I have nothing to do with Damon Albarn

This story begins in my classroom this morning. My mind was long distance from the day’s topic: Humans as narrative beings. I was watching on repeat a video message a friend in Britain shot just for me… It was K.K. Downing saying a “hello”. This “virtual” friend was in Birmingham, to attend a Billy Idol’s show and at a certain point he ran into Downing. He knows I’m a huge Judas Priest fan, and wanted to do a little thing for me.

Suddenly, I hear my name out loud in the room. The whole class was looking at me. As I looked up to my teacher, he repeats the question: “What are you, Lara?”, “Can you tell me a story about any recent event that has to do with what do you represent?”

I allowed myself to think for merely three seconds.

“I feel I am what I like the most, which is music. I am music. It’s a connection that I can’t express into words, because it is so strong. The genre of music I identify myself the most is heavy metal, but I am now a very open minded person. Last Friday, I was feeling down, and very bored, so I wanted to try something different. I logged in on Spotify and typed ‘Damon Albarn’. I wasn’t looking for anything in specific… I was only curious about what kind of music he does. I never knew much about Blur and Gorillaz, but their music were present during my whole childhood. As I grew up, I've found love in metal music, and everytime I came across something by Albarn I had a nostalgic feeling, of the days I would watch Mtv everyday before going to elementary school, but my interest in metal was so much bigger and stronger. As I started scrolling down the catalog, I noticed he had released an album earlier this year. Having emptied my mind, I simply pressed play. When the second track started, I felt when it touched me. I can’t explain how, but the song was just speaking to me, speaking to my sadness and boredom of that day, it was speaking to my heart. That is one example of how I relate with music, and it did happened really recently”.

All these words came out, and my teacher was visibly pleased with the answer. Having the attention of all students, he used my speech to build an argument…

“Look, people, how she could sum up the story of her life in only 30 seconds. Her speech had so much elements in it, so many things that don’t connect with each other by themselves, but she could sew together all these ideas so they can make sense. She talked about television, the 90s, Blur, about childhood, about her present life, and etc. Look how distant her life, her reality is from Damon Albarn’s. She has nothing to do with Damon Albarn”.

This lesson, all of sudden, had become the most interesting thing ever. Thanks to that teacher, who could draw my attention, which is the most difficult thing, since I have ADD. He kept going, but in a little different direction.

“I, personally, have listened to this album twice, when it came out. I thought it was good, but too sad. Completely different from Blur or Gorillaz”.

Raising my hand, I asked for a chance to share my view on “Everyday Robots” album.

“I agree with you, it is indeed very different from everything he has done, which is cheerful and happy, but I like sad music too. In this case, it was there at the right moment, and with the right mood. I identify myself a lot with the songs, because it talks about the way I live my life. I stay at the computer hours straight, watching things, dealing with modern gadgets. Damon has a remarkable sensibility and a very accurate perception of how technology has changed people’s lifestyle. The lyrics talk about how our day-by-day has become automated, we don’t think about what we do, or why we do, we just do. He talks about how we cope with loneliness, because technology can be now a companion, all we have to do is to press a button. I also found it brilliant how he sees the phenomenon of modern photography, and how he inputs his opinion, that we have to be more ethical and more careful with the pictures we take, with our smartphones, for example.”

Of course, there are other deep topics in the album, but the ones that appealed the most to me lyrically I described during class. I have nothing to do with Damon Albarn, but I surely have everything to do with his music. Always had.