Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well. Let's talk about Gorillaz, the legendary virtual band who just dropped a brand new record, The Mountain, which in a matter of days has really become a fan favorite.

And behind the success of the record, its co-creators, Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, have been doing tons of press, a lot of interviews and performances, even an SNL appearance that has been received pretty well. Not only has it been excellent to hear the band drop a record that is so quality this late into the project's existence, but it's cool to see its co-creator so engaged and ready to meet the moment at a time when they're both so deep into their respective careers.

Now, in the midst of all of these recent interviews that Damon Albarn and Jamie have done, one of which was on this channel and a very good one, if I might add. But Damon and Jamie have been dropping a lot of information and opinions on the project and music as a whole. And there's been one interesting statement that has caught a lot of Gorillaz fans by surprise, and it's the idea that Gorillaz should someday go on without Jamie and Damon, and be passed on to the next generation, as it were, and just continue existing for as long as, I guess, there are people there to carry the torch for the next several decades.

Interviewer: Do you think you'll know when Gorillaz has reached its final form?

Albarn: Then we pass it on to the next generation.

Interviewer: Is that a possibility?

Hewlett: We've talked about this.

Albarn: We will pass it on to the next generation. It may be interesting to be just there in the background for the next generation to start off with and then... It would be fun to pass it on to a younger team.

Hewlett: Yeah. We've talked about that a lot.

Albarn: Well, why not? The cartoon is more important than the people, although the people are very important.

Hewlett: Well, Bob Clampett passed Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck onto Chuck Jones.

Albar: [That's] the idea.

Which is a proposition that has a lot of people scratching their heads, and one that has me tense and nervous, too. But also, part of me feels like, why the fuck not?

Let's try it just to see what happens. And I guess here's my logic.

One, part of the point of Gorillaz to begin with was to totally subvert the constraints that would normally be faced by a human band of real people who would over time either age or change considerably and eventually be faced with getting phased out in one way or another because they're people. They're not cartoons. They can't be kept perfectly in the same state forever or cryogenically frozen and only broke out to market a new album.

So even though Gorillaz was actually created by real human people, Gorillaz itself is not supposed to be the real human people who created it. It is a virtual band. So why should it conceptually be limited to what its original human creators are able to do? And sure, I get that with that potential change comes the risk of Gorillaz massively sucking ass and really getting off track in terms of what the whole point of it or the Gorillaz aesthetic, what we believe it to be, should be.

And if this in fact Damon and Jamie's real intent for this project over the next few decades, I don't know if they've been setting themselves up for success with the past couple of records. I mean, maybe this transition could have been made quickly and effectively when Gorillaz were just starting and there was still a lot of mystery around the project and a lot of deep lore and all the animations were much more plentiful.

But over the course of Gorillaz's existence, there's been a lot of, I don't know, I guess you could say, fourth wall breaking, as it were, in terms of really revealing the people who are masterminding the project visually and musically. And now, Gorillaz has grown to be one of the most popular things Jamie or Damon have ever done. So people have just gotten used to them being the lead voices of the band, as it were.

And look, again, if things are going to be passed off, how soon are we talking? And are we currently thinking about creating a potential list of protégés to work into future projects so that when this eventually does get passed on, it's in safe hands?

Because I imagine Jamie and Damon aren't just going to hand this off to anybody they just find on the street. So if they are going to be replaced by who and where and when are we finding these people? Because I feel like if the process of acclimating some other visual artists musicians to take this project on entirely, if that is going to happen, does that process need to start happening now?

I will also add further that some of the very negative responses that fans have had to this idea... Please keep in mind, you are putting a limitation on this project that most people don't even put on their real-life favorite bands of humans. I mean, for example, there are tons of beloved and amazing veteran metal bands out there, especially in the extreme metal world, who don't have a single original member to their name. When newer members are added, who usually come from a plethora of different bands that play different metal styles, often they are brought in not to bring their unique style or flavor or history in the metal field to this new album. No, they are pretty much expected to play to the style and the aesthetics that the band they're joining is known for.

In that spirit, a lot of these bands are pulling off the same social experiment that I'm guessing Damon is expecting gorillas to, because, again, a lot of these legacy acts aren't really doing much, and they're not supposed to. A lot of their fans want them to stay the same. These legacy bands are not switching it up into the twilight years of their career. They're playing to an idea and a concept, a vibe, a sound that was set years before them by their classic records that have defined certain lanes and niches within metal. I don't see why in concept, Gorillaz couldn't operate similarly.

Look, over the years, the project has famously included the voices and collaborations of lots of different vocal and rappers and instrumentalists, producers. So it's not like Gorillaz couldn't continue being a collective collaborative project in that way. But would it still mostly be masterminded by a single person? Would that person take on the voice of 2D in the future? Would that person sing in the same exact way that Damon has been known to sing? It's a lot of different questions. And who knows? Maybe this could have just been a ridiculous idea that Damon threw out there just to throw out there to see how people would react to it.

But I'll say myself personally, I'm not entirely negative on things moving in that direction. I would be curious to see how it would come out.

I think I'm going to leave this thought experiment experiment there, though. Let me know what you guys think about all of this in the comments. I'm sure you will. Do you think you could stomach or enjoy a guerrilla's album without Damon or Jamie involved? Do you think the project has potential to exist beyond their existence, or is its artistry, is its personality, is its musicality way too tied to their original visions for it to work with anyone else?

Fantano, Guerrillas, Forever.