Dave Rowntree is best known as the drummer for Blur and like Damon Albarn, Rowntree has ventured into cartoons. His first series is Empire Square which will have half hour episodes debuting on the music station Fuse very soon.
Check out the official site for Empire Square
Daniel Robert Epstein: Is everyone from Blur required to have a cartoon?
Dave Rowntree: Basically yeah, we went through a phase where we all had to get cartoon projects or leave. Graham left.
DRE: [laughs] So is it just a coincidence?
DR: I cant explain it to you. I could tell you why Im involved in it, but I think Damon got involved in cartoons so hed have less work to do. I got involved in cartoons so Id have more work to do. I think the original point of Gorillaz was that they didnt have to tour. But now theyre doing these tours that are just so complicated and so involved. Its become more work than just forming a band and going on tour.
DRE: I read that you had your own animation company first.
DR: Yes, I still do though we dont make Empire Square. Before I was an excellent drummer, I was a computer programmer. Ive been a computer programmer since I was ten or eleven and I got into animation that way. Most of a tour is just boring. You sit around with nothing to do. So I started carrying a laptop around with me and doing my computer work on the road. But then I started getting interested in animation when it became possible to do it on a laptop. I started doing little short animations and when people saw them, they asked if I could do work for them and it just snowballed. I formed a little company and we started doing TV in the UK.
DRE: But thats not how Empire Square is made.
DR: No, I direct Empire Square but my company doesnt make it. My company has had to take a bit of a break because I dont have enough time to do it. Me and two other people came up with the idea for Empire Square about two or three years ago. The animation is done by a company in India; the drawing is done by a company in Germany. All the character design is done on pen and paper and then its converted to pixels and put in Flash where all the animation is done.
DRE: How involved do you get with the animation process?
DR: I actually went out to India and supervised it there. In fact, we do the storyboards and the animatics in Flash, so then we send the Flash files to India to do the fill in animation.
DRE: Is the show autobiographical at all?
DR: It is, Im actually Hooks [laughs].
DRE: Were you looking to do something about your experiences?
DR: I think we were looking to take on the targets that annoyed us the most. So it reflects our personalities in that respect. Though I dont think we identify with any of the characters. If anything Im most like Rabbit because when it comes down to it, Im a bit of a geek.
DRE: Whats the writing process like?
DR: Well, I dont write it. We have a team of writers. We have an English writer named Matt Morgan and two American writers. But all the shows made for the first series on Channel Four in the UK were three minutes long. Id say one of the big problems with working with Fuse has been ramping out to half hour shows. Weve had a couple of false starts along the way but weve figured it out now. If you can figure out how to entertain for three minutes it sounds like a reasonable thing to do it for 22 but we had to rethink the show, refigure out who our characters are and what the hell they want. Its a really interesting thing to do actually.
DRE: Explain the premise of Empire Square please.
DR: Well its about these three characters, Rabbit, Richie and Hooks set in a faceless American town where everything is crumbling. They live in a building called Number One Empire Square and thats the premise really. Theyre amoral in the way that you imagine kids today are amoral. Every generation looks out at the next generation and imagines that they have no morals at all. Its a satire of that way of thinking because its bollocks. The next generation does have morals. Everyones parents believe that they are the beginning of the end. But yet were still doing it now. We never learn. We never use the benefit of experience and figure out that actually the next generation are just different, theyre no worse.
DRE: Is directing animation much different than live action?
DR: With animation, you direct in two halves. I direct the actors in the sound recording and then I have to direct the animators to produce the animation. What you miss out on is the editing stage. When you direct live action you shoot as much as you physically can and then you edit. You dont quite get that luxury in animation because youre paying thousands of dollars per second for the animators to work, so every wasted second is thousands of wasted dollars.
DRE: How did Empire Square get to Fuse?
DR: We had a series of shorts for channel four here in the UK. So we put together a half hour clip show from all the shorts weve made, showed it at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last year and thats how we met Fuse.
DRE: Is the show going to be as edgy as some of the Comedy Central shows?
DR: I think were blazing our own trail, really. This is a new thing for Fuse to be doing and this is a whole new process for us. What was attractive about Fuse, was that they are a music station and that their reference points are our reference points. Also they are trying to go the extra mile. We meshed really well together right from the start. Im really excited to be working with Fuse, theyre really a great company and Ive learned an awful lot from the people Ive met here.
DRE: Whats going on with Blur?
DR: We started the next record, shortly after we finished touring the first one. Weve chipped away at it. Well have a new record out maybe next year, who knows. If you start a Blur record, you cant stop for three years. Its not something where you can do a little bit and have a bit of a break. Once the records out, youve got to tour for 18 months. Once youre on that carousel youve got to stay on. Weve all got other things on the go so we have to pick our moments to release records.
DRE: Is there solo stuff you want to do?
DR: I may do other projects. Musics something you just cant stop doing. If youre infected by the music virus, theres no way out unfortunately. You play to stay sane.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for Empire Square
Daniel Robert Epstein: Is everyone from Blur required to have a cartoon?
Dave Rowntree: Basically yeah, we went through a phase where we all had to get cartoon projects or leave. Graham left.
DRE: [laughs] So is it just a coincidence?
DR: I cant explain it to you. I could tell you why Im involved in it, but I think Damon got involved in cartoons so hed have less work to do. I got involved in cartoons so Id have more work to do. I think the original point of Gorillaz was that they didnt have to tour. But now theyre doing these tours that are just so complicated and so involved. Its become more work than just forming a band and going on tour.
DRE: I read that you had your own animation company first.
DR: Yes, I still do though we dont make Empire Square. Before I was an excellent drummer, I was a computer programmer. Ive been a computer programmer since I was ten or eleven and I got into animation that way. Most of a tour is just boring. You sit around with nothing to do. So I started carrying a laptop around with me and doing my computer work on the road. But then I started getting interested in animation when it became possible to do it on a laptop. I started doing little short animations and when people saw them, they asked if I could do work for them and it just snowballed. I formed a little company and we started doing TV in the UK.
DRE: But thats not how Empire Square is made.
DR: No, I direct Empire Square but my company doesnt make it. My company has had to take a bit of a break because I dont have enough time to do it. Me and two other people came up with the idea for Empire Square about two or three years ago. The animation is done by a company in India; the drawing is done by a company in Germany. All the character design is done on pen and paper and then its converted to pixels and put in Flash where all the animation is done.
DRE: How involved do you get with the animation process?
DR: I actually went out to India and supervised it there. In fact, we do the storyboards and the animatics in Flash, so then we send the Flash files to India to do the fill in animation.
DRE: Is the show autobiographical at all?
DR: It is, Im actually Hooks [laughs].
DRE: Were you looking to do something about your experiences?
DR: I think we were looking to take on the targets that annoyed us the most. So it reflects our personalities in that respect. Though I dont think we identify with any of the characters. If anything Im most like Rabbit because when it comes down to it, Im a bit of a geek.
DRE: Whats the writing process like?
DR: Well, I dont write it. We have a team of writers. We have an English writer named Matt Morgan and two American writers. But all the shows made for the first series on Channel Four in the UK were three minutes long. Id say one of the big problems with working with Fuse has been ramping out to half hour shows. Weve had a couple of false starts along the way but weve figured it out now. If you can figure out how to entertain for three minutes it sounds like a reasonable thing to do it for 22 but we had to rethink the show, refigure out who our characters are and what the hell they want. Its a really interesting thing to do actually.
DRE: Explain the premise of Empire Square please.
DR: Well its about these three characters, Rabbit, Richie and Hooks set in a faceless American town where everything is crumbling. They live in a building called Number One Empire Square and thats the premise really. Theyre amoral in the way that you imagine kids today are amoral. Every generation looks out at the next generation and imagines that they have no morals at all. Its a satire of that way of thinking because its bollocks. The next generation does have morals. Everyones parents believe that they are the beginning of the end. But yet were still doing it now. We never learn. We never use the benefit of experience and figure out that actually the next generation are just different, theyre no worse.
DRE: Is directing animation much different than live action?
DR: With animation, you direct in two halves. I direct the actors in the sound recording and then I have to direct the animators to produce the animation. What you miss out on is the editing stage. When you direct live action you shoot as much as you physically can and then you edit. You dont quite get that luxury in animation because youre paying thousands of dollars per second for the animators to work, so every wasted second is thousands of wasted dollars.
DRE: How did Empire Square get to Fuse?
DR: We had a series of shorts for channel four here in the UK. So we put together a half hour clip show from all the shorts weve made, showed it at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last year and thats how we met Fuse.
DRE: Is the show going to be as edgy as some of the Comedy Central shows?
DR: I think were blazing our own trail, really. This is a new thing for Fuse to be doing and this is a whole new process for us. What was attractive about Fuse, was that they are a music station and that their reference points are our reference points. Also they are trying to go the extra mile. We meshed really well together right from the start. Im really excited to be working with Fuse, theyre really a great company and Ive learned an awful lot from the people Ive met here.
DRE: Whats going on with Blur?
DR: We started the next record, shortly after we finished touring the first one. Weve chipped away at it. Well have a new record out maybe next year, who knows. If you start a Blur record, you cant stop for three years. Its not something where you can do a little bit and have a bit of a break. Once the records out, youve got to tour for 18 months. Once youre on that carousel youve got to stay on. Weve all got other things on the go so we have to pick our moments to release records.
DRE: Is there solo stuff you want to do?
DR: I may do other projects. Musics something you just cant stop doing. If youre infected by the music virus, theres no way out unfortunately. You play to stay sane.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
courtneyriot:
Dave Rowntree is best known as the drummer for Blur and like Damon Albarn, Rowntree has ventured into cartoons. His first series is Empire Square which will have half hour episodes debuting on the music station Fuse very soon....