|
Duran Duran is one band that can't be accused of jumping on the
electronica bandwagon. They were, after all, deeply involved in
creating that vehicle. And over their long recording career, as
they've watched America's interest in electronic music peak and
wane, they managed to stay the course while most synth-based bands
around them came and went.
 |
Returning to our shores to promote their new album Medazzaland Duran
Duran are thrilled to find that America's passion for the electronic
has ignited once more.
From the outset, Duran Duran made innovative use of synthesizers
at a time when most rock and pop bands were merely using them for
string pads. With one foot firmly on the dance floor, they married
guitars and synths with Chic-inspired funky grooves. Duran Duran
enjoyed phenomenal success early but their cutting-edge electronics
were overshadowed by the slick videos, flash suits, Dayglo hairdos,
and of course their army of adoring female fans. The mania that
surrounded Duran Duran's early career made it hard for the band's
members to gain the respect they deserved as artists and musicians.
And as the '80s turned into the '90s, Duran Duran experimented with
their sound, searching for an identity beyond the teen phenomenon
they had been.
In 1993 they released the somber self-titled album, commonly referred
to as ''the wedding album.'' The album's down-tempo, more acoustic
grooves were a departure for the band. It was their most successful
album to date, however, going multi-platinum in the U.S. and spawning
two Top 10 singles. After releasing an album of covers entitled
Thank You in 1995, Duran Duran has returned with an album of original
material that is both optimistic and witty, Medazzaland.
The upbeat mood they've captured on their latest is characteristic
of the Duran Duran we first knew and loved back in the early '80s.
This renaissance album sees the band at their tongue-in-cheek best,
featuring tracks like ''Electric Barbarella'' and ''Undergoing Treatment''
that are pure unadulterated fun.
Recording was at times arduous, and the difficulty was compounded
player John Taylor announced his departure from the group. But like
a dose family that has lost a beloved member, the rest of the group
( Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, and Warren Cuccurullo) pulled together,
completing a body of work that's being hailed as their strongest
album of the '90s. The three remaining bandmembers share a new confidence,
feeling that with this album they have rediscovered themselves and
their essential sound. Throughout, keyboardist Nick Rhodes,
who started the band nearly two decades ago with pal John Taylor,
has been the constant thread and chief conceptualist.
''On this album I used almost completely analog synthesizers,
apart from the samplers. I even re-bought a Wasp, which was the
first thing I had. I used a Roland System 100, which I also had
at one time; I managed to re-buy one of those. I used a [Roland]
Jupiter-4, which is all over the first Duran Duran album, and obviously
a bunch of modern samplers and loads of effects. But I wanted that
warmth back. That's really what it's come down to.''
 |
Talking from his London home, where the band's studio is located,
Duran Duran's head knob-twiddler obliged as I picked his brain on
behalf of Keyboard readers.
This album has a classic Duran Duran feel to it. You've almost
gone full circle back to the time of your first release, Planet
Earth. It's that same sound, but with an undeniable '90s twist.
I totally agree. The most interesting thing for us is that we
didn't set out to make an ''elec-tronica'' album. We sat together
and wrote some songs which felt right for the current atmosphere.
It's just an instinct. Sometimes your instinct is spot on, and other
times it doesn't coincide with what other people think music should
be at that time. For example, we weren't about to make a grunge
record, but for us thiselectronica thing is a breath of fresh air
because it's an area that we feel very comfortable in. It's something
that we pioneered in our own way in the '80s. Admittedly, it's a
very different sound now, but it's that crossover of dance music
with electronica, and rock music or pop music. That's really the
borderlines of Duran Duran's sound. If you compare our other albums,
I'd certainly be the first to agree that this is closer in many
ways to the first album and the Rio album than any of the other
albums that we've done since.
In your '84 Keyboard interview, you mentioned learning keyboards
on a Wasp, and having e stable of e Roland Jupiter 8, a Crumar,
a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, a Fairlight CMI, and numerous effects.
What are you using now to achieve that classic Duran sound?
Almost exactly the same things, except I'm not using the Fairlight.
You see, if you look at music as a painting or a collage, first
of all you draw your outline, which is the tune, possibly some of
the lyrics, and certainly the title so you know what you're doing
and where you're going. You get the shape -- the arrangement. Then
you paint the thing, and bring it to life. That was very much how
I started on the earlier albums. I didn't look at synthesizers as
just an instrument that was a keyboard, like a piano for example.
Synthesizers for me were completely different. They were built for
soundscapes and for completely coloring in the picture. I was using
the paintbrushes, the analog synthesizers, the ones you've just
mentioned, to do that. There was something about them that was so
warm. For example, the Crumar string synthesizer. ... Now you can
get string sounds from samplers that sound virtually identical to
orchestras. That thing didn't sound like an orchestra, but there
was something about it that was just very special. When you put
that color on a song it just made the whole thing glow like a painting
with a warm rich orange.
I carried on using these synthesizers certainly for the first two
albums. The third album started to get a little more digital. Then
with each album I used more and more digital technology, which gives
you a much harder sound. It's taken me all this time to come back
'round. On the Thank You album I started doing it, and on this album
I used almost completely analog synthesizers, apart from the samplers.
I even re-bought a Wasp, which was the first thing I had. That's
on things like ''Undergoing Treatment.'' I used a Roland System
100, which I also had at one time; I managed to re-buy one of those.
I used a [Roland] Jupiter-4, which is all over the first Duran Duran
album, and obviously a bunch of modern samplers and loads of effects.
But I wanted that warmth back. That's really what it's come down
to. In many ways the same arguments could be aligned to vinyl and
CDs.
Were you ever tempted to go all the way and record, mix, and master
on analog?
We recorded a lot of the stuff at our own studio, called Privacy,
in London. We recorded straight onto digital TASCAM, but all the
drums, the majority of the guitars, apart from Warren's [Lexicon]
JamMan effects, and some of the vocals were done analog. In the
final transfer, we transferred everything, all the digital things
onto analog tape for mixing. Anything that was in sequencers, we
dumped onto analog tape as well, so there's a lot of analog. Even
changing from digital to analog, we found, added some warmth to
the sound.
What new gear do you have?
The Korg Trinity. I like the flexibility of it. It's really easy
to use, and it does have some great sounds. It doesn't sound too
digital, basically. I think people are coming 'round to understanding
that we all lost the plot when we decided that digital things were
the wave of the future, and so they're softening a lot of the sounds.
Take the new Roland JP-8000, which I haven't really played with
yet, but I've read stuff on. It sounds like that's heading in that
direction too. I'm looking forward to that. We've got a pretty pumped-up
Kurzweil K2000. I used that for a lot of percussive things. I found
that using a lot of old gadgets with new things was working well.
Like I got out the old Roland Space Echo. I didn't know we still
had one. I used that in tandem with digital things like the Trinity.
''Out of My Mind'' is the most digital of all the tracks. There's
digital piano on that, though there are some analog synths on it
too. The sound effects are the Roland System 100, and the strings
on that are the Trinity. ''Who Do You Think You Are'' is another
example of analog and digital mixtures. There's sort of a vocoder
sound on that.
Ah, the good ol' vocoder.
See I love things like that. Now that's something I want to get
hold of, a proper original vocoder. Warren and I wrote, recorded,
and produced two songs for Blondie. They've always been icons of
mine. I asked Jimmy [Destri, Blondie's keyboardist], ''What old
gear have you got?'' He said, ''I've got this Moog Vocoder.'' He
brought this thing in, and it was just the coolest looking thing
I've ever seen. I was very jealous. I just really wanted to take
this thing home with me. We used it on one of the tracks called
''Studio 54.''
Tell me about your studio setup.
It's a very compact studio. We've got everything we need in there,
though. It's sort of been customized to our most eccentric needs.
Warren calls it a synthesizer graveyard in there. As my passion
has grown again, the room has slowly been consumed by these monstrous
things with wires sticking out of them. It's sort of half analog
and half as hi-tech as you can get. The basic equipment's very simple:
a DDA desk and TASCAM machines. We've got three TASCAMs, which give
us the 24 tracks.
We don't use a lot of amps for the keyboards; we go direct for a
lot of it, but there are a few little old amps. My favorite thing
for putting vocals through is a little tiny thing that you would
have bought in a K-Mart or something. It's sort of an instant Iggy
Pop machine. It's just the cheapest little combo amp thing that
you've ever seen, and we just mike it up. When you put Simon through
it, it sounds great. It really is the nastiest thing. I don't even
think it has a name. I think the manufacturer was too embarrassed
to commit anything to it. There's a lot of that kind of thing. Mark
Tinley, my programmer, whom I've worked with for many years and
who also engineered this album, customizes a lot of things for me.
Then there's Warren's guitar setup. I defy any guitarist in the
whole universe to have anything as complicated as this. This machine,
this monster, it's called Delilah. This rack ... it's like the biggest
refrigerator you ever saw. It's just jammed with all these things.
I mean Warren can sound like an orchestra. It's this wall of sound
that Phil Spector would have nightmares about. It is very evident
on some of the tracks, things like ''Big Bang Generation'': The
theme part is his rack at work. But now I've realized the full potential
of this, I'm slowly working my way 'round the room, so I can plug
my things through his rack. He's a little nervous about it.
So what else have you been cooking up in your studio?
The thing that we've got in the pipeline is the project that
Warren and I have been working on over the last couple of years,
called ''Bored with Prozac and the Internet.'' It's basically a
cyber-soap rock opera. We wrote it for the stage, thinking of Broadway
by the year 2000. It's super-modem and different from Duran Duran
in just about every way -- the sound of it, the content of it, the
arrangement of it, the use of technology, the fact that it is a
complete story. Getting into individual characters is just a completely
different way of writing than actually writing something from your
own point of view. Warren and I have learned so much from doing
it, that I think we brought a lot of that to the Duran Duran album
in the production, and also to the Blondie thing.
The tracks you've produced for Blondie are the first tracks you've
produced for another artist since you worked with Kajagoogoo back
in '83. Their album White Feathers was incredibly successful, spawning
a [sharp ]1 hit single [''Too Shy''] on both sides of the Atlantic.
Do you have plans to produce any other projects outside of Duran
Duran?
You know what I'm really in the mood to do? I'm in the mood to
produce a really cool young band. Someone with some really different
ideas. If one came along, I'd definitely be interested. It's good
to work with other people sometimes. We probably haven't done enough
of it over the years. So, if there's anyone out there that's got
something unusual happening. ...
 |
Medazzaland, the name...
Medazzaland is the first Duran album on which Simon has shared the
lyric writing responsibilities with Nick. The title track
also features Nick's dulcet tones. I asked Nick how the unusually
named track came about. ''I couldn't resist that one,'' he
says. ''Simon sort of floated about four feet above ground level
into the studio one afternoon. Warren and I said, 'Wow what have
you been doing? What have you been taking?' 'He said, Oh this really
kinky intravenous stuff called Midazolam.' It transpired that he'd
actually been to the dentist and had oral surgery on his jaw. During
this time they gave him this drug. They put out so you can respond,
but you don't really know what's going on or where you are. Then
when you wake up you don't even know what's happened. You completely
lose about three hours of your life. We said, 'Well you're still
in Medazzaland, so you might as well go home.' That was it; it just
stuck. I couldn't resist the monologue when Simon wasn't there one
day. It was going to be an instrumental, and I just thought, let
me write something wild on this, it'll be kind of fun.''
 |
Warren Cuccurullo's FX Fridge
Warren Cuccurullo has taken the art of guitar playing to the outer
limits and beyond into the abstract. A Frank Zappa protégé and former
member of Missing Persons, he's an accomplished artist in his own
right, having released two solo albums. He's worked with Duran Duran
since 1986, replacing original bandmember Andy Taylor in time to
make an appearance on the Notorious album. Aside from his plank
spanking and writing contributions, this time around Warren also
shared. the producer's chair with Nick.
Warren's unconventional techniques rely on gadgetry housed in one
monumental rack. ''The first one I had. built in '86 is called Delilah,''
he tells us. ''I've had another one built since then. Delilah was
like a one-man-band concept. I could do all kinds of looping, and
then just control things with my feet. I play just as much with
my feet as I do with my hands.'' His new rack is built around two
Lexicon JamMans, which are complemented by an array of rackmount
effects and pedals. The JamMans are key. Serving as Warren's samplers,
they each have 32 seconds of memory. ''You can play in a riff and
instantly play it back, then harmonize on top of it, or reverse
it. I've taken those things to the nth degree.''
The complex layers used to create Warren's signature wall of sound.
present him with some unusual problems onstage. He explains, ''Since
I've created these layered things in the JamMans, I'd have to enter
them by playing to a click before the song started in a performance
situation. I could add maybe two minutes between each song just
making samples before the song starts. So I'm having Custom Audio
Electronics build me a note-on pedal. It'll basically be like a
keyboard, but it'll be ten switches in a black metal box and will
just send note information to a sampler. I'll have the guitar sounds
on cards, and I'll step on those switches and trigger my existing
guitar sounds instead of having to make them before the song starts.''
The Duran Duran Tribute Album
Released on October 7th, The Duran Duran Tribute Album (Mojo) features
such gems as Bjorn Again's Abba-esque rendition of ''Girls on Film.''
Among the artists paying homage to Duran Duran are Reel Big Fish
(whose members can apparently name every Duran B-side), Goldfinger
[singer John Feldman spent his youth wearing dapper Le Bon-inspired
attire), and Less Than Jake (Vinnie from the band allegedly chose
to cover ''The Reflex'' because he got to second base with his first
girlfriend while listening to the song).
 |
Simon Le Bon on lyrics.
... ''I built you a shrine, now you can be my icon,'' from
''Be My Icon.''
The teenybopper hysteria may be over for Duran Duran, but frontman
and chief lyricist Simon Le Bon is in a good space right now. ''I'm
much more fulfilled as an artist. It's more about art for us now,
because we're not writing to maintain the hysteria, and we're not
writing to make sure we get the wet knickers thrown on stage. It's
much more about communicating a feeling,'' he says.
''Although I need you, I don't want to bleed for you,'' from
''So Long Suicide.''
Through the lyrics of ''So Long Suicide,'' Simon expresses sentiments
aroused by the death of Kurt Cobain. ''I just thought he was such
a brilliant musician. It's like Van Gogh dying. It really hurt me
a lot, and it stayed with me a long time. I just wanted to write
a song, which would say that I can say goodbye now. 'Cause I've
got to be the end of my life,'' he explains. Simon has a natural
empathy with the Nirvana icon, being an idol who bore the brunt
of the craziness that came with his band's success.
'But will the doctors ever cure the delusions of grandeur?''
from ''Undergoing Treatment.''
Simon is philosophical about fame's roller coaster, and the role
of the media in that ride. It's been an ongoing theme in his lyric
writing. Within the self-mocking lines of ''Undergoing Treatment,''
he jokes about recovering from the mania of celebrity, taking the
opportunity to make a few pointed remarks at the expenses of the
press that hounded and beguiled him. ''That's my favorite lyric
I think I've ever written,'' Simon says. ''I thought, I'd love to
write about going completely balmy, but really, you can't write
a song about stuff that's not happening to you. Then I thought,
well really, we are. If you look at what's happened to us after
the incredible success of the band, if you look at all the failure
we've had, and all the struggling, it's some kind of the weird theraphy
that we've got to go through now to turn ourselves back into normal
People who don't think they're something special, who don't think
they're in Duran Duran.''
 |
The Electric Barbella Video
''We've done a really exitting video for 'Electric Barbella,'' Simon
enthuses. ''It follows the song really closely, which means it's
a completely politically incorrect picture of three boys walking
into a shop and pickng up a dummy, taking her home, sticking some
batteries in her, and getting her to do the vacuuming. Then ther's
a party and she goes absolutely mad because the batteries run out.
We spend the rest of the video trying to find new batteries to stick
in her. It's really quite simole. We don't turn into robots. She
doesn't get empowered. It's completely sexist and we're getting
a lot of shit for it, but I don't fucking care.'' Onscreen, the
Duran boys look like they're having indecent amounts of fun. ''My
motivation was to do everything with her on video that I wouldn't
do if she was really her on video,'' says Warren. ''I certainly
wouldn't waste time having her vacuum, and,'' he adds rather uncharitably,
''I wouldn't be sharing her with two other guys.''
|
