HANS EBERT
  • Home

    • Autobiography
    • The Story To Date
  • Personal Jesus

  • Blog

    • Poetry
  • Music

  • Press

  • More

    Use tab to navigate through the menu items.
    • Hans Ebert
      • Jul 7, 2021
      • 3 min read

    Multi media world and the button to propel the journey...

    by Hans Ebert


    It’s tough when you feel alone and unable to find the right players with whom to play in the same sandbox. It’s easy to know when you’ve found them because everything magically clicks into place and you feel re-energised and re-multiplied.

    It’s not about finding those who agree with you. That’s easy, especially if you’re holding all the cards they need and the Jokers are looking for another free ride.

    What I am talking about is Yin and Yang and ping and pong and John and Paul and being in that special zone where one explores and arrives at the very best destination, because those in it with you intuitively know what buttons to push to propel the journey.


    Maybe it seems as if I am talking about making music, but I am, and also not. We’re now in a place and space in time where it’s about the multi media world, yet, art is still pigeon-holed into very separate boxes.



    There’s still very little in the coming together of music and film and design and photography and dance, mime, puppetry etc to create something new and special to fill this multi media space.


    The Beatles succeeded in doing this without even knowing they were changing the course of where everything was heading. This was by producing experimental films for some of their songs, which, some years later, came to be known as music videos.

    Then, despite the failure of Apple and what was meant to be a home for creativity because of their naivety about the cutthroat world of business versus opening the doors to art and all manner of artists, the Beatles still showed that even their mistakes helped push the boundaries of what could be achieved.



    Apart from the Beatles, there’s been the chameleon that was Bowie, David Byrne, Todd Rundgren, the always groundbreaking Bjork, perhaps Prince, all who used the tools available to them at at that time to break away from formulaic thinking and predictability.


    As history has proven, they succeeded brilliantly with many today still wondering how they did all they did in such a short period of time.


    These days, there might be something in the air, but most of it looks and feels and smells kinda stale.


    Thankfully, there then comes along a young artist like Olivia Rodrigo.



    When first hearing her song “Drivers License”, it stopped me in my tracks. It had been such a long time that a new song by someone I had never heard of before clung to me like an old friend or former lover. There was an immediate emotional attachment.


    Whereas the first single off Damon Albarn’s new album is out, this sounds just like any other record by the Blur man, someone I have respected for his early work with designer Jamie Hewlett on Gorillaz.


    Of course, Damon Albarn has his own style, but when tracks produced suddenly come across sounding like parodies of what’s come before, there’s a Spinal Tap moment that arises.


    As for Olivia Rodrigo, how she will evolve as an artist is something that’s unclear. But these are early days for her and from the handful of songs she’s released, there’s every indication that the multi media space is beckoning her.


    This space is surely something for all artists to explore with new teams happy to share the ride and see where they might fit in by and through collaborations from others around the world?


    Instead of another couple of years trudging through the same old wasteland of online platforms in search of numbers to bolster an end game that isn’t there, the focused efforts to take a song and see how to turn this into a landscape garden that grows, surely seems more exciting and self-satisfying?


    It does for me, anyway. That’s a good enough jumping point to go down that rabbit hole and see where’s Alice and who’s there to journey with me instead of waiting at ground zero and hoping for the best.


    #creativity #multimedia #arts #beatles #bowie #bjork #davidbyrne #toddrundgren #prince #journey #damonalbarn #gorillaz #oliviarodrigo

    • Blog
    4 views0 comments
    • Open Space
      • May 28, 2021
      • 3 min read

    Less Monkeys and more Gorillaz...

    Updated: Aug 26, 2021

    by Hans Ebert

     

    What musician Damon Albarn and outré

    comics artist/designer Jamie Hewlett did by creating the virtual band Gorillaz was break all the rules and stop, at least some people, from making music that was vapid and formulaic.


    Gorillaz showed everything that could be done when having the freedom to create and with no pressure to be “a hit” or have hits.


    Knowing the need of Albarn and Hewlett to always push the envelope and break new ground, the two artists never wanted to see whatever they were creating fall into that pigeon hole of dumbed-down doo dah.




    Being in London during the early days of Gorillaz coming together, anyone who visited the offices of manager Chris Morrison saw the creative process taking place. It was narcotic and rebellious- punk, but with tired cynicism taking over from anger. One couldn’t help being drawn into the global gumbo being mixed.


    This was a transfusion of radical confusion that brought the Tank Girl influenced work of artist Hewlett with the music going on in the head of Albarn and gave everything its own brand personality. It’s there for all to see and hear in the videos they’ve produced and keep producing.





    Whatever Gorillaz were producing couldn’t be labelled. What was being created wasn’t something being put together just to be different. That never works. It comes out sounding contrived. And full of jive.


    No, this was a free flowing outlet for creativity replete with pox marks et all. Perfection is often overrated. Imperfection sometimes stands out from all the sheep. Stands out from all the sameness.


    As for Damon Albarn, there’s always something going on in his head. Some of these projects work, but nothing can be ignored- like the various Blur records, the side project that was The Good, The Bad, which I personally think remains a very overlooked recording, and he and Jamie’s ambitious “Monkey: Journey To The West”.



    I was with EMI at the time when Gorillaz was launched. Other than Damon and Jamie, driving Gorillaz was co-manager Niamf Byrne.


    Though having met Damon and Jamie when they were holidaying in Hong Kong and spent a memorable night out before I had to leave for a conference in Singapore, it was Niamf with whom I had the most interaction- especially about the potential of marketing Noodle in China to all the young real life Noodles, especially those in Beijing.



    Though the above didn’t happen for one reason or another, I was involved in a Lunar New Year Remix of “Feel Good Inc”. It was a huge hit whenever it came on LOUD AND BANGING when the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Happy Wednesday brand had its CNY promotions.


    After all these years, Gorillaz remains way ahead of the curve. The various teams and incarnations over the years have produced and influenced more artists and producers and anarchic cartoon series than many think.


    Gorillaz also don’t fall into any one particular genre. I don’t think they know how to be this- one genre- and have worked with different producers and musicians, everyone from Bobby Womack, Snoop Dogg and Octavian to George Benson and Robert Smith from The Cure.


    Thinking about it, I can’t even remember when Music started to be broken down and put into various boxes with their own “charts” and, with other than confusion, these “charts” creating a certain divisive culture. This isn’t what music is meant to do.


    Gorillaz? Who knows who they might have brought into their space balls and mix and who aren’t here today. Prince? Bowie? Miles Davis? Barry White? Marvin Gaye? Aretha?


    Surely, this is what music should be- an art form that brings everything together that many might not think would work- but does by sidestepping worrying where things might go wrong. Second guessing the dreaded “What Ifs” means constantly walking on eggshells as there’s a lack of self-confidence. There’s no room for doubt when creating anything that comes from within.


    Damon Albarn has never walked on eggshells. Sure, the man can be difficult and, as I discovered some years ago by sending him a text about the “Monkey” project, he gets touchy about what he sees as criticism. It wasn’t, mate. Maybe it was something said in haste after a little over-indulgence.


    One thing to be said about Damon is that when he he walks, his balls are so massive that one can hear them clang from miles away. It’s what was needed to create Gorillaz.



    It’s what’s needed to air out whatever it is hiding dormant inside and really really really needs to come out and make its presence felt.


    The world needs less monkeys and more Gorillaz.




    #gorillaz #damonalbarn #jamiehewlett #imperfectperfection #globalgumbomix

    • Blog
    24 views0 comments

    NEVER MISS A THING

    Thanks for submitting!

    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • Facebook

    © 2021 Hans Ebert

    info@hansebert.com