Producer William Orbit recently revealed details about his scrapped 2012 recording sessions with Blur. The band had been in the studio in April with Orbit to begin recording new material for an upcoming eighth album. The following month, Orbit announced that singer Damon Albarn had suddenly terminated the session. In May 2012, he told the NME that ‘the new stuff sounded amazing…Then it all stopped suddenly. It was all over with Damon, and the rest of the band were like, ‘Is this it?’ Earlier that year, Orbit responded to a fan tweet asking about the session with a terse, ‘Blur could have been good. But Damon, brilliant and talented tho he is, is kinda a shit to the rest of Blur.’
Now, in a new interview with the NME, Orbit says he will never work with Blur again and claimed that he was never paid for his time recording with the band last year. He says, ‘Put it this way, I’m not going to work with them again — Damon was really awful. That’s all I’ll say. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t care to go back. I wouldn’t be hurrying back to do that album. I didn’t get paid! But, you know, I’m not the first.’
Orbit had previously worked with the band on three of their projects. His remix of Blur’s track, ‘Movin’ On’ from their remix compilation, Bustin’ + Dronin’, won him praise from the band. So much so, they asked him to produce their follow-up studio album, 1999’s 13. Orbit’s work was quite a departure from what Blur achieved with their long-time producer, Stephen Street. The resulting album had a darker, more organic feel to it. 13‘s recording sessions were mired in the escalating tensions between Graham Coxon and his bandmates. In 1998, Orbit described the recording as a ‘battle between Damon’s more experimental direction and Graham’s punk one.’ Orbit also worked on several songs for Blur’s final album, Think Tank. His production of ‘Sweet Song’ made it to the final album.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Blur would begin work on a new album after Damon Albarn releases his solo LP, though there has been limited news in recent months. Fans were treated to two new stand-alone songs last year, ‘The Puritan’ and ‘Under The Westway,’ before their headlining show at Hyde Park for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.
