TV exposure cuts both ways for Duran Duran
December 15, 2007
BY THOMAS CONNER Staff Reporter
Nick Rhodes and John Taylor of Duran Duran are talking about celebrity, specifically the differences between the teen-pop machine that plucked them from art-rock obscurity and thrust them into megastardom in the early â80s and the same machine making stars of blemishless youngsters today. And then Taylor makes an extraordinary complaint.
âNow itâs all âAmerican Idol,ââ he says, nearly sneering. âItâs all about TV.â
Without TV â specifically then-fledgling MTV â one could easily argue that the world would never have discovered its wolf-like hunger for Duran Duran. Many, indeed, have laid the crimes of the music industryâs modern-day penchant for style over substance at the feet of these very gentlemen. âTwas a potent marriage between a new music cable network and a band that (a) believed in a Bowie-like equanimity between sound and vision and (b) looked freaking fabulous, particularly on the bow of a sailboat. Their first singles, after all, were âGirls on Filmâ and one that boasted of being âsome New Romantic looking for the TV sound.â
But Rhodes â sitting alertly on the edge of his seat and already in full make-up, while Taylor sprawled back on the couch during Fridayâs pre-concert interview at the Park Hyatt â sees an important distinction.
âThereâs a massive difference in the bands then and the groups today,â he says. âItâs not so much pulling up an existing band now as it is creating the band, handpicking this one and that one and telling them exactly what theyâre going to do to maximize profit potential. The industry today doesnât really want to work with bands.â
True enough, and itâs the reunion of the original Duran Duran lineup â singer Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Rhodes, bassist Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor (guitarist Andy Taylor left again recently) â as a unified band thatâs given the new music enough solidity to find an audience, old and new, still after all these years and all those lineups.
Much has been made of the collaborations with Justin Timberlake and red-hot producer Timbaland on a few tracks from the bandâs new CD, âRed Carpet Massacre,â but at heart itâs a very traditional Duran Duran record. The contributions of Timberlake and Timbaland are evident but hardly jarring or out of character. According to Rhodes, itâs the cohesive band dynamic that kept things even.
âListen to âSkin Divers,ââ Rhodes says. âThe reason that song is the most successful on the album is because we just started jamming. Timbaland and Nate âDanjaâ Hills were working with us at the time, but this was us creating this wall of sound, and it was really quite exciting.
âWorking with urban producers is refreshing because they bring an element we donât have. They look at things differently. They hear synthesizers differently. And it was wonderful to be energized by that. But in the end both of them sort of sat back and worked with what we gave them. Which wasâ â he looks back at Taylor with a nod â âquite good, I think.â
Timbalandâs success has come from working with individual singers and rappers. This was the first band heâd produced.
âAnd he wasnât used to it at all. He wasnât used to drum kits and basses lying around. They do it all with little boxes, you know,â Rhodes says, miming some typing on a computer keyboard.
Any working pop musician with half a brain would seek out either Timbaland or Timberlake to work with right now. But it should be noted: Timberlake called Duran Duran.
âWeâd spoken to him at a couple of awards shows,â Taylor says, âand when we were in the studio he called up and asked if he could contribute something.â
âJustin said he wanted to help make a record the fans would really like,â Rhodes says. âHe loved âOrdinary Worldâ and âCome Undoneâ when he was younger, and he wanted more of those âtempo ballads.ââ
The band is not playing those songs on a proper tour as of yet. They did one-off shows in London and Dublin, as well as nine consecutive shows on Broadway last month, where they played the entirety of âRed Carpet Massacreâ (âas if the fans had dared us,â Taylor laughs) and included a wacky electronic homage to the band Kraftwerk.
For this months radio-event shows, like Friday nightâs annual Miracle on State Street concert sponsored by WTMX-FM (101.9), the set list, Rhodes says, âis Duran Duranâs career distilled.â
âWe started playing âRioâ again on Broadway, actually,â Taylor says. âPeople were saying we should play it, and at first it was, âOver my dead body.â But then we played it, and tweaked it a bit, and it was great. You fiddle with the arrangement a bit and it brings out something totally new.â
âLittle plastic surgeries,â Rhodes says with a wink.
âIt doesnât get old,â Taylor says. âItâs like performing Shakespeare.â
Courtesy Chicago Sun Times