School Paper
    This is the Tokyo-Zion Newspaper book. Read on!

Murdoc:

Hi, I'm Murdoc, and I play the bass in this outfit -- my hobbies are hang-gliding and cat-changing, hahaha! And this is something that they should never forget, that this is MY BAND! Iiiit's my band.

Uh yeah, I dabbled with, ahh... "Satan's Scrotum"... "Thor's Roar".. and my personal favorite "Number of the Beats" -- I like that one, that one's good.

Ahh yeah, our first gig at the Camden Brown House turned into like a monster riot, you know, it was bang outta order. And uh, EMI's legendary head-hunter, what's his name again... oh, Wiff.. Wiffy Smith, he was there right, and he snapped us up there and then! And before we know what was going on we were signing our contract in London Zoo with all the tigers, hahaha...

It ain't wrong, but... it ain't right. We call it zombie hip-hop or dark pop..

I watched this mental documentary made by the German filmmaker Werner Herzog last night, on the time he spent working with Klaus Kinski. What a couple of absolute arse holes! It was brilliant! Herzog was droning on about sleeping under a 150 Guinea pigs in a hut with a Brazilian dwarf who had nine kids, he went on and on, never once cracking a smile. The footage of Kinski was out of this world! I mean truly out of order, the man was like a rabid, crazed baboon on PCP infused with the devil’s own genius. There's not enough of that any more, apart from me.

This is evolution. If you're old, bald, or in the way, we'll push you over (snicker)... Have you ever seen a fully-grown naked man grasping his broadsword? (snicker)

It was my first gig. My older brother Hannibal was a Skin and he took me too see the UK Subs supporting Sham 69. What he didn't tell me was that he'd taken me so that him and all of his mates could give me a kicking because I was a rocker, the bastard. I only got to see Jimmy Percy spitting at a girl before I was knocked unconscious, so I couldn't give you a review, so to speak, but I'll never forget that experience or the lesson it taught me. Never ever trust any fucking skin heads!

Ohhh Mick Hucknall (snicker)... listen I hate gingerdread men, y'know, they just make me BARF UP, you know what I'm saying? I mean, death is the only fate befitting that ponce, whereupon he will suffer eternal torment in Hell, haha!

Being on the dole was a full time job, especially when you sign on in as many places as I used to, then getting housing benefit on top, Christ what a pain in the arse! If it wasn't against my beliefs at the time I'd have gone down their offices and shown them how to do their jobs, talk about idiots!

That I'll get frightened of something, what is it they say about fear itself? No hold on, shit I know, that some dirty bastard will show me the contents of rotten.com again, I mean I am not a squeamish man and I don't believe in censorship but that should be banned! I strongly advise you all not to get curious and look at this because I'm not joking!

I had scabies once and let me tell when you have those evil little bastards feasting down you just want to take everything off and get some hard core chemicals on them and burn everything you own, bloody disgusting! How am I doing here chief? What you're looking for?

I'd have Fanny Cradock around and I'm not talking about that git from Ocean Dullard Scene. No, I'm talking about the old English celebrity cook. I'd burn everything, she would then take over and I'd get a break from the Pot Noodles.

2-D:

Uh, hello, I'm 2-D, I'm the singer, and uh I play the pianooos and I need the toilet, and 'ello mum you listenin' to the radio...? ...uh, mum?

I had a girlfriend but Murdoc took her. Well, tried to. I was going out with Rachel Stevens ex-S Club for a while, but then Murdoc, like, hassled her and hassled her until she got bored and went home. I had a load of girlfriends down in Eastbourne, while we were taking a break. Is your friend eligible? I don’t know. Is she old enough to vote?

No I never work out. Constant stress and panic and lack of sleep and various food intolerances seem to keep me quite thin.

If I could have a hamburger named after me, what would I call it? Er…’2D’s Hamburger’? I don’t eat meat, so it’d have to be, like, a chicken burger or something. Also no pickles. I’m allergic to them. They make my lips swell up like a Playboy model’s.

I’m not sure I’m really the best person to offer advice. Er... let’s have a think... make sure your songs are good. Have a think and see if there’s anything you can do to stand out from other bands. Like, er, get some masks like Slipknot. And have a pretty girl singing. Or you could just have a really weird face, like Michael Jackson. I guess it helps to have a good imagination. And when you do make it, don’t believe people when they say you’re rubbish. Oh yeah, get a good manager. Like Brian Epstein or Peter Grant... someone with a good strong cricket bat.

I make most of mine myself, or sometimes I get that bloke Jamie Hewlett to come up with something for me. He always comes up with random phrases that he likes to scrawl on the front of my clothes. I don’t really get half the stuff he writes on them, but it makes me look like I know loads about what’s going on in popular culture so I just let him get on with it.

I watch zombie movies all day, uh... Noodle practices 'er kara-tay and prunes her bonzai and.. Russel schools at the local skinhead community...

Weel, I'll answer this if you don't mind... we got a mixing desk, yeah? and Todd our tech puts all the sounds in 'ere and then we're done!

Yeah, or German one-two step fresh lounge, or sweetcore.

I think the day-time TV show called John Claude Van Damme's Big Bag 'a Chat would be quite experimental.

Well uh, we recorded the album in Jamaica and I was on the studio roof recording the vocal for "Sound Check" and.. while I was singin' I was, lookin' up at the stars and this giant vulture -- that the locals call Johnny Bird -- swooped down an', took me into the mountains and left me there with a Rastafarian medicine man called Wobbly. I stayed there for a week and he fed me with vegan food an' educatin' me in the ways of Ja Selassie the first, but I can't remember a word he said.

Well, the funny this is I'm only nostalgic about things that've happened in the past.
Noodle:

Oooh, Nudoru da!

You pay top dolla you get Gorillaz!

Richie Sambora to Pikachu to Gorudaku!

[Some metaphorical nonsense about silver fruit. She has a very difficultdialect, like a fake Kansai-ish dialect that shouldn't logically exist.takenoue...Bamboo tops? " No one eats the tops...Roots, yeah." "WithGorillaz I get both...(something)." " Fruit is leech, and above you too."Read that how you will.]

[" 2D also works pretty hard. But Murdoc? He's a slacker that isn't serious about anything!"]

["I'm all up late at night and get all freakin' tired."]

I think the reasons lie in the uncynical joy that we had in making our band. We were not only adventurous in the creation of the music, but also in the imagination of the videos. I think people from all age groups and all parts of the world could enjoy the colour and lightness in Gorillaz.

With most great works you need to have an element of vision and planning. A clear strong vision of the path that would need to be forged in order to reach the destination you wish to arrive at. However the people we worked with in Los Angeles were making everything up as they went along.

When it came to starting work on the new album it was important that we should do something that wasn’t rushed or simply relative to the success of the first album. We would have to focus our arrows, and that is something that requires consideration and…time.

We still have a plan to make a Gorillaz film. But as is in keeping with Gorillaz sensibility it will be something that is instigated from an original Gorillaz idea and not something dreamed up in a film studio office. It must have a purpose and reflect something of value in the Gorillaz world

I had been in Japan for about a year researching my past as it had always been a mystery to me. It was during this period that I was awoken from my extended amnesia, and in doing so discovered many interesting facts about myself.

I discovered that I was one of 23 kids trained as part of an elite military team for the Japanese government. Every child was given a special individual skill of their own. I was taught as a musician. My weapon of choice was… ‘Guitar’!

But the real reason for our training was as a junior fighting militia capable of devastating destruction! However when the government decided to abandon the experiment, all of the children were to be ‘de-commissioned’. That is why I was smuggled over to England many years ago and my memory wiped clean for my own safety.

But on returning to Japan after the Gorillaz film, my memory has been regained, and all of my training skills have returned. I have also remembered the importance of my true mission

Before the other Gorillaz members arrived back I was all alone in Kong Studios for maybe six months. It was during this period that I began to outline tracks for the album. Initially I thought it would be in preparation for the others return, that when they got back we would all work on the songs together. Back as time moved on it became obvious that I had to complete these visions myself.

The title has many meanings. In one sense the Demon is a disease and the disease is an absence of thought, a state where people make action without consideration. This is the return of the ogre, the rise of the beats. Its time is now.

In another sense it is time to become the Demon. A time for an action, made with less contemplation, but from a disciplined and considered instinct. Strike with perfection and effect.

Russel:

Hi I'm Russel, I'm the phat beat machine, and I ain't gettin' no play with no fool sucka. Animal get that chloroform away from me! (?)

I like... Midas, and Oblix and Ass Tricks. But Noodle saved us in the nick of time before our first gig.

I'm gonna answer that if y'all don't mind... y'see, all bands are manufactured to a greater or lesser extent. If you take the lowest common denominator, the boy band is a case of "You gonna pay peanuts, you gonna get monkeys."

Since when we been callin' our shit "sweet corn"??

Stupid is the new clever, like grey was the new black, like Thom York was the new Marty Feldman!

I don't really percieve an external edge to Gorillaz.

I agree with mos def on this one! Hip-hop is not some mystical thing seperate from the people producin' it or the brothers out on the street livin' it. So the question we gotta ask ourselves is: Are we, the people, in a good phase right now?

Those suckas wouldn't last one day in Brooklyn High. Not that there's anything wrong with their shit, it just don't help me. Cept when I wanna go to sleep.

I ain't leavin'. Who said I was leavin'? I ain't gettin' on no plane with no fool sucka!

Gorillaz is like the musical version of the A-Team! I'm Mr. T, 2-D is Face, Murdoc is Murdock, and Noodle.. she's like a Japanese George Peppard.