Is there something I should glow? Duran Duran unveil a lava lamp

“That moment in 1972, when David Bowie played ‘Starman’ on Top of the Pops – it affected an entire generation of kids.” Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes is reminiscing about his earliest recollection of music. “It wasn’t just the song, it was Bowie’s entire persona,” he continues of the influences that impacted the band. “Glam rock was very important to us, then punk and disco. But punk changed everything – people realised they didn’t need to be a musical virtuoso to form a band.” 

Rhodes recalls watching a punk gig at Birmingham’s Barbarella’s club as a teenager and returning home to try the chords on a guitar. He later taught himself to play the synthesiser, developing the sine wave sound that ensured he and drummer Roger Taylor, vocalist Simon Le Bon, guitarist Andy Taylor and bass player John Taylor would become the most successful pop ensemble of the 1980s, Duran Duran. 

Today, Rhodes is settled in an armchair in a San Diego hotel; his trademark platinum hair is backlit by the glow of a table lamp, a faint smudge of black liner traces his eyes. At 61, the Duran Duran keyboardist, vocalist and producer has changed little over the years. “We had no idea how long it would last. The Sex Pistols lasted for two years and The Beatles, who were a huge influence on us and every other band that came after them, had lasted eight,” he recalls. “We were, and still are, very ambitious people. In music you have to be the kind of person who likes to take risks – and who doesn’t want to stop.”

Lava lamps make me smile – that gelatinous goo melting and morphing

It’s in this spirit that the band have long shared songwriting credits – a ritual that has continued on their 16th studio album Danse Macabre, released this month. The 13-track album features seven themed covers along with three new songs. Rhodes says the concept originated last year when the band were preparing to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Faced with performing on a live TV show potentially watched by millions, they played two warm-up shows in Las Vegas on Halloween and had fun with the theme, dressing up for the occasion and doing covers, which led to the decision to record some of them.

Despite the demands of the touring circuit, the band still enjoy smaller projects, including designing merchandise. Their latest foray is with Mathmos, maker of the lava lamp, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The band’s co-designed limited-edition version of the Astro lamp – a sleek silver-and-pink lava number etched with their signatures – launches this month. “They took enormous care to get every detail right,” says Mathmos MD Cressida Granger, who also asked the photographer Rankin, Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis, Job Smeets of Studio Job and London-based French designer Camille Walala to design an anniversary piece.

“Lava lamps are part of pop culture,” says Rhodes of their enduring appeal. “You see them in recording studios and there’s something about them that always makes me smile – that gelatinous goo melting and morphing. We actually wrote a song called ‘Lava Lamp’, which was released in 2000.” 

At first glance, it’s an unlikely collaboration, but there is a connection between the two: Mathmos’s founder Edward Craven Walker named his company after the bubble liquid force that Jane Fonda’s action heroine must defeat in Barbarella, Roger Vadim’s 1968 cult sci-fi film. Likewise, Duran Duran took their name from the Barbarella character Dr Durand Durand. “John and I were sitting in my mum and dad’s living room in Hollywood – that’s Birmingham, UK,” Rhodes laughs. “We were watching the Friday-night film and it was Barbarella. We were virtually speechless because it was and remains rather wonderful.”

What does Rhodes think about a possible remake with actress Sydney Sweeney? “I’m not sure what they are going to be able to keep from the original, but I sincerely hope it’s not an overly politically correct version because Barbarella was a sign of the times. I hope it is amazing. It would be really something if it is.”

While Le Bon “travels and has an interest in boats” and Roger Taylor “spends time as a DJ”, much of Rhodes’ downtime is spent on creative pursuits. He’s a prolific collector. “It’s a curse. I collect mostly photography and art but also pop culture items, mainly books – design, fashion and cinema. I’m attracted to visual things,” he says. The cover for Danse Macabre is a 1940s photograph from his private collection of a séance in the UK. 

Rhodes is an accomplished photographer – he exhibited work in Ibiza in 2022 entitled Ghosts of Peonies, alongside paintings by John Taylor (his own passion). He is planning a new exhibition in London next year, along with a book, and is working on a documentary about postwar Japanese photography. 

As for his love of art, the former art student is rhapsodic. “It is one of the things that drives life for me. I can get more from staring at a painting than watching 10 Hollywood movies,” he says. Rhodes’ current fascination is artificial intelligence. “I’m completely obsessed with AI,” he continues. “It’s a powerful tool that, if used properly with great ideas, can enhance the things you do. [We recently made] a video with creative director Linc Gasking for the song ‘Danse Macabre’ that is very special – something that people haven’t done with AI before: a 3D-animated masterpiece.” 

But of all the thrills the band have encountered, Rhodes always returns to their live performances, making no distinction between their recent benefit show for 500 people for his bandmate Andy Taylor (who has cancer) to entertaining 60,000 fans at Hyde Park last year. “Playing at the Kennedy Space Center for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission was remarkable for us because we watched it as boys,” Rhodes concludes. Ziggy Stardust would have approved.