AP: What is it about your music that resonates with listeners?

Albarn: It's got so much more than conventional pop music because it has this entire multimedia, visual narrative aspect, which is almost impossible to have something like that if you're just four guys onstage.

AP: Do you listen to music on the radio?

Albarn: No.

AP: Popular music has taken on an electronic, dance sound recently. Why do you think that's happened?

Albarn: It's cyclical, you know. It will take a guitar sound probably next spring. And you won't be arrested if you're playing keyboards and you've got an '80s haircut. I'm really hoping that the next revival is the kind of Brit-pop revival (laughs). No, I'm joking.

AP: What inspires the music you create?

Albarn: It's everything. It's kind of an ongoing search for inspiration. A few days ago I was inspired by a revolving door in a hotel. I was.

AP: So it's the little things?

Albarn: Definitely little things. It's when a little thing touches you emotionally that (snap hands), that little glimpse, that little insight into what all the (expletive) all this is about. Those are the moments I find most exciting. Huge, great, big themes are very difficult to encapsulate in pop music.