Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes descended upon East Village Radio in New York City last night, where a crowd of approximately 700 people packed the sidewalks for a chance to press their noses against the glass of the storefront radio booth. The two members of Duran Duran were there to promote the release of their new album, All You Need Is Now, and spent a couple of hours chatting with Mark Ronson during his Authentic Shit internet radio show.

Questions were submitted via twitter, they played music, and generally acted silly.

Highlights:

• Favorite songs from the new record:
  Nick – Blame the Machines
  Simon -Girl Panic! “because girls make me panic in a good way”
• When will you start touring again?
  Nick said, “Yes, definitely next year, probably I suppose starting sometime in early February. Nothing solid yet, but I imagine it will include the United States.”  Nick also says that he hopes that some dates will include Mark Ronson and the Business, Intl., and later in the show mentioned that they would probably be coming out to California sometime early next year.
• Do you feel like you used to get a bad rap from the critics?
  Simon – “It varies from album to album, but so far this one seems to be getting alarmingly good reviews.”
  Nick – “Some of the rock press perhaps prefer more traditional music than ours, people perhaps who wear jeans and t-shirts people that sing about America, and i have no problem with that. I can see how it’s a little bit of a difference to what we do.”
  Simon – “We can’t wait for (the critics ) to make us happy. we know we’ve made a good album.”
• Simon re-wrote the lyrics for Blame the Machines five or six times.
  Mark – “A lot of lyrical depth was put into this album.”
  Simon – “it’s very different to the way we did the last album , there was a hell of a lot attention placed on the lyrics, and a lot of that has to do with you (Mark). A lot of times you would say it’s just not good enough for this song, it needs this kind of lyric or that kind of lyric or it needs to be more honest or whatever it was, and it made it quite difficult but… in the long run I’m really please it turned out like that, because in the long run I think it will really last.”
• Who sings the female sat nav vocals on Blame the Machines?
  Simon – It’s not Kylie, it’s our favorite English newscaster Nina Hossain from ITV (who also did the vocals at the end of The Man Who Stole a Leopard)…. I wanted to get that kind of sexy but authoritative thing that women seem to have over men, you know what I mean? the way she delivered the voice of the sat nav, you cannot go against what she says.”
• How do you feel about the album leaks?
  Nick – “It’s good to let people hear a little bit of things. I don’t really like people hearing the entire album before it comes out, I think it’s a shame when people leak things like that when they have them, that’s hugely irresponsible.”

• Kelis telephoned in to the show, and she talked about how thrilled and honored she was to record Leopard. Her vocals were recorded at her home in Los Angeles.

• How did The Man Who Sold the Leopard come about?
  Mark asked if they could do something like Chauffeur, so they got out the TR-808 rhythm box and started programming. When Simon heard the vocal melody, he realized it would take two people to sing it.
  Nick said that when they put working titles on songs, they prefer not use something that will stick, because they don’t want the name to influence the unwritten lyrics. However, The Man Who Stole a Leopard was a working title. They happened to be talking about the latest version of the Apple OS when someone asked, have you installed Leopard? Not hearing correctly, another person asked, “Somebody stole a leopard?” and they decided that was a great name for a song.
• Regarding the decision to release via iTunes, they spoke about how they were one of the first bands to do such an exclusive deal, reasoning that Apple is the power of the retail music on the internet and came up with a good plan, so they went for it. Nick said, “Why use labels when you don’t have to?”
• The album will be released in February on both CD and vinyl, with a total of 5 more songs in addition to the nine being offered via digital download on December 21. One of the songs will be Mediteranea
• They talked about the angular and edgy style of Owen Pallet’s strings on the upcoming songs.
• At the height of Duran mania, what was the most intense insane screaming teen limo moment?
  Simon said it must have been Cedar Rapids, where fans were flinnging themselves onto the limo when the driver panicked and stepped on the accelerator.
• If you could choose to trade places with another band member for a day, who would it be?
  Nick and Simon both chose each other.
• What are the words of the nature soundtrack at the end of the Chauffeur?
  Nick – “I can’t tell that. It’s a secret. But it’s about grasshoppers.”
• Simon said they would love to hear a Holy Ghost! remix of a song from the new album.
• Nick said Duran Duran has never been asked to play Glastonbury.
• There’s something about Safe that reminds Simon a little of the Bee Gees.
• Which song has been the most emotional to sing?
  Simon – “Leave a Light On, easily. It’s so true to me, it’s one of those songs that comes straight from the heart. You’ll understand when you hear it.”
• Simon – “We didn’t go back to old sound, we went back to a different attitude.”
• Nick said they’ve put together the chemistry and the sounds that they used to make the early records, and that Simon went back to layering his vocals more for this album.
• Simon says all of the return to the 80′s hype was really about the bringing back the “attitude and the experimentation.”
• The video for All You Need Is Now premieres on December 21st, and there will be a snippet on the Today Show (no date given).

• Nick and Simon’s choices for songs of the year:
  Kanye West – Runaway
  I Blame Coco – Caesar
  Kelis – Scream
  Plan B – Always Stay too Long
  Miike Snow – Animal

• Duran Duran songs played during the show:
  All You Need Is Now
  Reflex
  Tel Aviv
  Blame the Machines (clip)
  The Man Who Stole a Leopard (world premiere)
  Mediterranea
  Safe (clip featuring Ana Matronic)

You can listen to the entire show at the
East Village Radio archive

…