Duran Duran On AI, “A Remarkable Technology”
Duran Duran have spoken about the use of AI as a tool for artistry, how music offered them a sense of escapism, and paid tribute to The Specials singer Terry Hall in a new interview with The Big Issue.
Talking about AI, Nick Rhodes said, “I’m actually in the pro-AI group. I know a lot of people seem to think it’s very controversial, and it’s got no soul, and ‘what is the world coming to?’ They’re the same people that always moan about any new developments in technology and machinery. We learn about them at school: the Luddites.
“I feel that it is a remarkable technology, actually. If you use it in a sensible way, as a tool for artistry. Don’t just tell it to make something. Then yes, the AI is making it. But if you guide whatever you want and use it as colours, almost as if you’re painting with it; I think that it’s fascinating what you can do with machines.”
Duran Duran have covered The Specials’ Ghost Town on their new album Danse Macabre and went on to praise the band’s late singer Terry Hall, “A few months before we did this, Terry died,” said Taylor. “And I felt a tremendous kinship for him. I met him around the time of Fun Boy Three, and I just thought: he’s one of us. I mean, when you get right down to it, there’s really not that much difference. Just their inspirations were different. They took a different path, but they were a phenomenal band, and immensely impactful.”
Elsewhere, the band discussed the effect of music on their teenage selves, “I saw music as a mental passport out of the suburbs,” John Taylor explained. “Whether it was Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, or Roxy Music’s A Song For Europe, I could lose myself in these songs and just be transported.”
The whole Duran Duran interview is available in this week’s issue of The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.