You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishikesh Herway.

Grillis is the creation of musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett.

Their virtual band made up of four animated characters.

The songs are written by Damon Albarn and a roster of collaborators.

Since their first album was released in 2001, Grillis have sold over 16 million records worldwide.

In this episode, Damon breaks down the song Andromeda from the 2017 Grillis album Humans.

It's a dance song, but also an elegy to people in his life who he's lost,

like legendary soul singer Bobby Womack, a former Grillis collaborator.

Andromeda features guest vocals by the rapper and singer Drum,

whose own hit single Broccoli went quadruple platinum in 2016.

Coming up later, Drum tells the story of how he got involved with this track.

But first, Damon Albarn.

It's Grillis on Song Exploder.

I'm Damon Albarn.

This originated from a conversation between myself and Twilight tone guy who co-produced the record.

We were talking about two of the greatest 80s pop songs.

And we decided that Billy Jean by Michael Jackson.

And I can't go for that by Hall and Oates.

We're two of our favourite tunes in their tempo and their kind of pop sensibilities.

And how could we somehow,

are chemically channel the greatness of those into our own music.

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