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One thing you cannot accuse Duran Duran of is being predictable. Throughout the group's illustrious 27-year career, it has gracefully navigated a diversity of musical styles while never alienating its extremely loyal, international fan base, if there is a common theme that runs throughout each of its records, it is that they all sound completely different. The band's new album, Red Carpet Massacre, is no exception to this formula. The group decided to mix things up with legendary hip-hop producer Timbaland [aka Tim Mosley], combining their massive songwriting talent with a refreshingly different production methodology. Pro Sound News recently spoke to keyboard player, Nick Rhodes.
On Conceiving the New Album:
We had an album finished, provisionally titled, Reportage, which we did with [guitarist] Andy Taylor. It was much more sort of indierock-based and would have fit in fairly well alongside records by The Killers, Bloc Party and LCD Sound System. When we finished the record, we realized it was quite political and it didn't feel as uplifting as people would like a Duran Duran album to be. The label said, "It's a great record, but can we go after a couple of other tracks and maybe go for a first single?" We said, "Fine, as long as it is with Timbaland," because he's the only person we thought would impart the right vibe."
We finally pulled it together for September '06. We arrived in New York City, but only the four of us arrived-Andy Taylor [guitarist] didn't arrive, but we just forged ahead. In five days we got three tracks: "Nightrunner," "Zoom In" and "Skin Divers." At that point, we all just looked at each other and said, "You know what? We've really hit on something here-this is a totally different sound." Merging Timbaland beats and Duran Duran just seemed like a cool idea, and it was working.
On Mixing It Up with Timbaland:
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