This to me is like a key thing: You've got to have that spark to start, but if you want to do this over a serious period of time and really create a serious body of work, you've got to get better and more interesting as you go along.ĭamon had recorded a little bit with Bobby Womack, because Bobby had guested on the last Gorillaz record, Plastic Beach, and Damon had always been a fan of the voice. Damon's someone I've always had a lot of admiration for as a musician and I always thought his output was tremendous and the way he was able to improve and get more interesting as he's gone along. He'd done a few overdubs for me in London. I think we found that we had a good way of working together.ĭamon had actually played a little bit on the Gil Scott-Heron record. The stuff we made together there happened very smoothly, came together very well.
Richard Russell: I went to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo last summer - I was there not in any XL related capacity I was there purely in the capacity as a record producer and as a musician, with a bunch of people led by Damon Albarn making a record which ended up being called Kinshasa One Two. Jacob Ganz: Can you tell me how your collaboration with Bobby Womack came about?
#Bobby voicey full#
True to his history, Russell says, Womack approached the sessions as a full collaborator. Speaking of Womack, Russell often refers to "the voice," but the singer didn't sit back and let his producers craft a comeback album.
Womack had worked with Albarn previously Russell, a producer who started XL to put out dance singles, had recently gone back into the studio to record Gil Scott-Heron's final album. When I spoke with him earlier this spring, Richard Russell told me that the path that led the three men who made The Bravest Man in the Universe together was just as unlikely and organic. There are layers of irony and resonance in these elements (Cooke's premature death, Womack's survival) even the inclusion of the Cooke sample - as reverent as it seems - alludes to Womack's sometimes controversial past. In one span of about two minutes, you hear a raw version of the spiritual "Deep River" followed by a recording of Womack's mentor Sam Cooke, speaking about how age can improve a singer's ability to interpret music, and then the voice of the young (but retro-inclined) singer Lana Del Rey. The album packs allusions to Womack's past in soul and gospel alongside programmed beats and samples, all centered around Womack's voice, which sounded weathered even when he was in his 20s. Womack recorded the album with Damon Albarn of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, and producer Richard Russell, who also owns the record label XL Recordings.
Released earlier this month, a new album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, continues the trend. Music Interviews Bobby Womack: 'God Must Still Have a Purpose For Me'
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