Duran Duran have discussed working with Blur‘s Graham Coxon on their new album, saying he “fitted into the band like a glove.”
Speaking to the Evening Standard about working with the Blur guitarist, Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes said it felt “like he’d been there forever.”
“We’re super excited about releasing the album. It’s been a while in the making, but it was fabulous working with Graham Coxon,” he added. “I think he is one of the most creative British guitarists of his generation – and he fit like a glove.
“When we all got into the studio together his energy and his inventiveness really worked with Duran Duran, and his personality. He sort of fits in, he’s like us.”
He added: “It’s a tough room… We’ve all known each other forever, but he wasn’t bothered at all. He just came in, plugged his guitar in, and he sounded so great that it was like he’d been there forever.”
Coxon, meanwhile, has recently released ‘Superstate’, a sci-fi graphic novel. ‘Superstate’ is the product of Coxon working with writers Alex Paknadel and Helen Mullane to devise 15 different stories for a graphic novel, each of which is soundtracked by an original song that has been written and recorded by the guitarist and additional vocalists.
Self-confessed “science fiction freak” Coxon recently told NME how he drew upon his love of manga and the classic Japanese Akira, before falling for anime and comic art’s qualities of being “sort of instant, a bit like TV”.
Watch NME‘s video interview with Coxon on ‘Superstate’ below.
Reviewing ‘Superstate’, NME wrote: “Musically, the album brings synths and electronics to the fore to create a wealth of buzzing, glittering disco-pop with an intricate prog edge. ‘The Astral Light’ sounds like a dusty gem from an ‘80s funk record flung far forward into the future via the elastic bassline of Blur’s ‘Girls And Boys’, while ‘Goodbye Universe’ is a stuttering homage to the sheen of ‘70s pop.
“Of course, at 77 minutes, ‘Superstate’ is a touch too long to keep your attention in one sitting but, it has fun trying to do so.”