Duran Duran found punk music “dull”.
The group – Simon LeBon, 63, Nick Rhodes, 59, Roger Taylor, 61 and John Taylor, 61 – said they once found the genre exciting but it became boring after a while.
Lead singer Simon told Vogue magazine: “Punk affected our musical style, our way of dressing; it affected me lyrically massively—the single biggest lyrical influence on me was Patti Smith. That album ‘Horses’ was a punk rock album. But then something happened between us and punk: It went into a slightly more austere kind of style where everybody wore black, and the album covers were monochrome. It all got a bit dull.”
Drummer Roger added: “We also started looking back a little bit as well, to Bowie and Roxy Music. The whole glam thing became a part of the scene, and Kraftwerk became a big part of the scene as well—and all of that filtered through the new things that people were doing.”
And, Simon explained that the big turning point was hearing Diana Ross’s 1980 song ‘Upside Down’.
He said: “We listened to it, and it just seemed like: We can have that. We can have that as well as the punk sensibilities.”
Duran Duran are releasing their 15th studio album ‘Future Past’, which features a collaboration with Blur’s Graham Coxon and is co-produced by Mark Ronson.
Meanwhile, the band are also in discussions about a biopic of their careers
Roger previously said: “It’s something that is under discussion. It is being discussed and we’ve had different scripts and ideas put forward.
“We haven’t quite decided on the right one yet. But there are things in development so we will see where they go. We would love to do something like that and I think something will happen in the next few years. I would want a really good Hollywood actor to play me.
“It would have to be someone who’s on the cusp of their career, who’s got the right look, the right vibe and that’s going to take some time to find I think.”