Hiatus and return plans

Following the release of “DoYaThing” and the making public of Albarn and Hewlett’s fall-out in 2012, Gorillaz entered a multiyear hiatus. During that time, Albarn released a solo album, Everyday Robots , scored stage productions and continued to record and tour with Blur, while Hewlett held art exhibitions and attempted to create a film project which was ultimately never realised. While on tour in support of Everyday Robots in 2014, Albarn signalled openness to returning to Gorillaz, telling The National Post that he “wouldn’t mind having another stab at a Gorillaz record”. Two months later he reported that he had “been writing quite a lot of songs on the road for Gorillaz”. and at the end of 2014 confirmed in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that he was planning to record another Gorillaz album. Speaking about his relationship with Hewlett, Albarn said that the pair’s well-publicised fall-out had helped their relationship in the long term. Hewlett described the moment when he and Albarn agreed to continue Gorillaz at an afterparty after one of Albarn’s solo shows in 2014: “We’d had a bit to drink, and he said, ‘Do you want to do another one?’ And I said, ‘Do you?’ and he said, ‘Do you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I started work on it straight away, learning to draw the characters again. I played around by myself for eight months while he was performing with Blur in 2015.”