Duran Duran ready to get funky and freaky at FLA Live Arena

Brimming with hit songs, Duran Duran is on its way to South Florida with new music from critically praised album “Future Past,” an apt title for a band that, over the course of more than four decades, has always seemed relevant and invested in the possibility of now.

The group’s most recent newsmaking video, for the song “Invisible,” is a collaboration with an artificial-intelligence machine, a bold statement about the creative process, especially for musicians who have long spoken with a distinctive visual language.

The new video is a bookend to Duran Duran’s first provocation, the titillating short film made for 1981 single “Girls on Film” that was banned by the BBC and MTV. Directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (10cc), the film was created for audiences in nightclubs, where disco, funk, pop and post-punk music was coalescing in new ways that continue to this day. In a decision that seems quaint today, the film was modified, with partial nudity removed and eroticism softened, to be aired as a music video for television.

Bassist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes founded Duran Duran in 1978, the same year punk originals the Sex Pistols broke up. It was a fertile musical moment in economically gloomy Britain, when bands tried to stand out with whatever they had.

“Before you even open your mouth, you walk onstage and you present an image,” Taylor says. “So you’re gonna cut your hair a certain way, and you’re gonna slash your tie off, and you’re gonna make your look a statement. And it’s probably going to be some kind of rebellion against who your dad is. You’re going to let all the audience know that you’re not gonna work in a f—ing bank.”

But rebellion also could mean rebelling against the rebels: Duran Duran traded the abrasiveness of punk for the smooth, funky intermingling of pop, R&B and club culture, with influences including James Brown and Roxy Music.

“There was nothing lamer than copying somebody else’s thing,” Taylor says. “And I think that we’ve really carved our own groove. We took on elements like disco bass, like early techno electronics. Then (vocalist) Simon (Le Bon) comes along and he’s got this, like, poetic kind of dissonance. And then you’ve got something completely new.”

They strived for a different look as well. In 1982, Duran Duran became the first band to film music videos on location, shooting “Save a Prayer,” “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Lonely In Your Nightmare” in Sri Lanka and an iconic video for “Rio” in Antigua.

Duran Duran began using the now-ubiquitous live video cameras and video screens on their 1984 U.S. tour, and later pioneered the use of AR technology and 360-degree panoramic cameras in concert. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Taylor says Duran Duran’s first brush with stardom almost did them in.

“Speaking for myself … the amount of success that we had was just breathtaking and it was very fast,” he says. “It was almost like some video game where, if you survive the first level, you get through to the second level and suddenly it’s like a tranquil kind of jungle. … We just had to really dig in deep and commit to each other.”

Taylor quickly acknowledges the irony of those words coming from the guy who left the band in 1997. He performed as a solo act and did a stint with Robert Palmer in The Power Station before returning to Duran Duran in 2001.

“Why are we still here? Well, we’re very stubborn. You know, once we get to a party, we don’t like to have to leave it,” Taylor says, laughing.

Taylor credits Rhodes with pushing the AI idea for “Invisible,” the band’s first post-pandemic release.

The AI machine, called Huxley, was supplied with information about the song, sounds, lyrics and imagery. The result is an eerie and disorienting montage of painterly landscapes, figures and abstractions that ooze forth to a pulsating beat.

For a song that was written pre-COVID, Huxley created a video that makes the song seem oddly prescient.

“It’s sort of a three-minute Rorschach test, which could not have been more perfect,” Taylor says. “For the experience of lockdown and the feelings of isolation that we all have, it couldn’t have been a more perfect video for that particular song.”

But Taylor acknowledges that it is familiarity and fun that will bring Duran Duran fans to FLA Live Arena in Sunrise on Sunday. Opening will be disco-era favorites Nile Rodgers & Chic and synth-y indie quartet Bastille.

The Duran Duran setlist will include “Girls on Film,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Careless Memories,” “A View to a Kill,” “The Reflex,” “Notorious,” “White Lines,” “Planet Earth,” “Save a Prayer” and “Rio.” Also look out for “Lonely In Your Nightmare,” with Taylor leading a bass-line detour into Rick James’ 1981 funk classic “Super Freak.”

“I get so excited when we’re about to do it, because you hit the riff and you watch the audience, the recognition, just kind of light up. That’s really fun. I really appreciate that. I mean, there’s a lot of options when (fans are) looking at what shows you’re going to go to in the summer,” Taylor says. “Life’s a slog, but it can also be a lot of fun. And if we can play that part, then we’re happy to do it.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Duran Duran: Future Past

WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday, June 18

WHERE: FLA Live Arena, 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise

COST: Tickets start at $25+

INFORMATION: Ticketmaster.com

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.