Hello Katy, For years now I've asserted that So Red the Rose is a highly unique Goth record in its own right. Also, with hindsight, I think we can see that Election Day is a precursor to trance music (but trance more in the Sufi style than Goa, obviously). I wonder what Nick would think about this interpretation. Chris, North Carolina

"Chris, when we were making SO RED THE ROSE, it was a completely new experience for us. We felt as tho we were entering unchartered waters. We were recording in a foreign country together with musicians from many different genres, none of whom we had previously played with. Simon and I were used to writing in a unit with the rest of Duran Duran but suddenly found ourselves having to make many more decisions, so it was actually very exciting not knowing where the journey would take us. The record actually ended up taking around 18 months to make, which was the longest period we had ever spent writing and recording at that time. I think much of this was due to the fact that we were experimenting and unsure of which direction we were going. Whilst we eventually ended up with something interesting and unique, much of this happened during the discovery process and certain songs mutated in style several times before we found the sound we were happy with.

There is no doubt, though, that we have Goth DNA. Perhaps it was growing up listening to John Cale on the Velvet Underground song, “The gift”....Nick”