28 December 2020
Newsdesk
The 57-year-old DJ – whose real name is Norman Cook – doesn’t expect festivals or gigs to be the same for a long time after the coronavirus pandemic and he’s looking forward to seeing how he can “rebuild” his own career.
He said: "It's going to be a long time before we're doing what we used to do at festivals.
"I think it will start up at grassroots level again, people playing in their own hometown.
"I'd like to play a week-long residency at a local club, then rebuild my career from there.
"It's going to be an interesting journey after Covid."
In 2006, the 'Praise You' hitmaker flew out to Cuba to make 'The Revolution Presents: Revolution', a compilation of Cuban crossover tracks and admitted he'd reached a point in his career where his ego had taken over.
He told Record Collector magazine: "At that point I had a bit of megalomania. There was a feeling that, Christ, I can do anything, I can go anywhere.
"And a chance to be a producer and hang out with these people in Havana, it was yeah, I'll have a bit of that too.
"Literally, there is music on every corner and I immersed myself in it.
"I was a little worried that I wasn't up to scratch but I got a Cuban music expert to come down and spend two days with me and teach me the history of Cuban music and the difference between all the different rhythms.
"I got to work with Sexto Sentido and Harold Lopeza Nussa."
Blur invited Fatboy Slim to produce two tracks on their 2006 album 'Think Tank', but the collaboration with frontman Damon Albarn could have gone much further.
He said: “It was a difficult time for them because Graham Coxon had just left and they weren't sure what to do.
"We tried some stuff to see if we got on at 13 [Damon Albarn's studio] and me and Damon saw eye-to-eye.
"It was another, 'I’ll disband my band and you disband yours' except he wasn't prepared to disband his.
"But they flew me to Marrakech and we hung out and it was really good fun."
