Collaborations often bring different artists from different eras together. Stevie Nicks‘ upcoming collaboration with Gorillaz can be named as an evident example of that. However, the band’s frontman Damon Albarn recently disclosed to Apple Music 1 that Nicks wasn’t his initial choice to team up with since the musician had someone else in mind.
Stevie Nicks has been relatively quiet for the past few years regarding producing new music. Yet, the musician recently announced via Twitter that she would release ‘her version‘ of a well-known hit. This move, perhaps, signaled Stevie’s return to music with new material, which has been proven right with her upcoming work with Gorillaz.
However, the frontman Damon Albarn recently revealed that Nicks wasn’t his first choice since the singer initially wanted to work with the Strokes’ vocalist, Julian Casablancas. The rocker expressed that the collaboration didn’t work out, not for any particular reason but due to logistical and some other problems. Albarn stated that the process somehow took them from Casablancas to Nicks.
Damon highlighted that he was amazed when their co-producer Greg Kurstin said he could bring Stevie Nicks to the project. The frontman explained that one of the most excellent elements of working with musicians of different periods was that the collaboration wouldn’t evolve into a number-related project.
Since today’s collaborations are primarily based on musicians’ popularity or stream revenues, Gorillaz’s new track with Nicks will be the opposite of that understanding. Albarn defined their collaboration as an ‘antithesis’ of the common collaborative projects. To Albarn, it wasn’t a generic work.
The Gorillaz frontman’s words on their collaboration with Nicks:
“At first, I was thinking of Casablancas for the voice, but that didn’t work out. Not for any reason, just logistically and everything. And so, I don’t know. Somehow from Julian, it came to Stevie Nicks. I was amazed when Greg Kurstin said, ‘I can get Stevie Nicks.’
In a way, one of the nice reasons for working with people from so many different eras is that it’s not a numbers game. It’s not like, ‘If I get this person, I will get this amount of numbers,’ which, unfortunately, collaboration has turned into. So this is the antithesis of that. This non-generic collaboration.”
The band is getting ready to release their eighth studio album, ‘Cracker Island,’ in February 2023. The track, which will feature Nicks, is named ‘Oil,’ and Damon Albarn’s statements regarding the collaboration indicated that it will be unique in bringing different artists from different periods together.
