It’s almost 30 years since Nick Rhodes and John Taylor formed the band which became Duran Duran. Their latest album, Red Carpet Massacre, sees them collaborate with Justin Timberlake. Now Nick, 45, talks to Woman’s Day.
Congratulations on the new CD and success of the single Falling Down — is this the most nerve racking time for you when you launch a CD?
I don’t know how nerve wrecking it really is, it’s just one of those things where you don’t know what’s going to happen and you’re a little pensive about it. When you’ve done something and you’re happy it’s the best you could’ve possibly done. There’s nothing else you can really do.
Are you pleased with how it’s been received?
Yes it’s been received really well. It’s early days so you never know but I think we’ve made something really interesting this time. Sometimes you finish and you know you’ve got a couple of good songs on the record, this time I feel it’s a very cohesive album. A complete listening experience, it’s built to listen from the start to the finish. That’s how we made it.
You also did the photography for the CD — what was your inspiration?
We had this fantastic title ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ and that was a gift. There were many ways of interpreting it but I immediately thought about beautiful girls with stiletto heels on. For most things I think about that. It could’ve been called almost anything and I would’ve made it work that way. It seemed very natural; we wanted it to be a little tongue-in-cheek as the title is. We also wanted it to look glamorous and Duran Duran as well.
The video for ‘Falling Down’ is controversial — focussing on the celebrity meltdown/rehab factor — why was that your inspiration?
It’s a real pop culture record and we wanted to reflect the stuff around us. There are two things — the heaviness, the grave situation the world is in with the wars and the dreadful leaders we’ve had to sustain over the last years. Then on the other side there’s reality shows, celebrity meltdowns, red carpets and awards. We made an album on the heavier side which we called ‘Reportage’ which remains unreleased. It’s the last one we did with Andy Taylor. We started working with Timbaland and it changed the sound and it felt fresh, modern and much more uplifting than the album we’d made. So we thought, ‘You know what, this feels right’. People could do with something to lift their spirits, which is where we ended up. A lot of the songs on the album, there are themes and threads throughout, which are really to do with people living their lives in public.
Do you have a favourite track on the album?
I’ve got a few favourites, it varies but I think Skin Divers is my favourite.
Why did you collaborate with Justin Timberlake?
I think he is one of the most talented artists out there right now. He has a fantastic ear for melody. We loved his first album. The band thought it was one of the most perfect pop records we’d heard in a long time. We met him at the MTV Awards and then Justin came to the UK to kindly present us with a Brit award, we were quite touched by that. We talked and said, ‘Let’s do something together.’
You and John Taylor will celebrate 30 years together as founding Duran Duran band members next year — did you think you’d make it this far?
No! We didn’t know if we’d make it 30 hours! You take it in little baby steps. Each record we make, for us, is like making our first album. We don’t ever say, ‘Right. We’ve done all this work so we should do this.’ We look at it more from a point of view of, ‘OK, if we were just starting, what would we do?’
According to your bio there are over 100,000 websites dedicated to Duran Duran — do you ‘Google’ yourself and check them out?
Oh no, I’m far too scared!
You guys are all still looking good — what’s your secret?
I don’t think there really is any secret to whatever you look like. Once you hit 40, I think it’s really sink or swim isn’t it? You just start swimming!
Read more of this interview in Woman’s Day (on-sale December 10).
Red Carpet Massacre is out now through Sony BMG. For information on the V Festival visit www.vfestival.com.au
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