Damon Albarn has confirmed that a long-awaited Gorillaz film is in the works. The virtual band’s co-creator suggests that the “kind of abstract” animated project will be completed alongside a second edition of its recently-released, collaborative seventh album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez.

“We are supposed to be making a film while we’re doing season two,” Albarn tells Radio.com. “We signed contracts, we’ve begun scripts and stuff. Making an animated film that’s kind of abstract is quite a big risk for a movie studio because they’re very expensive.”

“If you’re telling a slightly obtuse, weird story that only sometimes makes any sense, it’s quite difficult. That’s what we’ve discovered. But we will do it, we are doing it.”

“I see a lot of people doing animated videos these days but I don’t think they really touch the quality of ours,” he adds, comparing the Gorillaz visuals to something “more in the world of Studio Ghibli”. Earlier this month, the group took Dazed behind the scenes of their inventive video for the Elton John and 6LACK-featuring track, “The Pink Phantom”.

Gorillaz have also recently performed music from the first Song Machine release within Animal Crossing, appearing on an in-game talk show that additionally saw Albarn and his co-founder Jamie Hewlett chat about the band’s creation. While we await more news about the forthcoming film, revisit the full Animal Crossing appearance here, and watch a snippet below.