STACK #204 Oct 2021

FEATURE MUSIC

staying in your lane and being who you are, but also sort of growing – but not growing so much that you lose your audience," Taylor laughs, before adding, “But then, at the same time, not boring your audience by not changing! “I mean, it’s not rocket science, but that’s the science of the creative work that we do together as a band. You’ve got Nick [Rhodes, synth], me, Roge and Simon [Le Bon, vocals], and we’re all thinking the same thoughts: ‘How can I evolve my sound without losing what it is that people like about what I do?'" Previous collaborator Mark Ronson – who produced Duran Duran’s All You Need Is

Following the release of Duran Duran’s third album Seven And The Ragged Tiger (1983), the band took some time out for side projects: Arcadia (Simon, Nick and Roger), and The Power Station (John and Andy, plus Robert Palmer and Chic drummer Tony Thompson, with Roger also contributing percussion). A TALE OF THREE TAYLORS

John recalls the mindset of Duran’s three unrelated Taylors around this time: “Andy, Roger and I – we’d all kind of gone off in different directions, and there was almost a little bit of shame about being like the musicians that we were in 1982; everybody thought, ‘That’s not who I want to be’. Roger wanted to be [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Chad Smith, and Andy wanted to be somebody else, and I wanted to be somebody else.” The classic Duran Duran lineup wouldn’t reunite until 2000, releasing 2004’s Astronaut in this incarnation before Andy once again parted ways with the band in 2006.

Duran Duran in 1983

How can I evolve my sound without losing what it is that people like about what I do?

him [before Future Past ], to be honest. Actually, I had a compilation album that he’d made for a German label – you know, it was one of these double CDs: one CD was curated oldies and the other CD

just really liked his energy, and thought we’d give it a go. And he really had vision. “The producers that we work with really have to have a vision – that’s probably the most important thing – and they

was, like, curated modern sort of techno – and it was my favourite CD of that year. And that was really all I knew: he was a DJ, you know? But then I heard he was kind of getting into production, and he’d worked on The Man , The Killers' track, which I really like. We met with him and we

have to really have their sense of Duran, and where Duran can and can’t go, you know? And it’s usually slightly different to where we think we can and can’t go..."

Now record (2010) and also co-produced Future Past ’s predecessor, Paper Gods (2015) – appears in Future Past’ s liner notes alongside pioneering Italian composer/producer Giorgio Moroder and British DJ/producer Erol Alkan. “Erol’s been amazing on this record,” Taylor enthuses. “I didn’t know an awful lot about

Future Past by Duran Duran is out Oct 22 via BMG.

Continue reading the full interview online at stack.com.au

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