Damon Albarn

Mentioned by recording engineer and frequent collaborator Stephen Sedgwick in this July 2017 Sound on Sound interview about the production of Gorillaz's Humanz.

“Damon already had been demoing things during the last months of 2015, using GarageBand,” recalls Sedgwick. “In the past he used a four-track cassette recorder, but once he had an iPad he switched to GarageBand, because he loves the speed and simplicity and how easy it is to pick sounds. It allows him to get his ideas down really quickly, and if something doesn’t work, he can immediately move on to something else. He’ll demo anything that gets the ball rolling: a guitar/vocal recording, chord patterns, synth parts, a loop, beats, and so on.

Shown in this behind the scenes photo, Damon Albarn is using Pro Tools in the studio.

This Sound on Sound article describes the process of recording the "Clint Eastwood" single, utilizing Logic software. Said Albarn's studio engineer Tom Girling, "It's not a conscious effort to work in a different way. I think the reason why we worked in a different way is because we've got this whole Logic thing going on, so instead of working in a linear world where you're using tape, you've got a hell of a lot more flexibility. I think it gears itself more towards this kind of thing, where you haven't necessarily got a specific goal you're after. It just gives you a chance to experiment, basically chuck a whole load of paint at the canvas and see what sticks, and weed out all the drips of paint that you don't want! I know that Damon loves working in this way now, compared to the way Blur would put a track together."