Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon Talks ‘Invisible’ Single & ‘Future Past’ Album, Reflects on First Hot 100 No. 1

“This is a real special time,” Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon says on the occasion of the release of the group’s new single “Invisible.” The track, which dropped on May 19, is the first taste of the band’s long-awaited new album Future Past (due out on Oct. 22 via Tape Modern/BMG).

“Every time you have a project or [album] cycle, when you release the first material from your new album, it’s when you give it to everybody else,” Le Bon tells the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below). “It’s when it stops becoming yours and it becomes everybody’s who hears it. The music belongs to them now. After all that time of hoarding it to ourselves, it’s now out there. We’re right at the beginning. It’s all potential!”

Amazingly, by the time Future Past drops, it will have been a full six years between studio albums from Duran Duran — the longest the chart-topping group has gone between studio efforts. (Its last release was 2015’s Paper Gods, which debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200.) The new set was initially slated for a 2020 release, but COVID-19 delayed those plans. Ultimately, the shift in schedule provided the group with a moment to re-evaluate Future Past. “We had an opportunity to step back,” Le Bon says. “We actually thought, you know what? [The album’s] not finished, and it’s not good enough. And we can make it better, and we can make it complete.”

Onboard for Future Past — Duran Duran’s 15th studio album — are producers Erol Alkan, Mark Ronson and Giorgio Moroder. The set will also feature special guests in Blur’s Graham Coxson on guitar, David Bowie’s former pianist Mike Garson, and guest vocals from the “absolutely magical” Lykke Li (with more collaborators promised to be announced at a later date).

On the Pop Shop Podcast, Le Bon chats about how “Invisible” evolved over time and speaks to those “who feel they haven’t got a voice,” how its eye-popping music video was created using an artificial intelligence named Huxley, why there was a long wait between albums, and how the band connected with producer Alkan. In addition, Le Bon also discusses his joy in hosting his weekly music show Whooosh! on SiriusXM, alongside Duran Duran insider and band associate Katy Krassner. Le Bon says the new music-filled program has been a “wonderful experience” and gushes about the “amazing new music I’ve been able to discover.”

Plus, as 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of Duran Duran’s first single (“Planet Earth”), self-titled debut album and the group’s first Billboard chart appearance (with “Planet Earth” on the Dance Club Songs chart), we take Le Bon for a stroll down memory lane to the band’s first encounter with Billboard in 1981 (and the act’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with “The Reflex”).

Below are some highlights from Le Bon’s interview on the Pop Shop Podcast: 

On how the new single “Invisible” came together and why it was the right statement for the band to come out with right now:

The song started as drum beat, actually … you can hear it, you can tell how important that drum beat is, you know … And really, we all serve the drums, in a way. The lyric, I think I started off with “shy, one.” I think it might have been “shy, boy” to begin with, but then I thought I wanted to make it a bit more inclusive.

It soon developed into this idea of a person who, in a relationship, was not really being registered by the other person. Being ignored, really. And it started to be, well, maybe this person isn’t registering with everybody around him. Maybe his family, or maybe the world in general.

And then it occurred to me, wow, but there’s loads of people like this. There’s a whole section of society who feel they haven’t got a voice, who feel they’re ignored and don’t get listened to. And it’s one of the reasons we’ve had these massive social public protests recently, for example, the Black Lives Matter movement, which (has) been such an important part of all our lives in the last year. And I wrote that line “but a voiceless crowd isn’t backing down” because these people may not be ignored, but they refused to be ignored, and they will actually … they will assert themselves. I think that’s really what the song’s about. It’s called “Invisible,” but it’s actually about making yourself visible.

Le Bon on the music video for “Invisible” and how it was made by an artificial intelligence named Huxley:

Huxley is a creative A.I. that’s been developed by a bunch of people called Nested Minds. Really at the heart of all this is neuroscience. The way the human mind works. And what they’ve done with Huxley is they’ve kind of made an approximation of the way that people think thoughts are created inside the human brain.

You can see Huxley as a program, but it’s not. It’s got so much more going on. It’s very complex and it’s so complex it affects itself. And it learns. I mean, it’s a big stretch to say that it thinks. Maybe we could say it dreams. Obviously it’s not conscious. Because conscious A.I. is, well, then you’re talking science fiction these days … It’s not conscious.

You input images [into Huxley]. Images of the world, images that relate to previous Duran Duran lyrics, images of the band. I mean, there’s also the lip-syncing [in the video] that we did that was put in the machine as well. … You put all this stuff in, and the words [to the song], and Huxley puts it all together, and then it just runs. It dreams these images. And they go with the music. The music’s also inputted into it.

That’s how I understand it. I know it’s a pretty vague explanation, and I feel like I’m slightly bullsh—ing [you] because I don’t really understand it to be honest with you, because I’m just a frontman.

It’s been six years between Duran Duran studio albums — the longest gap between studio albums for the band. Did Le Bon realize it had been this long, and why the long wait?

I knew it was a long time. And obviously the big reason it took such a long time was the emergence of COVID-19. A global pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. And how that affected, not just our working schedules, but also life in general, and one’s ability to have… really, have music that could make any kind of an impact.

We thoroughly intended to get this record out in 2020, but everything suddenly shut down. And then we thought, hang on, let’s not rush this. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And it would be very easy for the album to go out there and become completely overlooked or just disappear in comparison with the other things that are happening in the world. So we thought, we’ll just hang on for a minute.

And in that time that we hung on, we had an opportunity to step back. In a way that an artist who’s working on a small detail in a painting [steps back], at some point he has to step back and look at it as a whole and think, A) is it finished and B) is it good enough? And we actually thought, you know what, it’s not finished, and it’s not good enough. And we can make it better, and we can make it complete. We’re actually in the process of doing that right now. The album doesn’t get released until Oct. 22. We just want to make this one the best piece of work it can possibly be for now.

How Duran Duran connected with producer Erol Alkan:

It’s kind of strange that we’d never met before. But it was actually Mark Ronson who came up with this name. Because we approached Mark and said, “What do you think? Do you want to be involved at any level, in any capacity, what do you think?” And he said, “Yeah, I’d love to do a couple of tracks with you. By the way, [if] you want somebody to kind of to work with on the body of [the album], then you should meet up with this guy Erol Alkan.”

He’s a DJ, he’s been producing music for the dance floor for a long time. He did the remix of a Killers song called “The Man.” He actually reformatted the song. He moved things around. He gave the song a dynamic. Funny enough, I’d heard a demo of it, and he really turned it into something that you could listen to and it really worked. And it’s his version that was released as the single. So Erol… he’s amazing. He’s really good.

I went to his house to work on some stuff with him one day. He’s got a nice little studio in his back garden. And he said, “Look! This is the first record I ever bought!” And it’s the 12-inch (vinyl single) of “The Reflex.” His first-ever purchase. You know… what comes around… I meant, what goes around! [Laughs]

2021 is the 40th anniversary of the release of Duran Duran’s first single, “Planet Earth,” the group’s self-titled debut album, and the band’s Billboard chart debut (with “Planet Earth” on the Dance Club Songs chart in 1981). Le Bon recalls his first encounter with Billboard magazine, and getting Duran Duran’s first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Reflex.”

I think we came over to America in late 1981 for the very first time. It was a hell of a trip. You can imagine. A bunch of English boys [laughs] getting off the airplane at JFK … We met up with our record company at the time, which was Capitol Records. We went up into their offices [in New York]. And I remember somebody getting out the Billboard magazine. And I think the [Hot 100] chart was on the back cover. And he said, “This is what it’s all about.” And you looked at those names… Bruce Springsteen and others. And thought, wow, yeah, if only. And then one day somebody… I think we were in the U.K. at the time, and we knew we’d had a No. 1. They sent us the actual copy [of the chart] with ‘The Reflex’ at No. 1… And that was a really big deal for us.

Also on the show, Katie & Keith discuss chart news about Olivia Rodrigo’s second debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Good 4 U,” while J. Cole debuts atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with his newest release The Off-Season, as well as debuting four of its songs in the top 10 of the Hot 100.

The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard’s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard’s deputy editor, digital, Katie Atkinson and senior director of Billboard charts Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)

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Texas Concert Venues to Receive $100,000 Annual Rebates

The Texas government is extending support for its music venues and promoters. On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed state Senate Bill 609 into law, which would provide a yearly rebate of up to $100,000 for live music venues throughout the state. 

Called the Texas music incubator rebate program, the rebate will come from money the venues paid into the state’s alcohol tax and the amount returned to venues would be determined by how much they paid in alcohol taxes the previous year. Venues will see the full or partial amount of taxes they paid on the sale of beer and wine returned to them up to $100,000. 

According to the bill, “The rebates are to assist eligible music venues and eligible music festival promoters in their efforts to support and continue to bring to local communities in this state live musical performances, including the recruitment of musical performance artists.”

The bill was first introduced into the Texas legislature in 2018, but it failed to get a Senate vote by the last day of session in 2019. The bill was reintroduced by its co-sponsors Texas State Sen. Carol Alvarado and Rep. Geanie Morrison and was passed in both the House and Senate in earlier this month. 

Music Venues Alliance – Austin has been working on the language of the bill since its inception and MVA’s president and founder Rebecca Reynolds says “it was an easier hill to climb” asking for a rebate rather than a separate tax rate for music venues. Instead of providing a new tax rate to entities saying they are venues, the rebate program allows venues to opt in, prove they are a venue and showing yearly operation as a music venue.

“Creating an opt in process make the fund more manageable budget-wise,” says Reynolds. “It’s a much better way of controlling where this money is being invested.”

Eligible venues include those that have been open for two years prior to applying and have a capacity of 3,000 or less. Festival promoters are eligible if they held their event in a county with a population under 100,000. In order to qualify, festivals and venues must pay their artists for performances. Applications will also have to prove they have marketed events, have sound and stage crew, host live events at least five times a week, charge a cover or ticketing fee for shows or other criteria stated in the bill. 

“In addition to that, we’ve set it up so that the fund can receive private money,” Reynolds tells Billboard. “We can market it to corporations and individuals who wish to support live music venues in Texas. We can grow that fund and, in a perfect world, every applicant would get the maximum amount allowable.”

The Music, Film, Television, and Multimedia Office within the office of the governor will need to establish the program by Sept. 1, 2022 but the bill will technically go into effect on Sept. 1, 2021. Applications are expected to open next year and funds will come from last fiscal year. 

The rebate is a welcome acknowledgement of the economic and cultural impact live music has on Texas, but Reynolds says it may not have passed without the pandemic shining a light on struggling music venues. 

“The pandemic hit and there was a sort of silver lining that it brought to the forefront why venues are unique. They have a different business model. They rely on gathering and they put all their revenue back into producing music,” says Reynolds. “We did a lot of educating lawmakers on why venues are different from bars, why they’re different from arts organizations and what we need to do to help them survive.”

As for-profit businesses, music venues generate revenue for cities and states by bringing in tourism, but rarely see any economic support or protections from government entities. 

Reynolds also credits the National Independent Venue Association and their work on the Shuttered Venue Operators Grants (previously the Save Our Stages Act), which was brought to the U.S. Congress by bi-partisan sponsors Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The bipartisan effort at the federal level provided more than $16 billion in grant funds to independent venues and Renyolds says, it gave “lawmakers on both sides of the aisle permission to really go hard on this issue.”

The bill’s success has already attracted interest from venue groups in other states and Reynolds has begun sharing the process for getting the rebate passed with folks in NIVA. She has already spoken with interested groups in New Jersey, Illinois, California, New York, Washington, Oregon and Washington, D.C.

“We want to support communities across the country on how to really invest in their music economy, because it’s good for the culture and it’s good the economy,” says Reynolds. 

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Sony Music Promotes International Marketing Execs Melissa Thomas and Monica Cornia

Sony Music has promoted Melissa Thomas to executive vp, international marketing, U.S. repertoire and Monica Cornia to senior vp of sales, Commercial Music Group, the company announced today.

Thomas was most recently senior vp, international marketing, U.S. repertoire, during which she served as co-head of the department. Notably, her teams have worked on such blockbuster campaigns as Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and the rollout of Camila Cabello’s sophomore album Romance in 2019 and Harry Styles’ Fine Line last year. She has also led global campaigns for U.S.-signed artists including DJ Khaled, Travis Scott, AC/DC, The Kid Laroi, Rosalía and Giveon.

Thomas will continue reporting to Sony Music Group chairman Rob Stringer. Along with Cornia, she was named a Billboard International Power Player earlier this year.

“Melissa knows how to harness the global power of our Company to help break our U.S. artists around the world,” said Stringer in a statement. “Her teams, in conjunction with our U.S. Record Labels, have created unique marketing campaigns that resonate with audiences and push our artists to success. I’m so happy that Melissa will be leading our U.S. Repertoire’s international marketing team for the future.”

Thomas added, “Music has no borders anymore. Our audiences are global from the beginning and hits can break from anywhere. I love bringing our U.S. artists to as many audiences as we can around the globe and I’m looking forward to the entire team continuing our unique marketing campaigns to shine a light on the creative talent coming from Sony Music.”

Thomas kicked off her longtime stint with Sony Music in 2005 after being hired at Sony Music UK, where she worked in international marketing for eight years. Prior to that, she served in roles at Universal Motown Records and Universal Music Canada.

Cornia, who will oversee all U.S. sales strategies for the Sony Music catalog, previously served as co-head of the international marketing department for U.S. repertoire for three years. In that role, she spearheaded campaigns for Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Khalid, Tate McRae, P!NK and more. She recently helped drive Doja Cat’s “Say So” to chart wins in a number of international markets.

Cornia started her music industry career at Sanctuary Group, where she worked for two years before joining RCA Music Group’s international department in 2005. She left the Sony fold to join Vector Management as Kesha’s day-to-day manager between 2011 and 2013, before returning to the company to serve as vp of international marketing for RCA Records from 2014 to 2018.

“I’m extremely proud and fortunate to work for a company that supports its employees exploring new areas of focus during their careers,” said Cornia in a statement. “I look forward to stretching my expertise into our sales and catalog businesses. I also can’t wait to develop new and innovative campaigns with our group, and help to further expand the fanbase of Sony Music’s amazing artists.”

Darren Stupak, executive vp and general manager, sales at Sony Music added, “From the very start of Monica’s career at Sony Music, she has always embodied our artist-first approach, showing fantastic insight, expertise and a strong track record in bringing our U.S. artists to new audiences. I am excited to see how Monica will lead our sales team through our Commercial Music Group.”

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Olivia Rodrigo Chases Chart Double In U.K.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour (Geffen) could produce a sweet chart double in the U.K.

The teenage Californian artist and actor has the U.K.’s best-selling single and album at the midweek point, the OCC reports.

Following its release last Friday (May 21), Rodrigo’s debut Sour flies to No. 1 on the Official Albums Chart Update, opening-up a lead of 7,500 chart sales ahead of its closest rival.

Sour is the most-streamed album of the week so far as its third single, “Good 4 U,” rises to No. 1 on the Official Singles Chart Update.

Some way behind at No. 2 at the midweek albums survey is Gary Numan’s 22nd studio effort Intruder (BMG), which is on track to give the veteran synth-pop artist his seventh Top 5.
Intruder, so far, is the biggest physical release of the cycle.

Meanwhile, Twenty One Pilots are coming in to land their third U.K. Top 10 with Scaled And Icy (Atlantic/Fueled By Ramen), new at No. 3, following the American alternative rock artists’ performance Sunday (May 23) at the Billboard Music Awards.

Another act who’s enjoying a post-BBMAs boost is Pink, whose All I Know So far: Setlist (RCA), the companion set to her streaming concert film, bows at No. 4. It’s the most downloaded album of the week.

Pink, the Icon Award winner and a performer at the BBMAs, also sees a spike for her 2010 career retrospective Greatest Hits… So Far!!! (LaFace), currently vaulting 68-39.

Completing the Top 5 is shoegaze legends My Bloody Valentine and their classic 1991 album Loveless. The LP drops in at No. 5 thanks to a catalog reissue on CD and vinyl via Domino Recordings, while the Irish outfit’s 1988 debut Isn’t Anything impacts at No. 8 and 2013’s MBV is at No. 10.

My Bloody Valentine’s catalog was recently made available on streaming platforms for the first time.

Another ‘90s favorite from the British Isles set for an overdue return to the Official U.K. Albums Chart is Gruff Rhys, of Welsh psychedelic rock act Super Furry Animals. Rhys’ solo LP Seeking New Gods (Rough Trade) is at No. 7 on the chart blast.

The Official U.K. Singles and Albums Charts are published late Friday, local time.

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Elliot Page Proudly Shares First Shirtless Photo & Gets Love From Miley Cyrus

Elliot Page is ready for the summer and broke out “trans bb’s first swim trunks” on Monday (May 24) to cool off before the warmer weather starts rolling in.

The 34-year-old actor took to Instagram to show off his new six-pack and swim trunks in a poolside picture that he tagged “#transjoy” and “#transisbeautiful.” Miley Cyrus commented, “Hot,” along with a heart emoji, while Page’s Flatliners co-star Nina Dobrev wrote, “You look amazing,” before adding a second comment: “And most of all happy.”

<script>

The Juno and Umbrella Academy star announced Dec. 1 that he identifies as transgender. In a letter posted both to Instagram and Twitter, Page noted that he goes by the pronouns “he” and “they” and that he was publicly changing his name to Elliot. “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life,” he wrote in the post. “I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self.”

Tegan and Sara, Mark Hoppus, Anna Kendrick, Olivia Munn and more stars voiced their support for Page at the time of his announcement.

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