hop

Each individual has their own opinions about whether war is an answer to any problems. Personally I think it's a waste of time, but I think more importantly, that it's is an issue that we haven't had any say in. That's why I feel so strongly about it. I don't feel like we've really been given any choice in this matter. I think if you had a referendum tomorrow, Tony Blair would have no choice but to call off the war.

Damon Albarn

issues war thinking

A lot of Gorillaz songs were very personal. I mean, that's why it was interesting, because it wasn't music being made for a cartoon. It was something different. It was a much more emotional affair. I wasn't necessarily thinking in the third-person then.

Damon Albarn

emotional song mean

If you don't see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don't know how you're going to feel about it.

Damon Albarn

careers important feels

It's important that Oasis are rude about everybody and that they get drunk...Fair enough. It's nice, isn't it? But it's nothing to do with me. They came to see us in Manchester and they were very pleasant boys. Very nice. I'd like to see that as a quote. Oasis are very nice boys.

Damon Albarn

music nice boys

Every time I go to Africa, I see the future. I see what the Western world is going to become. It's a very futuristic place.

Damon Albarn

futuristic western world

My guaranteed way of sending myself into deep depression is to read music trade papers and watch MTV.

Damon Albarn

mtv paper watches

Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that's being made all over the world.

Damon Albarn

made world travel

If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.

Damon Albarn

grunge punk hippie

I like to put my iPad on the window and leave it there for however long the journey is, so that I'm staring out, and it's staring out. We're kind of staring out together. It's very poetic to me, watching that absent-minded passing of time. You realize how much you've taken in. What is left of that memory of you staring out of the window for an hour? It's all on the iPad.

Damon Albarn

taken journey memories

I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts

Damon Albarn

one-day night world

The Gorillaz cartoons seem more real to me than the actual people on TV. Because at least you know that there's some intelligence behind the cartoons, and there's a lot of work that's gone into it, so it can't all be just a lie

Damon Albarn

real lying people