The new Gorillaz album will sound like an “English voice put through the vocoder of America”.

The cartoon band’s main songwriter has been recording while touring in the US, and described how his experience of being on the road in the country for the first time in a decade has affected the sound.

Damon – who rose to fame as a member of Britpop band Blur – told NME: “It’s probably more American sounding than Blur. It sounds like an English voice that has been put through the vocoder of America. It’s a studio album made in hotel rooms around America.”

A vocoder is a musical device which transforms speech into electronically transmitted information, coding and decoding it transforming it to sound different on output.

Damon also explained how he’s been recording all his ideas on an iPad tablet computer, adding: “I’ve made it on an iPad, I hope I’ll be making the first record on an iPad. Which is ironic, being the sort of technophobe and Luddite that I am. I’ve made a completely different kind of record.”

Gorillaz’ band for touring America has seen Damon and artist Jamie Hewlett joined by a number of stars who have appeared on the group’s tracks, including Lou Reed, Bobby Womack, Neneh Cherry and Mark E. Smith.

Damon also said he is hoping the new record – the follow up to this year’s ‘Plastic Beach’ – can be released before the end of the year.