Duran Duran May Not Have Formed if Bedroom Studios Had Existed

Duran Duran bassist John Taylor suggested that the band might never have formed if the members had access to bedroom-studio technology in the ‘80s.

He also reflected on the punk ethic that inspired them, saying it retained a presence in their work right up to last year’s album Future Past.

“Duran Duran would have been five individual creator/producer musicians if Pro Tools or GarageBand had existed in 1980,” Taylor told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “I think that each of us, individually, would have gone down the bedroom-pop route. ... None of us would be here without punk rock in that moment, 1976, '77, where it was all about youth. It was all about the less experience you had, the better you were for that moment, to meet that moment. The recklessness of it, but also the sense of it was all about you. I think we brought a lot of that to this album.”

He said the band’s longevity was a result of the four current members taking care of their friendships. “People ask us all the time, ‘Do you guys hang out? Do you do this?’ No, no. What we do is we preserve the time when we have to be together,” he explained. “When we walk out onstage or we walk into a studio, those are the three most important people in my life at that time. We’ll go to an art gallery or maybe a football match or whatever, but for the most part, we preserve the spirit of our relationship for when it counts, which is when we walk out in front of an audience or show up to the studio to write a song.

“But relationships are everything, and they’re challenging. And if you’re in a creative relationship with somebody, the only way you can work through it is really by not having an alternative.”

Duran Duran begin a North American tour on Aug. 19.