Agilent Interview with Nick Rhodes

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DURAN DURAN – Nick Rhodes-Interview

Good morning Nick, thank you very much for having some time to answer our questions today.
We have a lot of Duran Duran fans in the office that wonder why you spent so much time away from stage…why did you decide to come to Barcelona for the GSM congress in 2010?

It has taken us long because we are working on new music and are currently making a record with Mark Ronson (our producer).

We have come to the GSM congress because we are fascinated with the mobile technology and the possibilities it has with music.

Artists are communicators and mobile phones and gadgets provide the best systems to reach out to great networks and broader audiences.

What can you tell us about Duran Duran’s future? Are you going on tour?

We want to finish our album first, and we may tour by the end of this year. No fixed dates yet.
We would like to come over to Spain again (Barcelona, Madrid, or anywhere we are welcome as a band), since I am a great fan of the Spanish way of living and also of Pedro Almodovar’s movies.

We have seen that you have launched a new electric guitar design, was this your own idea? It is already available for the musicians?

No, it was never mass produced. It was the world’s first guitar to play video.

It was a Fender’s project for charity, and I tried to think what could do with that instrument that was not done yet…. I used to play guitar as a child, and tried to think of the coolest guitar I would ever like to have, and I came out with the idea of the “Pixelator”, which was a difficult project to deploy since technology couldn’t be easily applied to the instrument. However, we made it, and it worked!

Do you think DDs music will catch up with the new generations the same way it did back in the 80s?

We are always catching up new people along the way, losing some and adding more. That is the way it goes… The way the music is consumed today in internet and on mobile phones the age of written songs is too old for kids, but young audiences have joined our sounds…. We collaborated with Justin Timberlake by producing Timberland, and these kind of collaborations always enrich each other’s understanding of music, sounds and audiences.

Of all the groups you were part of, as musician or producer… Duran Duran, Arcadia, The Devils, Kajagoogoo, The Dandy Warhols… what have you learned? What would you change?

I would do no changes, since I do not regret anything done until now. I am not a revisionist. With experience you probably would play some songs differently, but you always play as you feel them, so I would not change what I played at a certain time. We always try to respond to honesty and innovation as we feel we have to.

What are your future plans? How do you see the world of music evolving and how will you contribute to it?

I am fascinated to see what is new in music. I want to sit in the studio to write songs and feel excited again. Working with Mark Ronson has been pure joy, he is intelligent, fantastic, very understanding. He has also produced Amy Winehouse, he is a DJ, he is so eclectic that we consider him a good toolkit to play with.

We experiment and the 3D is our next step, but I personally interest myself also in photography (currently working on a book and an expo), and will soon launch an online arts & culture website. A place where people can place their beautiful creations on. Still no set dates for this, but I am working very hard on it.

Many thanks for your time Nick, and please keep up with the good work!!! All Agilent fans will love to see you back on stage in Barcelona very soon.

Interview courtesy of Neus Flores/Agilent