Post by jt60 on Jul 24, 2009 5:54:12 GMT -5
timfollos.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/nick-rhodes-interview-from-early-2008/
Nick Rhodes interview from early 2008
An interview with Duran Duran’s keyboardist and the band’s sole consistent member.
I like your song “Tricked Out” a lot.
Oh, good – unusual choice, but good. We managed to protect that one from having a lyric. We hadn’t had an instrumental for a long time. Simon always likes to write lyrics to everything, but we just started playing it and thought it sounded great the way it was. He had a pile of lyrics to write anyway, so it ended up being an instrumental.
Were you most responsible for putting that song together?
Well, no, we did it together. Actually, it came out of a jam between John and Roger and I with Nate Hills. We were just playing around and it started to develop. It had a real new wave feel to it that we liked.
I was about to say that it sounds like Devo.
Yeah, it’s got a little of that. Well, I always liked Devo.
Were they an influence on you at all?
I wouldn’t say they were an influence. I still like what they did, particularly the first album. Our main influences were more Bowie, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk and some of the dance stuff, Chic, stuff like that.
I can hear the Beatles influence on the new record.
Yeah, well, I think most British bands have got a little bit of the Beatles in them, because the Beatles were the first band to explore a lot of that territory, to experiment more and to use such beautiful arrangements and harmonies and a lot of things instrumentally, using string sections, things George Martin did. They covered a lot of ground, so it’s easy to let a little bit seep into your music.
Who wrote the guitar riff at the start of “Falling Down”?
Dominic Brown, our guitarist. What we were looking for was something in the style of Hendrix and Dominic does a very, very good Hendrix. We’d sorted out the melody and he just sort of slipped into that verse.
So you had the rest of the song constructed beforehand?
Yeah, that was one of the later things. That’s how we worked on this album, because we were working as a four-piece, working with Nate Hills and Timbaland and Timberlake, so the guitar was all added afterwards.
Obviously, you’ve been in Duran the whole time, the only person who has, you’ve collaborated with a lot of different people. How important is collaboration to your songwriting? Is it everything? Do you write songs that you could perform solo?
I think anybody in the band could do a solo record and write songs like that. We write together. We write as a band.
It varies very much. Sometimes things start with a rhythm. Other times they start with a lyric or a title even. It’s not set in stone.
Did the song “Ordinary World” start with a vocal melody?
That didn’t start with anything at all, actually. That started as a jam. And we developed it from there. Simon wrote the melody with the chords that were going on, and the rhythm, and then we sort of built the song up. That song, we weren’t playing with a drummer. We were playing with a rhythm machine. You know, we sort of worked backwards to find the verse and the bridge, because I think the bridge in that song is one of the most beautiful parts of it.
I’m sorry – I can’t call it to mind.
The bridge is the little bit, “What is happening to it all?” The bit that comes before the chorus [is] just beautiful, a nice chordal movement.
It’s a beautiful song.
Thank you.
Especially the vocal part.
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s one of Simon’s finest vocals, for sure.
What are you most tired of being asked in interviews?
Well, you know, it’s not that you’re tired of it. Obviously, when you’re doing a new project, you want to talk about the new project. The obvious question that we always get asked is, “So, what was it like working with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake?”
And it’s not that you get tired of it, it’s just that there’s only so many ways you can answer it. They’re incredibly talented. It was terrific. They work very quickly. They were fans of the band and wanted to make a record that our fans would like. You don’t really get tired of it – I always try and find different ways around questions.
Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?
Well, the next thing we’re doing is with Mark Ronson and we’re very excited about that. I’m a big fan. I think he made the two best albums of last year: his own and the Amy Winehouse album. He’s remixing and reworking a whole bunch of our songs from across all our albums, including the new album, and then gonna bring it to us and then we’re going to deconstruct it again and actually play it live. I think that’ll be a fun experiment. That’s soon, as well – the beginning of July, in Paris.
We’ll just have to see who comes around. We’ve had a couple of guests with us onstage on this tour: The Killers came onstage with us in Los Vegas and Billy Corgan came onstage with us in Chicago. That stuff’s always fun.
Any special guests planned for D.C.?
Not at the moment. I mean, these literally happened a couple of days before or the day of, even. We just happened to be in town at the same time.
I’m not sure what musicians even come from D.C., actually. I’m sure there are some.
There are plenty. The most obvious thing to me is the punk scene.
Right.
There’s also funk music that comes out of D.C. and it’s pretty popular as well.
Right. Well, you never know. We’re always up for a challenge.
Is there a proudest moment of your career?
I think just still being here, really. Still doing the things that we want to do. Still being able to make albums together and tour and also having created the pretty big catalogue that’s now out there.
Kurt Cobain said that the most fun time for any band is right before they get really popular.
I could see the truth in that, of course. There’s nothing more exciting than when people are discovering the band for the first time and the audience is super hyped up about seeing the shows. I could see that.
But at the same time, we’ve been lucky like that, because we’ve had lots of high moments, whether it’s been working with Timberland and Timberlake or whether it was doing the James Bond theme or different shows we’ve played around the world. Putting the original lineup back together was a really interesting ride for a few years.
It seemed to me, reading about you guys, that you took off pretty quickly. Like, you got a manager after showing someone one of your first demo tapes, right?
Pretty much. I started the band when I was 16. By the time I was 18, we had a record deal, some lineup changes, wrote a lot of songs, played a lot of shows.
The thing going around Birmingham, where we were based at the time, was that every time we played a show, we had a different singer. We sort of did, for a few months. So, we were young, had a lot of energy – and you keep at it and keep at it until you get what you want.
Do you have any favorite memories or stories about Andy Warhol?
Yeah, I’ve got lots of great memories of Andy. He was a dear friend and clearly one of the most powerful forces of the 20th century. When we first met Andy, it was an exciting moment. We’d just arrived in New York City for the first time and the record company asked what I’d like to do in New York.
I said, “Well, I’d like to see the Empire State Building and I like to meet Andy Warhol,” thinking it was just a flippant remark – you know, some kids from Birmingham. They said, “Oh, OK.”
Then the next morning they’d organized it all and we went over to the Factory for lunch. It was quite surreal, sitting there with Andy all these characters we had sort of known, but it’s almost like mythology.
It was pretty amazing, but Andy was as excited as we were, because I guess we were the newest thing out of the UK. He was a big music fan and he went to all the shows anytime we played there. That first time, we took lots of pictures of Andy and he took lots of pictures of us.
How did art school influence the band?
Well, actually, John was at art school and I was going to go to art school, but because I was 16, the age you would go, we formed the band. That was my art school project.His art college was the first place we ever played.
We did a lot of things out of there: made flyers, designed the logos, found a place to play, met kids that were interested in going to see an experiment.
I always think of it as an ongoing art school project – with every record, with every tour, with everything we do. It’s something that comes from art school: We wanted to use and merge all the elements of art: music, graphic design, video, fashion, even architecture, with the stage shows and the sets in videos. You know, the photos, the artwork for the albums and on and on and on. We’re still pretty good on any kind of design.
The artwork for the new album, “The Red Carpet Massacre” we did it ourselves.
It looks great. I was just going to ask you that.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I don’t know why we haven’t done it before. I took the photos, John art-directed it.
And that’s the first time you’ve done that?
Yeah, isn’t that funny? That’s the thing about music: Even after a quarter of a century, you can still find new ways and new things to do on every recording.
… You don’t even have a proper record industry anymore. We’re absolutely thrilled about it. We couldn’t be more excited. We see so many different possibilities. It’s brought some life back into it again. There was so much horrible, computer-generated, mass-market, homogenized, nonsense. And now, I think we’re starting to get back to some ideas and some people who want to think differently. I like that.
I’m sure most bands that have had the length of your career might not feel that way. They might feel pretty endangered by it.
Yeah, there is a sense out there, but I also think bands that have survived as long as us have less to fear, in that they have a brand name, they have an audience and they just have to think of different ways to reach that audience. I see it as a huge opportunity as opposed to something that will be damaging and reduce our possibilities.
You’re obviously still able to make a fine living off of touring.
Yeah, we always do very well, but we never really think about doing things for money. As long as we’re able to make the album and go on tour, we’re fine with that. I guess it’s easy for me to say that, because we’re in a good position, but that’s really what’s always mattered, right from the beginning to now.
Yeah, next time you’re playing a hundred person club I’ll come up to you and say, “How do you like it?”
Yeah, you know what, we’ve had so many ups and downs commercially that we’ve played tiny little places, we’ve played huge arenas, we’ve played football stadiums – as long as we’re having fun and performing what we want to perform, I’m fine with that.
Yeah, I could definitely see you as a 48-year-old guy or however old you are, playing a local club, just doing it because you love it.
Yeah, absolutely. Some of the small venues are often more fun, because it’s got great intimacy and everybody in the audience is so excited to be there and be that close – it’s a different vibe, that’s for sure.
I’ll end by asking you when was the last time you played a show like that.
A club show? We just played in Los Vegas – we did a couple of nights at venue which is only 2500 people.
200 people? I can’t remember. We did some small shows with the original lineup. We did several 2000-seaters. 200? Probably not for quite a while – probably not for six, seven years.
NAT
Nick Rhodes interview from early 2008
An interview with Duran Duran’s keyboardist and the band’s sole consistent member.
I like your song “Tricked Out” a lot.
Oh, good – unusual choice, but good. We managed to protect that one from having a lyric. We hadn’t had an instrumental for a long time. Simon always likes to write lyrics to everything, but we just started playing it and thought it sounded great the way it was. He had a pile of lyrics to write anyway, so it ended up being an instrumental.
Were you most responsible for putting that song together?
Well, no, we did it together. Actually, it came out of a jam between John and Roger and I with Nate Hills. We were just playing around and it started to develop. It had a real new wave feel to it that we liked.
I was about to say that it sounds like Devo.
Yeah, it’s got a little of that. Well, I always liked Devo.
Were they an influence on you at all?
I wouldn’t say they were an influence. I still like what they did, particularly the first album. Our main influences were more Bowie, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk and some of the dance stuff, Chic, stuff like that.
I can hear the Beatles influence on the new record.
Yeah, well, I think most British bands have got a little bit of the Beatles in them, because the Beatles were the first band to explore a lot of that territory, to experiment more and to use such beautiful arrangements and harmonies and a lot of things instrumentally, using string sections, things George Martin did. They covered a lot of ground, so it’s easy to let a little bit seep into your music.
Who wrote the guitar riff at the start of “Falling Down”?
Dominic Brown, our guitarist. What we were looking for was something in the style of Hendrix and Dominic does a very, very good Hendrix. We’d sorted out the melody and he just sort of slipped into that verse.
So you had the rest of the song constructed beforehand?
Yeah, that was one of the later things. That’s how we worked on this album, because we were working as a four-piece, working with Nate Hills and Timbaland and Timberlake, so the guitar was all added afterwards.
Obviously, you’ve been in Duran the whole time, the only person who has, you’ve collaborated with a lot of different people. How important is collaboration to your songwriting? Is it everything? Do you write songs that you could perform solo?
I think anybody in the band could do a solo record and write songs like that. We write together. We write as a band.
It varies very much. Sometimes things start with a rhythm. Other times they start with a lyric or a title even. It’s not set in stone.
Did the song “Ordinary World” start with a vocal melody?
That didn’t start with anything at all, actually. That started as a jam. And we developed it from there. Simon wrote the melody with the chords that were going on, and the rhythm, and then we sort of built the song up. That song, we weren’t playing with a drummer. We were playing with a rhythm machine. You know, we sort of worked backwards to find the verse and the bridge, because I think the bridge in that song is one of the most beautiful parts of it.
I’m sorry – I can’t call it to mind.
The bridge is the little bit, “What is happening to it all?” The bit that comes before the chorus [is] just beautiful, a nice chordal movement.
It’s a beautiful song.
Thank you.
Especially the vocal part.
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s one of Simon’s finest vocals, for sure.
What are you most tired of being asked in interviews?
Well, you know, it’s not that you’re tired of it. Obviously, when you’re doing a new project, you want to talk about the new project. The obvious question that we always get asked is, “So, what was it like working with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake?”
And it’s not that you get tired of it, it’s just that there’s only so many ways you can answer it. They’re incredibly talented. It was terrific. They work very quickly. They were fans of the band and wanted to make a record that our fans would like. You don’t really get tired of it – I always try and find different ways around questions.
Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?
Well, the next thing we’re doing is with Mark Ronson and we’re very excited about that. I’m a big fan. I think he made the two best albums of last year: his own and the Amy Winehouse album. He’s remixing and reworking a whole bunch of our songs from across all our albums, including the new album, and then gonna bring it to us and then we’re going to deconstruct it again and actually play it live. I think that’ll be a fun experiment. That’s soon, as well – the beginning of July, in Paris.
We’ll just have to see who comes around. We’ve had a couple of guests with us onstage on this tour: The Killers came onstage with us in Los Vegas and Billy Corgan came onstage with us in Chicago. That stuff’s always fun.
Any special guests planned for D.C.?
Not at the moment. I mean, these literally happened a couple of days before or the day of, even. We just happened to be in town at the same time.
I’m not sure what musicians even come from D.C., actually. I’m sure there are some.
There are plenty. The most obvious thing to me is the punk scene.
Right.
There’s also funk music that comes out of D.C. and it’s pretty popular as well.
Right. Well, you never know. We’re always up for a challenge.
Is there a proudest moment of your career?
I think just still being here, really. Still doing the things that we want to do. Still being able to make albums together and tour and also having created the pretty big catalogue that’s now out there.
Kurt Cobain said that the most fun time for any band is right before they get really popular.
I could see the truth in that, of course. There’s nothing more exciting than when people are discovering the band for the first time and the audience is super hyped up about seeing the shows. I could see that.
But at the same time, we’ve been lucky like that, because we’ve had lots of high moments, whether it’s been working with Timberland and Timberlake or whether it was doing the James Bond theme or different shows we’ve played around the world. Putting the original lineup back together was a really interesting ride for a few years.
It seemed to me, reading about you guys, that you took off pretty quickly. Like, you got a manager after showing someone one of your first demo tapes, right?
Pretty much. I started the band when I was 16. By the time I was 18, we had a record deal, some lineup changes, wrote a lot of songs, played a lot of shows.
The thing going around Birmingham, where we were based at the time, was that every time we played a show, we had a different singer. We sort of did, for a few months. So, we were young, had a lot of energy – and you keep at it and keep at it until you get what you want.
Do you have any favorite memories or stories about Andy Warhol?
Yeah, I’ve got lots of great memories of Andy. He was a dear friend and clearly one of the most powerful forces of the 20th century. When we first met Andy, it was an exciting moment. We’d just arrived in New York City for the first time and the record company asked what I’d like to do in New York.
I said, “Well, I’d like to see the Empire State Building and I like to meet Andy Warhol,” thinking it was just a flippant remark – you know, some kids from Birmingham. They said, “Oh, OK.”
Then the next morning they’d organized it all and we went over to the Factory for lunch. It was quite surreal, sitting there with Andy all these characters we had sort of known, but it’s almost like mythology.
It was pretty amazing, but Andy was as excited as we were, because I guess we were the newest thing out of the UK. He was a big music fan and he went to all the shows anytime we played there. That first time, we took lots of pictures of Andy and he took lots of pictures of us.
How did art school influence the band?
Well, actually, John was at art school and I was going to go to art school, but because I was 16, the age you would go, we formed the band. That was my art school project.His art college was the first place we ever played.
We did a lot of things out of there: made flyers, designed the logos, found a place to play, met kids that were interested in going to see an experiment.
I always think of it as an ongoing art school project – with every record, with every tour, with everything we do. It’s something that comes from art school: We wanted to use and merge all the elements of art: music, graphic design, video, fashion, even architecture, with the stage shows and the sets in videos. You know, the photos, the artwork for the albums and on and on and on. We’re still pretty good on any kind of design.
The artwork for the new album, “The Red Carpet Massacre” we did it ourselves.
It looks great. I was just going to ask you that.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I don’t know why we haven’t done it before. I took the photos, John art-directed it.
And that’s the first time you’ve done that?
Yeah, isn’t that funny? That’s the thing about music: Even after a quarter of a century, you can still find new ways and new things to do on every recording.
… You don’t even have a proper record industry anymore. We’re absolutely thrilled about it. We couldn’t be more excited. We see so many different possibilities. It’s brought some life back into it again. There was so much horrible, computer-generated, mass-market, homogenized, nonsense. And now, I think we’re starting to get back to some ideas and some people who want to think differently. I like that.
I’m sure most bands that have had the length of your career might not feel that way. They might feel pretty endangered by it.
Yeah, there is a sense out there, but I also think bands that have survived as long as us have less to fear, in that they have a brand name, they have an audience and they just have to think of different ways to reach that audience. I see it as a huge opportunity as opposed to something that will be damaging and reduce our possibilities.
You’re obviously still able to make a fine living off of touring.
Yeah, we always do very well, but we never really think about doing things for money. As long as we’re able to make the album and go on tour, we’re fine with that. I guess it’s easy for me to say that, because we’re in a good position, but that’s really what’s always mattered, right from the beginning to now.
Yeah, next time you’re playing a hundred person club I’ll come up to you and say, “How do you like it?”
Yeah, you know what, we’ve had so many ups and downs commercially that we’ve played tiny little places, we’ve played huge arenas, we’ve played football stadiums – as long as we’re having fun and performing what we want to perform, I’m fine with that.
Yeah, I could definitely see you as a 48-year-old guy or however old you are, playing a local club, just doing it because you love it.
Yeah, absolutely. Some of the small venues are often more fun, because it’s got great intimacy and everybody in the audience is so excited to be there and be that close – it’s a different vibe, that’s for sure.
I’ll end by asking you when was the last time you played a show like that.
A club show? We just played in Los Vegas – we did a couple of nights at venue which is only 2500 people.
200 people? I can’t remember. We did some small shows with the original lineup. We did several 2000-seaters. 200? Probably not for quite a while – probably not for six, seven years.
NAT
