Gorillaz collaborator Jamie Hewlett has confirmed that he and Damon Albarn are working on the group’s next album, with the release scheduled for 2016.

Albarn recently announced that the pair planned to record their follow-up to 2011’s ‘The Fall’ during September. Now Hewlett has offered an update on the album’s progress, via DIY.

“That’s [due]next year. I’m working on it at the moment, and it’s going very well,” visual artist Hewlett said of the animated band’s next LP. “I’m very excited. I don’t want to say too much about it, but I’m at that phase of experimentation.”


Hewlett added: “What I try not to do when I’m working in this creative period, the cooking of the mess, is go to other peoples’ exhibitions and look at other peoples’ work. I close my eyes, and don’t want to know what anyone else is doing. Doing that has kind of ruined the creative process for me in the past, and I don’t want to let that happen again.”

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Hewlett recently announced his first-ever art exhibition. ‘The Suggestionists’ will take place at The Saatchi Gallery, London from November 18-December 2. It will be the first time the artist and designer has exhibited his work.

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Last year, Albarn told NME that he could release a new Gorillaz album “next week” and that a fifth album would “definitely happen in the future”.

“I can definitely see another Gorillaz-esque record at some point, yeah,” Albarn said. “That will almost definitely happen. I could put a Gorillaz record out next week; I’ve got enough stuff I haven’t finished.”

Speaking about his relationship with artist Jamie Hewlett, Albarn said that the pair’s well publicised fall-out has helped their relationship in the long term.


“There are points in every relationship where they fall out with people that they’re close to and then they reconcile, hopefully, and actually, you know the relationship’s probably in a healthier place as a result of that,” he said.