Let’s Get Serious
1990: Interview With Sterling & John

September 22^nd 1990, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amanda remembers: "The first interview was with John and Sterling. EMI’s press officer took us down a couple of steps into a small room with a table and some chairs. The stairs were the only way in or out and when John came down them, I was feeling quite trapped. Fortunately, John turned out to be friendliness personified and our nerves soon calmed as we talked to John and a very ebullient Sterling."



Last time you were in Holland you had to open the CD factory in Uden. You had to make a painting then. How did you like that? Do you often do promotional things like that?

Sterling: That was the first, but it was fun.

John: It was a lot of fun. We were all anxious about it, we were all hoping that somebody would come up with the answer. Nobody knew in what way it was going to go.

Did you know beforehand that you had to make a painting?

Sterling: I didn’t know to what extent. I thought we would have to write our names on something. But it was fun. I wish we could do it more often actually. It is better than talking sometimes.

What is in your opinion the best song on the album Liberty?

Sterling: My favourite is Serious.

John: Yes mine is too. At least today anyway. But it changes.

If it were still possible to change anything on the album, what would you change?

Sterling: Maybe the way it sounds. Some of the songs could sound a bit rougher, some of it sounds too mainstream, too ready for radio. So we want to dirty it up a bit.

Despite all the negative attitudes from the press, a lot of people still remain loyal followers of Duran Duran. How do you feel about that?

John: Grateful.

Sterling: It is very touching. When I see For Duranies Only ⁽¹⁾ or your magazine and I see an ad that says ‘Listen, anybody who is into Nick Rhodes and David Sylvian, give me a call’ from a girl in the middle of America, that’s incredible.

There is a lot of opposition, not only from the press, but also from other people around you.

John: We know.

Sterling: It can only make you stronger though. It is frustrating to hear things like that. I turn on MTV and I see music that is going to last until next week. And here we are, putting our bloody guts into it and are almost trivialized. That’s not what anybody is here for. That’s not what our album is about. It’s not even given a chance, so it does get frustrating. But at the same time we say, ‘okay, maybe next time’. When we go out on tour we’ll show them.

Do you already have any idea when this next tour is going to be?

John: It depends. There is plan A and plan B. It really depends on how the record does, how Serious does. We’re going to finish an album first, that’s for sure ⁽²⁾.

We think that’s great. It will make the shows a lot more interesting. Not having to pay the same songs again. This afternoon you will also have to do The Reflex, we heard. How do you like having to do The Reflex again?

John: Fine. I like The Reflex.

Who has chosen the songs that you will be playing this afternoon?

John: It was agreed that we would do two songs off the new record. But they wanted us to play one of the old songs too, whichever ones we wanted.

Did you also choose which songs off the new album you will play? Why did you choose First Impression?

Sterling: It’s a great rockshack. We wanted to get that across too. Also, we don’t want to play Liberty, that’s more the mellow side of things. Serious is not really mellow, but we wanted to show that we can rock out too. So the people who haven’t heard the record know that we’re a rock band too.

We believe there are still a lot of people in Holland that haven't heard anything. Violence of Summer was hardly played on the radio, it seems like DJs are scared to play Duran music.

Sterling: That’s just not ‘hip’, they don’t think we’re hip. We’ll show them.

When did you decide to record another album before touring again?

John: We decided that on the last tour. I just felt that we had to put some distance between… I mean, if there is anything we really have to do to prove to people that we are of value, it is delivering a greater amount of music. It’s easy just to tour, you can become like a hundred million cabaret bands, tour and tour and tour, but I just felt we had to deliver a gob of work. In the sixties, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, everybody released two albums a year. The Beatles actually worked together for less time than we have been together and they made some of the most significant records ever made. And there’s Prince now. We just got to be more prolific, I think. And I felt that every tour was taking a step down and down and I wanted to stop that. I didn’t just want to keep going. I think if we were going to play the Paradiso ⁽³⁾ next year it’s not going to be full and the year after that it’s going to be less. I’d rather go off in a different direction. To me the way of really turning that around is working hard on the music and showing musical growth.

Sterling: That’s not going to happen if you keep going. Also, the perception of what this band is about, we were in Paris and this guy had champagne and cookies. He said, ‘it says in the press that you guys love women and champagne and yachts’ and I thought, ‘what?!’

They say things like that on Dutch radio as well.

John: Find me someone who doesn’t. It’s not really the point, but…

Sterling: The Rio video can come on and that’s how they look at the band now. That’s how ignorant people are. They see the Rio video and a yacht and they go back to Simon and his yacht disaster. They don’t even listen to the music. Everything else but the music. I really want to change that.

Have you already started writing the new material? Is it going to be anything like Liberty?

Sterling: I doubt it’s going to sound like Liberty because we’re in a different mode from when we were doing Liberty and writing Liberty.

Where do you get your inspiration from? It seems to us you get a lot of ideas on tour.

Sterling: Yes, but when you’re not playing, it makes you even more desperate to make music. I get inspired because I want to make music for the next tour. Also there’s some good music out. Listening to records, going to concerts. We’ve been to the Prince show, I enjoyed it a lot.

How do you explain the fact that the singles do get into the charts, sometimes even rather high, but after one week they’ll drop down again?

John: Because we’ve got a solid base of support that runs out and buys the records the day they come out. And we’re simply not as popular as we were, there are not as many fans and we don’t get played on the radio like we used to.

How do you think to change that?

John: Make better records. Become unignorable.

What would you like to achieve with Duran Duran in the future?

Sterling: I would just like to kill the stigma. That’s one of the main things. I want to be respected as what we are: I think we’re good musicians and write great songs. I think we’re a great band. I think we can compete with a lot of these bands. We’re being compared to New Kids on the Block. That’s just completely irrelevant. They just see it from the teenybopsyndrome, they don’t even look at it from the musical standpoint. I really want to break that down, I want to break all those barriers down. I knew there was negativity involved, but I didn’t know it was at that level. That people would just completely ignore the music and read the British tabloids and judge a band like that.

When did you first start to notice this negativity?

Sterling: When I started doing interviews. Some of the questions being asked had nothing to do with the music. And also being in London and looking at papers, hanging out with Simon one night and then reading some story that didn’t even exist, then I just thought ‘wow’. Negative, completely negative publicity all the time. I don’t see what’s the point. We’re not as popular as we used to be, so what’s the point of writing about us? That’s what I don’t understand. Why are they trying to dig a hole? There are other people who are bigger than us that they can rip apart. Leave us alone!

John, what would you still like to achieve with Duran? Back to the top?

John: Of course. I don’t care where we play, but the place has got to be full. And the stuff has got to get a fair crack.

Sterling: I want more than that. I definitely want to see people’s mouths drop. I want somebody who listens to Soul II Soul to come to our show and just go ‘wow’. And I know we can do it. I am completely confident.

Which band member is the most stubborn during the recordings?

John: Nick, I would think.

Sterling: Nick has to be it. That’s not only about music, but about everything. Sometimes he does it just because everybody else agrees. It’s just not possible that everybody agrees. Unless he comes up with the idea.

John: Actually Warren can be quite pigheaded too. He will say ‘I’m not doing that’ and that’s that. Even if the four of us go, ‘Warren, we should…’ – ‘no’.

Do you often disagree during the recordings?

John: We were very safe with each other on this record. It was the first one and we were just feeling each other out.

Sterling: I won’t be safe with the next one, that’s for sure. There were things I wanted to say but didn’t say with this record. Not from a playing standpoint, but to somebody else like the producer, or to Simon or Nick. I can’t say John, because he’s here… You see, we’re still playing it safe! When I look back there are so many things I wouldn’t have done on this record. When I was there for the mixing and I would say ‘no’ and everybody else would say ‘yeah, it sounds good’ I would just go with it and not stick to my gut feeling, ‘no, that’s not right’. Like Hothead, I don’t like the way the drum sounded, I don’t like the way it sounded. It should have sounded completely different. I think the point was missed in that song. I still like it a lot, but it’s not the right sound.

So that’s something you would like to change on the album?

Sterling: Yes, there’s a couple of things I would like to change. But there is always something. The next record, by the time it’s finished and you hear it, you’re going to say ‘pfff’.

What did you think of Duran’s music before getting involved in it?

Sterling: I’ve always liked Duran’s music. Rio was the first thing and even like My Own Way I was into.

What was it like when you had to play these songs?

Sterling: It was almost like a second… It was quite easy. I got a tape to listen to but I knew them already.

Sterling, you once said you would like to be in a band to be involved in the creative process of making music. Are you satisfied with your role in Duran Duran?

Sterling: Yes, quite satisfied.

How do you cope with all the sudden attention you get from the fans?

Sterling: That’s fun. I am alone most of the time, so it’s fun to have some attention.

How do you like it when fans start a fanzine?

John: I love it. It’s the bloodline of our support. I love the fanzines. When they come through the door I really study them. I find it very complimentary. There are a lot of bands that are taken more seriously by some people but they don’t get this kind of thing happening to them. It’s one of the things that make me feel better.

Don’t you think there should be a new official fan club?

John: No. It’s too much trouble and too much money. We can’t be held responsible for the kind of stuff that goes on. It became an absolute nightmare. It is good the way it works now. You’re fans and you have a club. It is what it should be, it is what a fan club should be about. The idea that a group owns it and controls it is actually a perversion of the original idea.

What about merchandise?

John: We sell it on the tour. We’ve really chilled out on that. We don’t make a lot of stuff. It is so far away from what we really have to do. If I never designed another t-shirt in my life it really wouldn’t worry me. We’ve done so much of it, it’s not a priority.

(1)A US fanzine at the time
(2)The album referred to is The Wedding Album, not released until early 1993
(3)Small but prestigious concert venue in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (holds 1500 people)