Keyboard player Nick Rhodes tells PEOPLE that the band crafted two very different scents: one bright and flowery and one dark and musky

For the members of Duran Duran, adding "fragrance creators" to their lengthy résumés at this point in their storied careers just made sense.

"We've always thought of Duran Duran as this sort of an arts collective where sometimes we venture a bit more towards fashion, sometimes it's movies, sometimes it's, in this case, fragrances," Keyboard player Nick Rhodes tells PEOPLE over Zoom from his home in London.

"At the center of everything we do is music. We create music and we do put out albums and we do play live shows together, but because we have an interest in pop culture and particularly in design, we've done sort of side projects — some individually, but many together where we've said, 'That sounds interesting.'"

For their venture into scent, the band — which also includes Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor  teamed up Sergio Momo, the founder of luxury fragrance house Xerjoff, to craft a fragrance that could embody the band. Rhodes says they approached it the same way they approach music, by thinking about what they wanted to create and starting with a "blank sheet."

"We were quite excited by the idea of this initial abstract painting we were making of what a perfume might be like," Rhodes says of the band's initial meeting with Momo, where the fragrance pro asked them to simply describe scents to him that they liked. "From those conversations, Sergio went away and then we met again six weeks later, and he came with about 30 different perfumes and said, 'Based upon what you were discussing with me, this is what we're going to start with.'"

The "Hungry Like the Wolf" hitmakers went through each one, making notes on what they liked and didn't like. They agreed on some more than others, narrowing the list down to five fragrances. Rhodes says that he and Le Bon drove the project alongside Momo, and in the end, no one could agree on one singular scent.

"We really split the atom," he admits. "Some of the things we both liked were a little darker and more mysterious and musky and other things were more flowery and bright. We couldn't have both in the same perfume."

Thus, the band debuted two distinct fragrances that encapsulated dual sides of Duran Duran: NeoRio and Black Moonlight.

Bright and bold NeoRio is available in four different neon bottles. The scent notes include candied fig, rum, maple syrup, rose oil, saffron, patchouli, tonka bean and more. Black Moonlight, on the other hand, comes in a black bottle and is more of a dark, mysterious scent. It features notes of bergamot, mandarin, cardamom, saffron, lavender, patchouli, tonka bean, among others.

"Generally, there's a few more contemplative, slightly darker songs that are moodier, and then on the other side, we're always looking to lift people's spirits and you're looking for big choruses that make people happy and make people want to sing along or dance," Rhodes says of the band's music and how that translated to the fragrances. "That's sort of how the perfumes worked out in that Black Moonlight is more of a slightly shadowy, musky, mysterious scent. NeoRio is completely uplifting and bright and colorful."

Rhodes says he and the band owe it all to Momo for his guidance in this process, which he says was enlightening — and admits much more difficult than he thought it would be. He says the pro didn't force them into choosing between NeoRio and Black Moonlight, even though they were technically supposed to only be crafting one scent for fans to enjoy.

Rhodes says the band actually enjoyed making a fragrance so much that they discussed another concept with Momo: doing a concert and scenting the building. Not just spraying some perfume into the room, but actually filing the space in a way that creates an experience.

"I think it could be a really lovely thing to do, and it's entirely possible depending upon the size of the venue," Rhodes says. "I'd love people to have more of that experience, and it's not something that you really get other than the smell of strange cigarettes at certain shows. You don't really get that in an audience as much."

The musician thinks back on scent memories as he questions how it would be possible to scent a room and how so many venues he's played have actually smelled not so great — which is perhaps why he and the band had the idea to pump in a more pleasant smell in the future — and he says he has fond memories of people who have worn fragrances that have stuck with him over the years.

"He said he agreed that they're both interesting areas to develop," Rhodes says of Momo's take on the two sides of Duran Duran and their respective fragrance profiles. "As we dialed them in, we were so thrilled to learn about the process of making perfume. It really is fascinating, and how the different tiny little elements that you can add to it just change the whole structure.

"You remember it," he says of scents, whether they're good or bad, and he adds he wanted that to be the case with the fragrances he and the band created as well.

"So much work goes into making a fragrance. We always say with our shows, it's a good job that people don't realize how much we have to do to make this thing look effortless. That's what you want. You want people to see, in this case, to smell the product and say, 'Oh wow, that's great.' You don't want them to think about the many, many, many days and weeks that were spent by so many people tweaking the scent and the bottle and the design of the packaging. It was a fantastic experience to go through."

Duran Duran's fragrances are available to shop at Xerjoff now.

Courtesy PEOPLE