The catastrophic collaboration between The Strokes and Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is the king of collaboration. With Gorillaz, he’s worked with everybody from Elton John to The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. However, not everything Albarn touches has turned to gold, and his disastrous attempt at working with The Strokes proves that he’s only human.
Following the success of their debut album, Is This It, The Strokes were the hottest band on the planet by a distance, and everyone wanted a piece. The record changed the course of guitar music in the 21st century and brought rock ‘n’ roll back into the mainstream after a prolonged absence. To add context, even the particularly prickly Noel Gallagher said of the New Yorkers in 2001: “I think they’re the most important band right now in the world for what they may inspire other people to do.”
Gallagher’s former rival Albarn agreed with his statement and enjoyed a secret recording session with The Strokes while they made Room On Fire. It was an unplanned collaboration after they saw Blur in concert and headed to the studio with Damon following the show.
Their producer, Gordon Raphael, told the radio station XFM in 2003 how Albarn decided to dramatically change the band’s sonic identity and make them sound “like The Beatles with all those harmonies.” However, The Strokes have never been a reincarnation of The Beatles, and the Blur frontman’s bold idea for Room On Fire was disastrous.
Raphael explained: “We let him go out and try for a couple of hours… singing backing vocals. Julian’s taking it really seriously, seeing if he can craft what Damon’s doing into something that would make it on the record. But in the end, Damon said, ‘Well, I guess the songs are just perfect the way they are’. And so no backing vocals were used.”
“Everyone was in a glum and slightly inebriated mood,” Raphael later said of the session during an appearance on a radio show. He elaborated: “Before long, Damon Albarn is on the floor singing backing harmonies to Strokes songs. To my mind, it was a terrible idea just theoretically, and in practice, it confirmed my worst fears. I was very happy when, after a turn of events, I said, ‘May I please delete this’, and everybody, including Damon, nodded their head and said, ‘Please do’.”
While the idea of Albarn bringing The Strokes into his world with Gorillaz seems tantalising, his backing harmonies for songs such as ‘Reptilia’ is less appealing. There’s almost certainly an extremely valid reason everybody agreed to delete the files and why there’ll never be able to hear on streaming services.
Listen to Raphael discuss the catastrophic session below.
