LiveDaily: What is it that makes it your favorite record?

Nick Rhodes: Well, I think sometimes you just hit on things that you really understand or realize that you�ve got something balanced right. �Rio� was one of them. The "wedding album" (�Duran Duran�) was one of them and, for me, this one certainly. It�s just a lot of really strong songs on it.

How is it working with Hollywood?

I don�t know. It�s too early to tell. It�s slow. I would have rather hoped that it had a little more power behind it. But we�ll see. I think radio is really very difficult for a lot of artists right now because of the way that pop and alternative radio is gone. It�s difficult. We sort of fall between them in a way. But we�ll see. Early days

What�s your favorite song on the record?

Hmmm. Varies actually, because sometimes it�s �Pop Trash Movie,� sometimes it�s �Playing With Uranium,� sometimes it�s �Mars Meets Venus.� I don�t know. It�s one of those records where it takes a good few listens to get into the nuances of each one of them, which I�m really pleased with because those are the ones that usually last longer.

I saw you perform on the �Today� show in the spring. Tell me about that.

That was quite fun. It was a shame because there was a big storm that morning, so I think it would have been great if it was nice, bright and sunny. But they were great. They were so together there. It was a pleasure doing a TV show where they know exactly what they�re doing--often they can be a bit of a nightmare. But they really had it completely down. They were great. Everything was on time. The sound was good.

This is the first album in which John Taylor did not participate. Was the recording process, in turn, different?

He was on a couple of tracks on �Medazzaland.� Or several tracks, I should say. I don�t remember. To be honest, it really wasn�t recorded any differently than the last few albums. �Thank You� was the one that was recorded differently because that was recorded all over the place. The "wedding album," and "Medazzaland� and �Pop Trash� were all recorded pretty much in London and then taken on to a bigger studio for drums and additional overdubs and final vocals.

How long did it take to record the album?

Well, over an 18-month period. It�s probably around the same as we usually take. That includes mixing and probably a lot of the rhythm work as well. We do things in a sort of backward way because we always record drums last. Don�t know how we got into that habit because we always used to start with them. But it just gives us that little bit more flexibility. We always record to a rhythm track. The last thing that goes on there is the drums. It�s just a funny way around. Most musicians would say, �Why on earth would they do that?� It�s just something that we stumbled across by accident one day when we were doing the "wedding album," and we just stuck to it. Instead of playing to the drum track, you get all the other little bits right first. You get the vocal perfect. It�s easy to put the drums on. You�re not just locked into something somehow.

How does the songwriting process work with Duran Duran?

Sometimes I�ll have a complete lyric in advance. Sometimes Warren will have an almost complete piece of music and we�ll just tweak it a bit and then write the lyrics. Sometimes Simon (LeBon, singer) will start singing something and we�ll jam around until we find all the parts. It varies to be honest. You can�t afford to give yourself too many limitations with songwriting because it�s just one of those things where sometimes you have a magical day, other times you can slave away for a week and really get nothin�. You just got to know when you do got it.

Are you recording any music outside of Duran Duran?

Warren and I have actually made an album under the name of TV Mania that we completed three years ago now. We�re planning to put it out at the beginning of next year. We were gonna put it out this year but we�ve been just so tied up with the Duran thing. So we�re gonna put it out at the beginning of next year. We�re going to do it through the Internet, probably through our own label, through Lo-Fi, I would imagine. I�m really interested in trying something that way. I do think it�s the future. The big labels are good for some things, but I don�t they�d be good for a project like this because it�s much more avant garde. It�s called �Bored with Prozac and the Internet.�

You say it�s more avant garde than Duran Duran. Tell me more.

Well, I think Duran Duran is, you know, always on the sort of--I don�t know--slightly askew from pop and slightly askew from alternative. This thing is more like alternative dance stuff, I suppose. But it doesn�t have rapping on it. It doesn�t really fit anywhere. It�s almost it�s own little genre. That�s always been the problem with anything I�ve done. Somehow it fits everywhere but it doesn�t fit anywhere. This is definitely one of those.

Is Simon LeBon doing anything outside of Duran Duran?

Not at the moment. He has a little TV project in England for a cable thing. I�m not sure exactly how it all works. I�m sure you�ll know soon enough.