Chicanery is a collaboration between Warren Cuccurullo and Neil Carlill, who recently released their eponymous first album. Warren and Neil first met in London in the late 1990′s where Neil was a guest on the TV Mania project

created by Warren and Nick Rhodes. A deep connection was formed between the two, which lasted through the

years and eventually resulted in Chicanery, self described as “both a revival and a dream of a modern day band.”

Cuccurullo and Carlill work well together, supported by talented contributions from musicians such as Warren’s

longtime collaborator Terry Bozzio and Frank Zappa alumni Joe Travers. Neil’s “tone poet” vocals weave through

Warren’s meticulously gifted musical style to craft something beautifully chaotic yet incredibly well designed, like an exotic birds nest. At once hypnotic and disturbing, Chicanery is the audio equivalent of accidentally taking too much Nyquil and then falling asleep on the couch with a documentary about Dadaism on the television. If you can let yourself go and melt into it, you’ll enjoy the trip.

Over the past week or so, I’ve been conducting an email interview with Neil and Warren. Neil has been

exceedingly charming and Warren has displayed his trademark candor, but most prevalent throughout our

conversations is a solid devotion to their partnership that has enabled the delivery of a strong musical passion. Our discussion covered many topics, ranging from the Chicanery album itself, their creative forces that drive their musical style, and on to Warren’s thoughts about Duran Duran.

NC – “The East Coast is a little closer in many ways to my home country so I keep that late night suburban feel going when I record here.  The West Coast feels more daytime, busy, hustle and bustle, the weather is warm and the beaches are waving back constantly.  It’s hard to pinpoint the influence on music, but songs like “Midnight Owls” have a more scarves, cappuccinos and rosy-cheeked women feel (East Coast), and “I Came Back to You” has a more palm tree, lattes and afternoon surrealism feel about it (West). East Coast is more claustrophobic maybe?  West is so expansive and one season all year round, mosquito size and sandal quality.  It’s all in there?”

NC – “With most songs the music is first, or at least a part of the music, I usually then work in my home studio and

work vocals into the song.  A different approach produced  “I Came Back to You” which was a one take live jam that turned out so well we just left it as it was and put it on the album.  I was at the microphone and Warren was working machines and his guitar and we just locked ourselves into this space that became the song.  We did that a lot when I was with Warren in his home studio in Venice, CA. “Cut me From the Mirror” was recorded in London, England in 1998,  I recorded my vocals in the Privacy studio with Warren and Mark Tinley. When we have been separated we have still managed to keep that musical connection and with Simone Sello our producer and co-writer. We have developed the songs at distance physically whilst being still very connected in the spiritual sense.  All in all we’ve worked through various scenarios to make songs and they were all dictated by geography. It’s all very analogous to different types of reverb; close, room, hall, house, street, coast, continent.  Strange what distance does to people and songs…”

NC – “My writing style has changed a lot of the 12 years of this album, I began with a much more structured style of

writing that fit the conventional pop song structure, I think within that structure you can create puzzles and language is a beautiful instrument to manipulate in this way.  I have tried to move into more abstract , DADA territory with some of the later work, the meaning becomes coded like hypertext. The narrative is back to front or a zig-zag pattern of small movies. Tone Poet is a balance that can be achieved between narrative and nonsense, they’re interchangeable and I really have no idea sometimes what is going to happen until I sing, it’s instinctive mostly but occasionally the words are written down randomly and call to you in a sequence that fits.  Now I’m confused…”

NC – “All of the above, we are influenced but not defined by our listening tastes.  I think there is always a reference

point to be made in every aspect of music but originality comes from the total effect we produce in the songs.

Warren can shape shift to many different musical forms and make them all his own.  He is a magician with a guitar but as a composer he becomes a different kind of collaborator.  It’s luxurious for me to have that well spring of ideas to create from, constantly inspiring… Beefheart is lovely too…”

NC – “That was a long time ago, I was very busy with other projects and of course Nick and Warren were in Duran

Duran.  It was a great thing to get a call from these famous people.  I thought it might be a hoax to start off with, but sure enough before long there I was singing along with Nick playing the keyboards and singing to these great

songs…After TV Mania stalled I just kept working with Warren on songs, the connection was instant, and even after we’d not talked for 4 years we picked it up again in a heartbeat.  A bond like that doesn’t really diminish with time, especially as there was so much unfinished business.  Nick was very kind and encouraging to me during that time and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

WC – “True…we’ve been going back and forth trying to locate certain mixes, photo’s etc…we did a lot of filming as well, back then…weird little bits…I’m sure we’ll be using some of that stuff for the website…this music will finally be made available this year, and it will include a limited vinyl pressing…the reason it stalled was we were always waiting to come off of the back of a Duran Duran success…”

NC – “There is certainly some trickery in the music, to catch people’s attention with a melodic hook then to gradually let a slightly bizarre lyric take hold is the most friendly form of chicanery I can think of.  Having layers of meaning and musicality is Chicanery but also essential in making a record that will have real longevity.  Society provides the dark side of Chicanery, all the terrible things that are going on in the world are produced by the human obsession with deception, it’s tragic in a global sense.”

NC – “A friend of my family took this picture in Canada many years ago and it has a special place on our wall…his

name is Tim Mahoney…thanks Tim…Jeff Mellin added his style and produced that beautiful crumbling effect in the cover…”

NC – “A black capped Chickadee.”

NC – “Yes working on that now, and more songs for the next album, and continuing to convert all the Duran Duran and Frank Zappa fans out there to Chicanery…”

NC – “Terry and Joe are both Frank Zappa alumni so to have both of them on this record is an absolute treat.  I hope Zappa fans hear this record because they have 3 wonderful purveyors of his music to hear…  Simone Sello is a great guitarist, musician and producer who has worked with many, many artists.  Sultan Khan has a gifted throat and works wonders with a sarangi.”

NC – “So I’m told, and I am trying to embrace this marketing medium for all I’m worth.  Is it a little like fly posting used to be, or making up tapes and harassing people with phone calls.  It is time consuming and I’m happy to do it but in the long run I hope we play live and do some of the old fashioned methods too.  Twitter my facebook myspace already.”

WC – “The free flow of information and the freedom of speech are the most important things for us to treasure… and PROTECT… I’m not looking for arguments, I just think the general public should be aware of the various deception techniques used to confuse and lull them into a stupor… if everything from Pearl Harbor to Apollo to JFK to 9/11 are lies, (and they are undoubtedly) who are we dealing with??? Illusionists… mass media mind controllers… Awareness destroys their matrix… what was the question??? Ha!”

NC – “I have an album called the Weirding Valley which I did with Marcelo Radulovich, the project is called Me Me the Moth. I have also worked with Warren on a project called Vedette which includes Jayrope and Manuel Stagars.  For nostalgia check out Delicatessen and Lodger. (1990′s!!!).”

WC – “Greatest achievement was hooking up with Frank Zappa…without that, I really don’t exist… I guess an off

Broadway show would be something to shoot for…Nick and I had plans for that with bored with Prozac and the

Internet…seems very unlikely… I’ve had offers to do various reality shows and that seems like the lowest thing you could possibly do, and I’ve done porn!!!”

Yesterday, an interview with Warren Cuccurullo (which can be read HERE) was posted on a web site called Blurt. I found Warren’s comments about Duran Duran and Andy Taylor to be rather incendiary, and I was surprised that he spoke so candidly on the topic of Duran Duran, despite the fact that Neil had warned me that Warren is “not too supportive (of their current direction) for many reasons I think.”

In my opinion, Warren and Andy are both incredible guitarists. Both talented musicians brought an amazing amount of artistry to Duran Duran, both of them made mistakes, and I believe that they each suffered through varying degrees of political strife within the band. However, I have no interest in taking part in the age-old Andy vs. Warren debate.  My dispute is with Warren’s dismissive behavior rather than with the content of his words.

Duran Duran recently (and somewhat surprisingly) showed their support by promoting the Chicanery album directly on their web site. Chicanery has made a frequent habit of using Duran Duran’s name in interviews, on Facebook and Twitter in order to promote themselves. They have actively courted Duran Duran fans in an effort to promote their album. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with these techniques. Warren made innumerable positive contributions to Duran Duran, and I do not fault him or Neil whatsoever for capitalizing on those. However, I do take issue with the fact that Warren is using Duran Duran at the same time he is making incredibly disparaging remarks about the band’s (albeit post-Warren) musical output.

I can understand why Warren would be bitter after what he says the band put him through, before and during the time that they reunited with Andy. But you can’t have your cake and eat it too. In short, I don’t think Warren should expect to use Duran Duran for his own promotion while simultaneously slagging them off.

I reached out to Warren and Neil again yesterday to discuss his feelings on the matter, to get his perspective on the issue and gain a greater understanding of his actions.

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NC – “Yes, Warren talked to Nick and Wendy L.  and the initial reason was a tie in with the TV Mania project as I was briefly involved with that project back in the late 1990′s.  Additional to that was the fact that it’s WC’s first band project since Duran Duran and ultimately newsworthy.  Nick is well aware of WC’s opinions on the last two Duran Duran albums and the Andy T.  issue is also something they’ve all been through.  So, summing up this is not new news and WC is entitled to his opinion on all of the above and still loves Duran Duran and all the years he spent with them. Do the negative things he said discount all the positives?”

NC – “Again, WC is entitled to his opinion and I think the band themselves have their misgivings about some of the

recent material, I don’t know why this would mean our courting Duran Duran and their fans is unethical… It’s very easy to ignore the pain that WC went through in the split and subsequent events.”

Warren and Neil then rather generously entertained a few more Duran-related questions.

WC – “There were so many great experiences in the band…as long as we were together, it was all good…”

WC – “They’re obviously not going to have to deal with that situation again…it is now a foursome…they did the

original member thing….case closed, I would imagine…”

NC – “(Warren) doesn’t have any opinion about Dom because he hasn’t heard him in Duran Duran. He doesn’t actively seek out Duran Duran live clips. He only became aware of Andy’s problems with Ordinary World because Duran Duran asked him to produce charts for Andy so he could play it correctly, and someone sent him footage of a live performance that wasn’t going well.  I think the band’s problems with Andy are well documented, and the fact that they had so many problems playing what are two classic Duran Duran tracks says it all. I am biased, of course, but Warren is world class and Andy is not…”

NC – “It’s like the Hippocratic Oath for musicians, being free to make music and to not hurt any doctors doing it.

Flaubert also said it nicely… It’s the harmonious marriage of temperament and circumstance.”

WC – “An artist’s definition of success will always piss off their accountant.”

Buy Chicanery’s debut album now at iTunes and Amazon. A deluxe DigiPak CD version of the album with a 16 page booklet will be released on June 22nd. In the meantime, there is a less-expensive CD version available which comes with a free digital download of the album, available at the dPulse Recordings online store.

In March, the readers of DuranDuran.com were asked to send in their questions for the band, to be posed in a “roundtable” type of situation with all of the band members present. The session was taped in Las Vegas a couple of weeks later and was finally presented last week. As I haven’t seen much discussion about it, I thought I would put together a short recap and share some of my thoughts.

.Actually, this wasn’t really a roundtable. It was more of a triangletable, perhaps a kidney-shaped table at best. Where was John? The questions were answered by Simon, Nick and Roger. The fact that John did not participate was a great disappointment, and to me, almost renders the premise useless. Sure, it’s great to hear what the other guys have to say… but without John there, I don’t consider the questions to be fully answered. John is the one who has been the most mysterious lately, and this adds another layer of obfuscation to his recent communication with the fans. I’m not going to speculate about what was so important that he could not spare twenty minutes of his time to participate, but I will scold him and suggest “30 Excuses in 30 Days” as a punishment.

The Q&A session began with the most popular query about the musical direction and sound of the new album. The guys did their now somewhat reflexive stroking of Mark Ronson and what a joy it is to work with him, which is safe and expected yet always nice to hear. This time however, they were not so quick to endorse Mark’s line about how this album will be a throwback to Rio. I liked how they were kind of getting out of that, as that idea can be a bit of a trap. I think having Ronson produce the album is brilliant, but I don’t want to see him “wrapped in chrome” à la Timbaland. Nick and Simon spoke about how this album has some of that “slight early Duran Duran naiveté” and how this album is “so far, not overly produced.” With likely another year of fussing over it to go, I hope it will stay that way.

Simon also spoke about how the new album “couldn’t be further” stylistically from the last album, calling it “completely different from Red Carpet Massacre.” Roger described it as “a return to our 80s roots” and Nick spoke about how this album is “definitely more up-tempo” than the last. The overall feeling that I am getting from this and other comments from the band is that it’s going to be a very fun album. I like that.

.There was much laughter when a question was asked about whether or not the band would ever partake in a fan cruise ship type of situation, like the annual events held by John Mayer and New Kids on the Block. Personally, I’m relieved that this kind of scenario will likely never happen. While I would love to be a fly on the wall, even then I would be sure to wear a life jacket as someone would certainly end up being thrown overboard. There would not be enough Duramamine in the world to save us all from such mayhem on the high seas. Mutiny would ensure that the ship would wreck on a deserted island where we would spend the next six years waging bloody war against each other and shooting polar bears, only to realize at the end that we have all been dead since Andy left. (Spoiler: Warren was the smoke monster.)

.Not surprisingly, Nick was the one to answer the question about how the band feels that the Internet has changed the music industry. With a few caveats, he said they’re feeling pretty positive about it, citing the ease of sharing and finding music via the Internet. I wished that the others had chimed in more here, and I particularly wished John had been present for this question, as his views on this topic have lately been in high contrast to Nick’s.

I was rather surprised at their comments about whether or not they would be making any new music videos, given that they are consistently heralded for pioneering the medium. Simon spoke about how he’s “just not sure about music videos at the moment,” and overall, the band seemed unsure about their role today, collectively wondering “What do you do with videos? Stick them on YouTube?” Nick fretted that “a lot of the good ideas have been used up,” which is absolutely the lamest thing I have ever heard the man say. Seriously, this whole part of the conversation was alarming. Sure, MTV as we knew it back in the day has ceased to exist, but video is a major marketing tool, especially with the rise of the Internet. Videos can not only put a previously unheard-of artist on the map, but can also allow established artists to be seen in a brand new light. For a band with such a rich visual identity and history, as well as a band facing modern promotional challenges, I feel that it would be a travesty for Duran Duran to dismiss the medium for any reason. Nick went to see Lady Gaga perform the other night… perhaps the two of them can have a chat about the value of music videos.

.Another topic covered was whether or not there will be any sort of “career retrospective” video ever made, and Simon said that surely there will be one day. Nick mentioned Drama Americana,  Gavin Elder’s documentary film about the 2005 tour, of which there is a completed edit already finished. Finding out more about the timing of its release is certainly on my to-do list.

.The band talked about what songs they have never performed live and would like to, keeping in mind the need to balance the old hits with the new material while throwing in some rarities to keep the hard-core fans happy. They mentioned Land (which Simon complained is too slow) and said that they had always meant to rehearse Shadows on Your Side, which I think would be amazing. Roger said that he would like to play some Arcadia songs someday, mentioning The Promise as his favorite. Simon responded to a query about letting the fans pick the tracks on the new album, to which he laughingly responded “no fucking way.” They said that they would be amenable to playing the Superbowl halftime show and that someday they would like to collaborate on a musical. Oh, and Nick said that while a cruise ship is out of the question, the space shuttle might be more fitting. It sounds funny when you put all that together, but I’m delighted that they’re still thinking big.  In another part of the conversation, Simon said that “we make plans way ahead, but we never stick to them.” I think they should try it. They’ve got the vision, but need to put in the work. Who knows what greatness could happen?

.Finally, the conversation ended up on the topic of Reportage, the album that was being made when Andy left again, never to be released. Simon said that he “doesn’t think we will ever release it as an album,” but “some songs do deserve to have their moment. Nick said that it “should come out” and that there are some “really good things on it.” He suggested that the band should set a time limit for finishing it, perhaps two weeks and get on with it. Roger also said that he would like for it to come out. I think it’s fascinating to hear them finally talking about Reportage after all this time. My suggestion is during this down time prior to the new album, they should pick out the absolute best song on Reportage, spend two weeks working on that, and then leak it along with an insanely cool and completely bizarre video and see what happens. Buzzworthy? It surely could be.

.This was billed as the first roundable session, with the next one suggested by Katy to take place after the release of the new album.