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An
Interview with
Warren Cuccurullo.
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If
you are child of the 80’s I’m sure you have heard about the reunion of
Duran Duran. What you might not have heard is that the Duran Duran reunion
sparked the return of yet another 80's hit topping group, Missing Persons.
Missing Persons were staple on MTV during
the early years of the music network with their unforgettable image and
new wave hits like “Words” and “Walking in LA”. Hailed by critics
as one of the best of the pioneering band of the new wave sound, they climbed
the charts and won over fans from around the world. Sadly, the band broke
up in 1986. Lead vocalist, Dale Bozzio went on to a solo career,
releasing an album through Prince’s Paisley Park label. Terry Bozzio
played on a long list of projects including studio work with Duran Duran
and he won a Grammy in 1990 for Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop. Warren
Cuccurullo
joined
Duran Duran in 1986, co-wrote two of their top 5 singles, “Ordinary World”
and “Come Undone”. Now it’s 2001 and Missing Persons have decided
to regroup so they can bring their unique image and sound to a new generation.
The plan was to interview Warren and Dale
at the House of Blues in Anaheim before their sold out performance that
night. Like most things in Rock n Roll, things don’t always go as planned.
I managed to track down Warren but Dale was indeed a missing person as
I sat down with Warren to discuss the reunion and the future of the band.
Keavin for RNW: So what brought
about the Reunion?
Warren: Having spent 15 years in
Duran Duran, I had a sit down with my partners, Simon and Nick and Simon
says “I think this is as far as we can go, we want to get the original
five back together”. So I said “What about the original five plus one?”
(laughs) he said “No I don’t think that is going to work out.” So I said,
“Great, lets work something out where we can all walk away from it happily,
this phase of Duran Duran” and we did. My first musical instinct was I
should get back together with the guys, Terry and Dale and play that music
because we’re all still alive and it’s great music and there’s an interest
in 80’s music. We were one of the hottest f***ing bands there were in the
early 80’s. So here we are!
RNW: Any chance of you guys touring
with Duran Duran
Warren: Yeah, it could happen. I’m
sure there will be, you know, I will make the phone calls I’m sure we’ll
talk about it and I have already mentioned it. I think [in] America it
might be interesting. I’m sure if the Duran Duran tour comes to fruition
I will be right in there saying “Come on guys, I’ll come out and play Ordinary
World with you guys, If we can do this Missing Persons thing.”
That would be a very interesting package; we’re the only band that spawned
a duel reunion.
RNW: Yeah I thought that was interesting.
Warren: There was kind of this incestuous
thing happening, how I even got into Duran in the first place, being on
the same label having the same agent, and you know there was all this,
we probably slept with a lot of the same women. (Laughs)
RNW: Did you know them before joining
the group?
Warren: No.
RNW: What’s it like playing
together again?
Warren: It’s unbelievable, it’s
absolutely… like Terry said it’s surreal, I almost compare it to the closest
thing we’ll ever get to playing with Frank [Zappa] again. We never did
get to do that, but it is that special. This is something we built ourselves;
we were the ultimate DIY band. And here we are once again and as soon as
we plugged in and played it was just like I had imagined it and how I explained
it to Terry is we’re just gonna laugh and have a great time playing all
the good songs. One of the rules was we ain’t gonna play the crap, let’s
play the good ones, you know. The other night, the show we played at the
Roxy was my favorite show I ever played in my life.
RNW: Lots of energy, being back
together?
Warren: Incredible, the most fun
I ever had.
RNW: How has the crowd reaction
to the shows been?
Warren: They seemed pretty blown
away. We only had two days of rehearsal.
RNW: Really?
Warren: Yeah and it was just like
we have been playing together for a year on tour.
RNW: You just jumped in there with
both feet, very cool! This is the last night in a string of southern California
dates…
Warren: It’s the last night of a
basic announcement. This is just an announcement like [spoken in a mock
announcer’s voice] “May we have your attention please! Yes all three of
us can really get back together on stage and play this music. We kick f***ing
ass! See you soon!” (laughs) That’s all this is, an announcement.
RNW: So a National tour is coming
up?
Warren: We’re looking into various
things right now to see what is the correct step to take. We’re not 19
years old, everybody has got lives and families and things but playing
this music is very special. I think there is an audience there for it.
We’re looking into different ways to go and we have songs! That’s another
thing that is pretty funny, we’ve got about 11 or 12 songs from 1979-80
that we never recorded, that kick ass-we’re doing two of them in the set
tonight. I had some friends from the label come the other night and they
said “You wrote those 21 years ago?” I said, “No 22!” (laughs) They couldn’t
believe it.
RNW: Any chance of those going out
on a new album?
Warren: Yeah, that’s what I mean
we got all of these songs, we wrote our reunion album before we even made
our first album! We were that f***ing brilliant! So I have plans of doing
that, love to get somebody to pay for it but if all else fails I’ll make
it myself and you know deal with it then. But I’m looking to do the right
thing. I’ve been in the business for a long time and I understand most
aspects of it. I’ve met some good people and I’ve met some f***ing nightmares.
And I’d like to hook up with some good people who know how to market a
project like this and would be willing to get it to radio and spend some
money because that’s really were it all is right now.
RNW: That’s the problem with labels,
you can’t succeed unless you get the right kind of support behind it.
Warren: There is no use making that
record then. You can take the advance but what kind of advance do you get
for a band that’s, you know, late 40’s.
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