We owe the fifty-year-old Englishman the features of the avatars of the musicians – baptized Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D – in the animated clips.

Hewlett, with his sidekick Albarn, also determines the theme of the albums.

"Plastic Beach" (2010) was thus dedicated to the environmental cause, while "Cracker Island" (2023), 8th and last opus released, denounces withdrawal and manipulated reality.

"With Damon, we talked about social networks but not enough to make an album, then we talked about cults, these new cults under the Trump era, Fox News (conservative channel) or QAnon (conspiratorial nebula)", tells the 'AFP Hewlett, passing through Paris.

The two friends then imagine that "Gorillaz fled Brexit, a United Kingdom on its knees, to settle in Los Angeles".

"And when Murdoc looks over the gate, he sees his neighbors, a sect led by a beautiful young woman. To seduce her, he says to the group: + let's form a cult +", unfolds the designer who lives in France, in Normandie, with his wife, actress and TV host Emma de Caunes.

Rebarred by Keith Richards

Moral of the story, the ambition of the guru Murdoc "is so ridiculous that it is better to drop the cults and invest in the other, to meet".

Meetings are all about Gorillaz, each time inviting different voices.

Stevie Nicks, singer of Fleetwood Mac, or Beck appear on "Cracker Island".

As the quickdraw of Murdoc, a sort of rogue zombie, is inspired by Keith Richards, shouldn't we invite the Rolling Stones guitarist one day?

"We approached him, he said: + What? Gorillaz? Fuck you! +", laughs Hewlett, known in his first life as author of the cult comic "Tank Girl".

British singer Damon Albarn (g) in concert with his group Gorillaz, June 15, 2022 in Vienna, Austria © OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP/Archives

Lou Reed, who sings on "Plastic Beach", had rebuffed Hewlett with the same terms upon seeing him the first time.

Reed only wanted Albarn in the studio, but the "Walk On The Wild Side" singer then softened.

"Audiences went crazy when Lou appeared on stage with Gorillaz at Madison Square Garden, he who was no longer from New York State even came with us to Los Angeles", recalls Hewlett.

"In the dressing rooms, Lou tapped palm to palm with Mos Def, Bobby Womack and even said to me: + it's nice to see you, I like how you drew me +, when he had said + never+ at the beginning".

"Who else could have done that?"

The concept of Gorillaz is envious.

"From our second album (+Demon Days+, 2005), another record company wanted their band lively, with a cool dog and a groovy cat, but it was prefabricated, with people who were supposed to be the best in their field but unrelated," Hewlett quipped.

"They let it go, it was crap. We're good because we've been friends with Damon for a long time and our guests become friends."

Beck is now a regular.

Jamie Hewlett and his wife, French actress Emma De Caunes, January 18, 2016 in Paris © MARTIN BUREAU / AFP/Archives

“Who else could have done that?” pretends to wonder Hewlett.

"Ah, yes, Daft Punk, they were cool, what a brilliant idea to never reveal who they really were!"

For Gorillaz's first interview in 2001, the British magazine Dazed & Confused played the game with the avatars of the group who expressed themselves on several pages, with only illustrations from Hewlett's drawings.

Even if Albarn will be quickly unmasked by other media.

"We are friends with Banksy - I won't say his real name - and, at the parties where he is, nobody pays attention to him and he doesn't care, he doesn't say who he is. This kind of person restores faith in humanity,” Hewlett concludes.

© 2023 AFP