Between 2002 and 2004, the band had fractured entirely. Following a disastrous attempt to film a movie in Hollywood, an ordeal documented with venom in their official 2006 autobiography Rise of the Ogre, the four members scattered across the globe. Murdoc vanished to Tijuana, ran up monstrous debts at brothels, and eventually ended up in a Mexican penitentiary for passing forged checks to local cartel bosses.
His return to Kong Studios in 2004 kicked off Phase 2. Murdoc broke out of jail with the help of two local outlaws, returned to an abandoned and weed-choked Essex estate, and found vocalist 2D working at his father’s funfair in Eastbourne. Drummer Russel Hobbs was holed up in Ike Turner's basement recovering from demonic exorcisms, while prodigy guitarist Noodle had retreated to Japan to uncover her memories as a military supersoldier project.
Murdoc declared himself the sole architect of the band's comeback, but in reality, Noodle wrote the bulk of the initial instrumental skeletons for Demon Days. Murdoc’s primary role was curating the chaos, bringing in producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), and leaning hard into a darker, hip-hop-influenced sonic palette that mirrored the grim geopolitical climate of the post-9/11 Iraq War era.
