Red Carpet Massacre:
- tracklisting
- international release dates
DURAN DURAN
Red Carpet Massacre, the new studio album.
Released on Epic, November 13, 2007
* * * * * * *
Duran Duran’s RED CARPET MASSACRE marks an all time
creative high in the band’s illustrious 29-year
career. Like all good things, it came to those who
waited.
By May 2006, after a two-year tour in
support of their previous album ASTRONAUT, Duran
Duran had completed 14 songs for a record
provisionally titled ‘Reportage.’ But according to
singer Simon LeBon “When we sat down and listened to
what we had done on our own, we didn’t feel we had a
lead track, so we got in touch with Timbaland, who
was the only producer out there that we knew we all
liked.” America’s most pop savvy producer was more
than happy to help and a session was duly set up at
the Manhattan Center Studios in New York in
September of the same year. What none of the band
realized prior to taking off in this new direction,
however, was that one of their biggest fans, Justin
Timberlake, was also keen to get involved in the
project, so when they arrived in the US he made room
in the middle of his album release campaign to spend
time in the studio with them.
But as if this new collaboration wasn’t enough to
really change things up, in the midst of all this,
guitarist Andy Taylor split with the band, and with
his departure the remaining four band members opted
to change tack and start over completely.
“It was a real revelation working with producers
that just understood the ‘groove factor’,” enthuses
keyboardist Nick Rhodes “And this really brought
back the heart and the spirit of Duran Duran.
They’re an extraordinary team,” he continues. “They
have a fantastic chemistry in the studio.”
“With these guys on board it was as if Duran
Duran had been taken and surrounded in chrome,” adds
bassist John Taylor.
“In the past we always went to the big cities to
work with the people that were having hit records on
the dance floor,” explains drummer Roger Taylor.
“When we got to New York last year we found that
inspiration again.”
With three glorious tracks under their belt (Nite-Runner,
Skin Divers and Zoom In), the new Duran left US
shores and returned to the UK where they proceeded
to make an album that sounded quite different to
‘Reportage’ with a new production team headed by
Timbaland’s right hand man Nate ‘Danja’ Hills and
long-time Timbaland collaborator Jimmy Douglass.
According to drummer Roger Taylor; “the first time
we met Timbaland we were very impressed with this
guy sitting in the corner, Nate Hills. Not only was
he one of the most incredible beat guys we’d ever
come across, he was also a great musician – which
filled the gap that might otherwise have been left
with Andy gone. So after the initial sessions in New
York, we basically kidnapped him and took him to
London. He’s got so many ideas. Talent in bucket
loads.”
Most of RED CARPET MASSACRE was recorded in three
sessions: the first with Timbaland, with a guest
spot from Timberlake, at the Manhattan Center
Studios in New York; the second phase on the band’s
home turf, Sphere Studios in Wandsworth, London over
Christmas 2006, presided over by Nate Hills and
Jimmy Douglass. And the final burst at Metropolis
Studios in West London, produced by Hills and
Douglass in early ‘07.
And that would have been
that, had it not been for a chance meeting in
Birmingham in the Spring when Simon LeBon hooked up
again with Justin Timberlake during his UK tour.
“Justin asked to hear everything we’d recorded and
at the end he said, ‘I think you need an Ordinary
World to round things out.’” Duran’s 1992 smash,
Timberlake revealed, had been his favorite song when
he was a pop crazed 14 year old. And as LeBon
remarks, with powerful understatement: “What goes
around, comes around.”
A few days later when Justin’s tour touched down
in Manchester, England, Duran Duran and Timberlake
got together in Blueprint studio and spent 36 hours
writing and recording Falling Down – a tune destined
to rank as one of the finest pop songs of the early
21st century and now the first single from their
upcoming release. Marking one of Timberlake’s first
solo productions, this ‘tempo-ballad’ as Justin
describes it is “very Duran Duran. He (Simon) wrote
some very melancholic/inspirational/cryptic lyrics
that are beautiful,” explains Justin. “I think it’s
certainly one of the best lyrics that Simon’s
written for a very long time,” concurs Nick.
Its parent album RED CARPET MASSACRE is
consistently bold and adventurous. “We had to let go
of most of our old ideas of what it means to be a
band making this,” notes bassist John Taylor, a
point which is expanded by Nick Rhodes: “Most of our
producers this time had never worked with a band
before, and we’d never worked without a guitarist.”
“We really had to put our egos aside,” adds Roger
Taylor. “We’ve always been very self-contained in
the past.”
All four band members agree that they have never
worked so hard and fast on any album as they did on
RED CARPET MASSACRE. The results, however, speak for
themselves. A stellar album that is daring and
contemporary and yet quintessentially Duran Duran.
“By the time we get to finish an album,” explains
John. “It always feels to me like ‘wow’… there’s a
book in there. This is another massive chapter in
the band’s history. We’ve made a record that we all
feel really good about.”
*******************************************************************************************************
Tracklisting, with comments by Simon LeBon, Nick
Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Timbaland
The Valley
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
JT “This was the breakthrough, the crossover, the
song we could build an album around. We set up the
gear in the control room and came up with a
progressive groove. It ended up becoming the album
opener and feels like the perfect track to start our
upcoming shows with.”
SLeB “It’s about looking at life as moments
rather than achievements. It’s about making one’s
way through the trials and tribulations of life.”
Red Carpet Massacre
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
NR: “Punk electronica - a bit like Warm
Leatherette, the 1979 track by the Normal. Very
tongue-in-cheek and very apropos of where we are now
in the world with regards to reality TV and the
whole 15 minutes of fame existence.”
SLeB “It’s about Hollywood ‘A-listers’ having a
go at each other – about the fantasy of celebrity
and the media. It’s sex, seduction and glamour - all
the things we stand for, which is why we made it the
album title. We wanted something with teeth.”
Nite-Runner, with Justin Timberlake and
Timbaland
Music: Duran Duran, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and
Nate Hills.
Lyrics: Simon LeBon, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Timbaland, Justin
Timberlake and Nate Hills
NR “This was the first collaboration we did with
Justin, Tim and Nate. It felt like we were in a
nightclub. When we finished it we knew we were on
the verge of something new.”
SLeB: “This reminded me of NOTORIOUS when the
band first split and we worked with Nile Rodgers.”
Falling Down, with Justin Timberlake
Music: Duran Duran and Justin Timberlake
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Produced by Justin Timberlake
NR: “It’s a really beautiful, fragile song. It
was so easy. Sometimes that’s the mystery of making
music and writing songs. It can be just natural and
happens there and then, and other times you can
struggle for weeks and not get what you want.”
SLeB “It’s about a crash I had when I was racing
a motorbike, the thoughts that ran through my mind
before I hit the ground. As soon as I got the
chorus, Justin was like, ‘That’s it!!’ ”
JT “It’s easy to be esoteric. It’s so much harder
to write from the heart. This is an important song
for Duran.”
RT “I’d just got back from my honeymoon in St
Lucia and the phone rang. Justin was talking about
us recording the new Ordinary World. An hour later
we were all in a van driving to Manchester.”
Skin Divers, featuring Timbaland
Music: Duran Duran, Timbaland, Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon and Timbaland
Co-produced: Duran Duran, Timbaland, Nate Hills
Timbaland: “That one hit me instant.”
JT: “This is the song that best captures the
sense of Timband meets Duran Duran. It wrote itself
during a jam and then Tim finished off his parts a
couple of months later when he was in the UK - very
late at night, after a gig. He came down to the
hotel ballroom and just recorded them on a laptop.
Fucking genius. When you are that talented you don’t
need too much technology to create the magic!”
NR: “This is my favorite track. A real hybrid of
Timbaland and Nate’s grooves and our live playing.
It’s riddled with hooks.”
Box full o’honey
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
NR “I started playing some chords late one night
in the studio and it sort of grew from there.”
SLeB “It’s my best lyric on the album. I can see
the person I’m writing about, my ‘queen of
tumbledown.’ No, I won’t say who she is. People seem
to be able to really relate to this song. It touches
them in an emotional way.”
Tempted
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
JT “This is the dance party track. It’s arms in
the air for French discos.”
SLeB “Nate Hills said before we recorded this,
‘do you wanna go up, or go down?’ It’s about
dance-floor politics.”
NR “It was instant smiles as soon as we gave in
to our disco temptation. Which is always a good
sign. It’s like a song inside a mirror ball.”
Tricked Out
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
NR “We set out to do something unusual for the
live show, a special moment. Usually the
instrumental song is the one that doesn’t make the
album and ends up as a bonus track, so I’m very
happy we all liked this one.”
SLeB “I was going to do a melody over it but then
I thought I’d leave it. This gives me a chance to
change my shirt during the concert!”
RT “This takes us back to our roots. 1979, Joy
Division, Siouxsie, post punk with a bit of techno.”
Zoom In
Music: Duran Duran, Timbaland, Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced: Duran Duran, Timbaland, Nate Hills
NR “This is a very cool mixture of electro and
rock. It feels very super-cyber-futuristic. The drum
track was really one-take, all the way through.”
JT “Very Timbaland, very Nate, very New York, a
real transition track for us.”
SLeB “It’s about the Second Life virtual world
that exists on the web which Neil Stevenson writes
about in his novel
Snow Crash, where you
can create an avatar. The sound was angular,
digital, something from a different perspective.”
She’s Too Much
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
SLeB “It’s about my 16 year old daughter Saffron.
She was in the studio that day and triggered the
lyrics. I didn’t know I was writing about her until
the second line ‘she’s everything head first.’ It
tells a story. It’s a soft moment on the album.”
NR “This is a key track, a story telling ballad,
which touches base with our traditional songwriting.”
JT “We built this up in a very textural way
around the chords.”
Dirty Great Monster
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
NR: “It’s about the elephant in the living room.
We brought in a sax player for this one and said to
him ‘play something that’s really ‘sick’.’ And he
did and it really made the track.”
SLeB: “It’s a song without a chorus. It doesn’t
pay off in the way that everyone expects.”
Last Man Standing
Music: Duran Duran and Nate Hills
Lyrics: Simon LeBon
Co-produced by Duran Duran, Nate Hills and Jimmy
Douglass
SLeB “This one has very soft vocals.”
RT “This is one of my favourites. We did a lot of
overdubbing with Dom Brown, the guitarist we use for
our live shows.”
NR “The missing link between this album and our
last, ASTRONAUT. Simon is so good at assuming a
character."
****************************************************************************
Duran Duran’s RED CARPET MASSACRE Set to Take Broadway
by Storm
Band make history with two week Broadway run
at New York’s Barrymore Theatre on 47th Street
November 1 – 12, 2007
Presented by Citi
In an unprecedented move, British superstars, Duran
Duran, have today confirmed that they will play nine
shows on Broadway over a two week period in celebration
of the launch of their upcoming album, RED CARPET
MASSACRE, which will be released November 13 on Epic
Records.
Marking the first time that any band has undertaken
such an extended run on a Big Apple stage, Duran Duran
are developing a unique show that will see them
performing not only their innumerable hits from the past
29 years but also the whole of their new record and a
special electro set that promises to delight their loyal
army of fans.
Performing for over two hours a night on November 1,
2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12 at the Barrymore Theatre on
47th Street and Broadway, band members Simon LeBon, Nick
Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor will take audiences
in this historic thousand-capacity venue on a musical
journey, presenting their new record in its entirety, as
well as classics such as ‘Rio’, ‘Save A Prayer’, Hungry
Like The Wolf’ and ‘Ordinary World’, with magnificent
production values and a completely new stage show. These
concerts will be the band’s first dates in support of
their exciting new release, which they have worked on
over the past year with Justin Timberlake and top
producers Timbaland and Nate ‘Danja’ Hills.
With tickets priced at $150, $125 and $75 (plus
applicable service charges and a $1.50 facilities fee),
Citi cardmembers will be able to purchase in advance of
the general public with a pre-sale that starts on Monday
October 1 at 9 am EST. Citi cardmembers will also be
offered access to purchase VIP packages including meet
and greet opportunities with the band and passes to a
post-show VIP event.
Duran Duran’s RED CARPET MASSACRE marks an all time
creative high in the band’s illustrious career. As Nylon
Magazine described it in their most recent issue “it’s
like a stroke of lightning captured on record… it’s a
triumph, a marvel, and a hell of a lot of fun. Duran
Duran have got their sexy back.”
Remarking on their upcoming New York shows, singer
Simon LeBon said “We have made an album that we are all
really proud of and we wanted to present it in a very
unique way. Staging a run on Broadway is something that
we’ve often talked about over the years – but the time
has never seemed right until now. We started work on
‘RED CARPET MASSACRE’ in New York – in September of last
year – so it feels fitting to be launching it here –
just down the road from the studio where we did those
first sessions with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.”
Bassist John Taylor added: “We agreed we would try to
open on Broadway while we were still making the record
and have been planning how we’re going to stage it for
the past few months. Nick and I have been particularly
engaged in this and are really excited about the
production. Broadway just feels like the perfect place
to launch this album.”
“The theatre we have found is really beautiful inside,
which in itself will make this special,” added keyboard
player Nick Rhodes. “I don’t believe there is another
artist out there who has done a two week run on Broadway
– and knowing that our fans travel to see our shows from
all over the world we wanted to start out with something
really spectacular.”
Rehearsals for these concerts will start in London at
the beginning of October, and as drummer Roger Taylor
noted: “We are rehearsing for the whole of October
because we are adding so much in the way of new material
to the set. I can’t wait to play the new songs live.”
Additional details and special Duran Duran Fan
Community offers will be available on www.duranduran.com
and www.duranduranmusic.com.
*********************