From the 2CD Special Edition of 13
hi. this is where i post blur and blur-related stuff. when i remember. 
• Ask me anything
24 hours of rubbish
i don't own the rights to anything posted here, but the stuff tagged "my scans" are things i've scanned from my collection, so it'd be cool if you didn't post them as your own. please credit or link back if you repost stuff. thanks!
you can also find me here
24 hours of rubbish
“Trimm Trabb, I like that because suddenly you hear this kind of howl, Damon is howling. It’s a strange song because it’s about something really, really mundane. How we have all these things during our day: what trousers to wear, what things to put on our feet, oh God, I’m going to have to make some toast. Which is why I love the bit where he howls, because it’s a bit like an existential fucking howl, the emotional pain of the overwhelming thing of the mundane.”
— Graham Coxon, Blur - 21
“If I had to name a favourite Blur song, Caramel would definitely be it. That and Tender. I played Caramel obsessively in my car over and over again. you can play it over and over again because it starts and ends in the same place. I’m quite proud of it. It’s a grown up musical track and the kind of thing we’d been trying to do for a long time but never really got to work. In that one it workds 100%.”
— Dave Rowntree, Blur - 21.
“Damon’s singing, and his lyrics, are far more open and emotional than they have ever been. He’s hurting, he’s fighting back; he’s crashing and he lets us know. Everything about the album feels desperate, and chaotic. B.L.U.R.E.M.I. is the squally end to old Blur; Caramel is woozy, far-out, away-with-the planets; the guitar thunders in on Trimm Trabb (about Adidas trainers) and Damon sounds as though he’s dying. Because what he’s coming to terms with is not only the end of his love affair, but the love affair he had with Graham, with Blur itself. It’s the end of a century.”
— Blur - 21. About 13.
“What was the best moment during the recording this album?
“I remember walking into the studio in Reykjavik feeling like shit for reasons I won’t go into and hearing the vocal to Tender. I just felt better again, like it was assuaging my terrible feelings of guilt and horror. That and William teaching me to play Ray Of Light on the guitar. It’s the same chords ans Boys Don’t Cry you know.”
Two of you are 30, Dave is 35. Does the pop star phase of Blur’s bandhood end here?
“Yes, I think so. It’s Pink Floyd time.”
So it doesn’t matter if you get all fat now.
“Thank fuck.”
— Alex James. Q, April 1999.
“A lot of 13 was done in very intense moods,” whispers Coxon. “I got in a couple of bad moods and didn’t talk for a whole day - just played, that’s why there are so many angry sounds…”
— Q, April 1999.
“You have to be very careful when you write very personal records,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of people just decide to be totally open and I think what they’re left with is a real confusion about who they are. Because they’ve got nothing to preserve for themselves. It can really fuck you up.”
— Damon Albarn about 13. The Face, February, 1999.
“Another break from tradition on 13 can be heard in Damon Albarn’s lyrics. Gone are the observational character songs, replaced by much more personal reflections on love and life, clearly influenced by the singer’s split with long-time girlfriend, Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, last year.
“I think Damon’s changed quite a lot recently,” muses Coxon. “He’s realised some vulnerability in himself. I’ve always preferred it when he sang personally about his own experiences, experiences that everybody has. When he was singing about people travelling to work on trains to London I didn’t feel a connection and I think that went for a lot of people, especially those not living in England. But now, he’s dealing with basic human emotions.
“People who don’t know him think he’s become more like a human being. But I’ve known him a long time, since I was 12, and he now seems to have more confidence to be open in his lyrics and not hide behind strange stories of people.”
— Graham Coxon, The Guitar Magazine, March 1999.
Another interview from the 13 EPK
Interview from 13 EPK
