Simon Le Bon is an English singer and musician. He is best known for being the lead vocalist for rock band Duran Duran, a group that marked the “New Romantics” wave, associated with new wave in the 80s. Today, world titles like The reflex in 1984, A view to a kill co-written with John Barry in 1985 and featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film Dangerously yours, are still with us. After more than 90 million records sold, Duran Duran is releasing a new album, Future Past.
Elodie Suigo: this album shows how you are one of the most progressive bands, the most exciting too, even today. Is that the message?
Simon Le Bon: The goal was to have Duran Duran’s new music growing inside of us and to put it on the airwaves and in people’s ears.
Duran Duran is a group which, in the end, has been the soundtrack for several generations. What does this mean to you?
There are four of us and we have a passion for music that has existed for 40 years. The only thing we all recognize about Duran Duran is that we make better music as Duran Duran than any of us individually could. It has become the synonym of our passion for music. When we think of Duran Duran, we think of the music and the excitement that music brings us.
The group was born in 1978, you joined it in 1980. 40 years ago, you imagined being able to last so long or it was first a group of friends, the desire to make music together?
When you are 21, you never think ten years ahead, or 20, 30 years. It is beyond the scope of your consciousness. Having fun with your friends, yes, that’s what is important. It’s fun what we do.
“We make music because it’s funny. The day it stops being funny, it’s the day we stop doing it, that’s for sure.”
Simon Le Bon, from the Duran Duran groupto franceinfo
What’s amazing is that you will be selling two and a half million copies of your self-titled debut album, Duran Duran, in 1980. Were you prepared to be so successful?
I don’t think we were really prepared, but anyway, we were prepared for anything. Basically, everything that happened was new and we were pretty flexible and open in our heads. Faced with the success of the album Duran DuranWe were young, we were full of energy and we had great self-confidence and no fear of failure. We got on that rocket and we adapted to whatever circumstances we were going through.
At one point you were renamed the ‘Fab Five’. Even today, since with this album coming out, we say that it is the return of the ‘Fab Five’. Did it touch you knowing that you were a fan of the Beatles, so the ‘Fab Four’?
It’s really huge to be nicknamed the “Fab Five” for us, especially in the United States.
“Any comparison to the Beatles, the ‘Fab Four’, to any band in the world would be a huge compliment. We really tried to live up to that nickname, ‘Fab Five’, and we’re going to keep going.”
Simon Le Bon, from the Duran Duran groupto franceinfo
I would like you to tell me about The reflex and what this song represents in this journey. Even today, it is a cult song.
It means a lot to me. It was our first big collaboration with Nile Rodgers. And that is a really very meaningful moment. Nile is such an amazing figure in our lives and we wrote the album Notorious together. The song The reflex is a funny song. There are more questions put to us about the subject of the song than about any song we have ever done. I still refuse to answer and people tell me: “But what is it ? What does it talk about The reflex ?“And I say it’s all in the lyrics, don’t ask me to explain the lyrics.
Your song A view to kill was selected to be part of the soundtrack of the James Bond film Dangerously yours. Is it a great source of pride in your career?
I will answer you clearly. The song was not chosen to be the James Bond song. Duran Duran was chosen to be the artist who was to write the song for the film. It was really an amazing collaboration for us and it made us feel more grown up in a way.
Finally, I would like you to tell me about the song Falling with this little note from Mike Garson, the former pianist of David Bowie who really brought a very delicate sound layer to this song.
We are big fans of the album Aladdin Sane. He was my anchor point in David Bowie. This weird piano that Mike Garson plays is half jazz, half classical, we don’t really know what it does, but it’s such an important aroma in our album. It got us back in the saddle.