Flume had a hard time impressing Damon Albarn on Palaces: “I must have played 20 different drafts and he just wasn’t into anything”
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, he hates everything I’m showing him’. I was sweating so much,” Flume said of the experience.
Flume had the chance to collaborate with Damon Albarn on the title track to his newly released Palaces – the experience was a bit nerve-wracking for the Australian producer, who admitted he was a “huge fan” of the Gorillaz mastermind.
- READ MORE: Flume: “Being a solo producer can be lonely. I try to make it fun with as low stakes as possible”
Flume shared about his experience working with Albarn while speaking to MusicTech for our June digital cover.
“I was nervous because I was a huge fan of his, I had a bunch of ideas prepared that I wanted to play him,” Harley says. “I played the first idea, he wasn’t into it. Played the second idea, he was nonchalant about it. I must have played 20 different drafts and he just wasn’t into anything. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, he hates everything I’m showing him’. I was sweating so much.”
Making a strong case for why it pays to be prepared when working with your heroes, Flume said Albarn finally found inspiration in the second-to-last idea he was shown, the one which would grow into the album’s melancholic closer.
“I was like, ‘Great, thank fuck’. Then we sat together in front of a little MIDI keyboard, he played some chords over it and just hummed some stuff,” Flume said.
Not all the collaborations on Palaces felt high stakes for the Australian producer: elsewhere in his interview, he recalled one of his favourite moments from the album’s sessions was when Oklou sent over her vocal takes for the song Highest Building – the two artists are still due to meet in person.
Read our full interview with Flume here.
