L.A. Press Conference

 

Q: Your breaking as a singles band, is there much room for spontaneous composition within your studio work the way you compose?
(Andy) All of it is spontaneous - an actual idea isn't something you sit down and go - "Hum, what am I going to do today?" Eventually it come up ant it may not be a good idea and not be it, it's not very clean cut. It's very spontaneous, you can't just sit around and have all these great ideas just float into your head, so there will be periods of dormancy.
(Simon) When you go in the studio you haven't got an idea of what you're gonna do in there, you've got to be spontaneous.

Q: Can you tell us anything about that process?
(John) There's no set way to writing. There are certain songs that someone may have words and we put to music or maybe we've just had a few and we're playing it back in the studio and getting a groove and basing it on that. Basically there's a million ways.
(Nick) I think the major reason we credit it to the whole band is because every person sort of looks after their own part and when the whole song comes together, although it may have been based on some chords that I had or Andy had or Simon had, overall with everybody else's parts, it becomes very much a band composition.

Q: In your writing process does the demographic or the business sense figure in to it? Do you actually shoot for you audience?
(Nick) How are we to know who we're gonna sell directly to with the song anyway. I don't think we …
(Andy) I think it's if you do go, "Ok, let's write this really great chorus and we'll get paid more money. "You never really get paid anyway, so it don't really matter.

Q: Are there any poets or literary figures who influence your lyrics?
(Simon) Yeah, Elliot, he's nearly as obscure as I am.
Q: Such as …
(Simon) Everybody around. I went to school, did a lot of Shakespeare and others, studied a lot of people, a lot of riots when I was in school and that did have an influence on me. You know, a lot of the little kind of tricks that they used I tried.

Q: Your doing a Coca Cola contest. Does that mean you'll be visiting schools?
(Simon) Yes.
Q: Can you explain …
(Andy) Well, what people do is when school's around, and they all get their aluminum cans and stomp on them and squash them up and then all the cans, they melt into scrap metal and they collect money for it, and then that goes to funds for the Olympic team and that's done with Coca Cola who are sponsoring our tour.
(John) At the end of the day, the school that gets the biggest amount of aluminum gets a visit from Duran Duran.

Q: Is this just for high schools or are any colleges involved?
(Andy) Well, it's all schools, there are a certain amount of colleges doing it too, I suppose.
(John) We're social conscious, darling.

Q: What will you be doing after the American tour?
(Simon) I'm gonna get some sleep.
(Roger) We're probably gonna be doing a video for the next single.
(John) This is actually the last leg of our world tour, we started in Australia and then Japan and Britain, so this will be the end of the world tour.

Q: Are you conscious of the way you look every time?
(Roger) We're just very fashion conscious people anyway, before we joined the band we were into clothes and cared about the way we looked and it hasn't made any difference really.

Q: When did you learn to use your instruments?
(Andy) I learned to use my instrument when I was five actually, but it was plastic at the time. But I got a real one when I was eleven.
(John) I was what you'd call a late developer - I didn't pick up mine until I was about 16.
(Simon) I was born with my instrument and it just got used again and again and again.
(Nick) I started playing with mine when I was 17.
(Simon) Roger needs two hands for his!
(John) That's a great way to end!
(Announcer) Yes, it's always good to end on a serious note.