http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_4431871
Duran Duran meets hip-hop
"This is the best thing that could have happened to us. It relights your fire, baby." So says Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon, speaking of what he describes as a renaissance for the 70-million-plus record-selling group, now that they're in the studio working with hip-hop producer
Timbaland. He reveals they've recorded three songs for their next album so far, including one with Justin Timberlake.
Timbaland, he notes, "works very quickly. We're usually slow as snails. It's quite a challenge, and we had to change the way we play, really. Particularly me. I had to be able to come up with ideas very quickly on the microphone. Just do it. Have new lyrics the next day — or that evening." Le Bon says he, his groupmates, Timbaland and Timberlake are all "interested in doing more. The stuff is great! We know we have two singles already."
He describes the New York studio, where Timbaland has recorded the likes of Jay-Z, Aaliyah, Timberlake and Ludacris, as "like a Swiss chalet, but really bad, with dark varnished wood, a cuckoo clock without a pendulum and strange things like that. In an odd way, it helps make the music happen."
