The clatter and clang of a passing freight train drown out the birdsong that has, until now, filled the air. In the distance, the Westway is, as ever, choked with traffic. Surveying all of this, on the penthouse terrace that stretches the width of his west London HQ, Mr Damon Albarn and I spark up cigarettes and luxuriate in the early March sunshine.
Three floors below the terrace lies the recording studio where, last year, Mr Albarn made Everyday Robots - his very first solo album, and a record that is already being described as one of the greatest pieces of music this restless, inquisitive, multifaceted musician has produced. Don't roll out the bunting or hit the dance floor just yet, though. Everyday Robots is also the most personal and, for the most part, downbeat record Mr Albarn has made to date. To understand what inspired its spare, forlorn and deeply reflective lyrics, melodies and soundscapes, we need to follow its writer far, far back - to his childhood in Leytonstone, east London, to the streets, parks and woodland he explored, to the multicultural community he grew up in (a journey described, vividly and beautifully, on Everyday Robots' pivotal track, "Hollow Ponds"). Mr Albarn did just that while writing the album, walking unnoticed around his old haunts.
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