Andy Taylor put the power chords into The Power Station. Here's a few leads towards making modern Metal.

"Like it or not, the supergroup is back.

The signs have been evident for sometime — the sub-Moody Blues album cover that concealed a project by Dali's Car, ex-stars of Japan and Bauhaus; aerial enigma Gary Numan and Shakatak's master of the 4/4 obvious Bill Sharpe nestling up together; Nik Kershaw and Elton John collaborating in a small way...

But now, the ultimate, the Cream of the '80s (with added Funk) — The Power Station.

Named after the expensive and prestigious studio in New York where much of it was made, The Power Station is four men (plus their producer) who got together initially socially, then consolidated that musically.

The stationmasters? Robert Palmer sings in his experienced smooth white Soul style and wears very smart suits. John Taylor plays bass, more Funk styled than his Duran Duran lines, and looks prettily debauched. Tony Thompson does the same as he did for Chic and David Bowie — put crisp, concise and very Funky drums everywhere it's possible and some places where you'd swear it isn't. Bernard Edwards produces, giving the project the same sharp dance feel as his Chic classics.

And Andy Taylor plays guitar, covering the spectrum from mental Metal to clipped choppy chords. He also tells people about the Power Station, guitar playing and gear. But let's start at the beginning.

"The whole thing is a sort of extension of the original concept behind Duran Duran, which was to marry the feel of Chic with the aggression of the Sex Pistols. For one reason and another, Duran ended up quite different... but this project has got to be about the nearest you could get to that idea," explained Andy.

"We'd all met before socially and got on really well. And that, I think, comes through on the record. It came together over a period of years, really; John and I had the idea for ages, we mentioned it to Bernard, who loved it, and then we met Tony and he wanted in too.

"So we laid down the basic tracks to quite a high level. It was all quite aggressive, spiky — everybody was playing really pointy, strong and concise. And we still didn't have anybody to sing the melodies or put lyrics to it. So we called Robert, sent him a tape of the rough mixes and suddenly he was walking into the studio, taking his coat off and singing this great vocal. Originally the idea was to use different singers, but Robert's voice just goes so well with the songs. He's got a very mature style and a very smooth voice which blends in with anything, goes across the top of the mix and takes the edge off... you know, like when you get wired and take a Valium...

What about the other members of the band?

"Tony has a very precise, tight R&B, Funk feel — you have to slip into that mould when you're playing with him. Him and Robert worked together really well, because they've both got such a tremendous feel for rhythm that they were playing off one another's lines all the time.

"Bernard is a great producer and a man who knows all about Funk. He explained to me once that on a lot of Chic records it wasn't the notes they were playing but the rhythm they were playing them in, and he taught me all about that aspect of playing; where to put the notes. That's also good when you're playing Rock — it's a great feel if you play Rock with that tight, precise Funk style.

"The reason that the Power Station came out as it did is totally due to our own musical personalities coming through, and Bernard's production is behind that. He was very precious about getting personality rather than nice playing or melodies and therefore the fact that there are singles on the album is only because John, Tony and I had played commercial music a lot before, so obviously it was going to go in that direction."

"Robert's voice goes across the top of the mix and takes the edge off... you know, like when you get wired and take a Valium..."

The Power Station is also (and firstly) a studio. Why there?

"It's just a great place to work in. They've got some of the finest engineers and some of the finest producers in the world, and indeed some of the greatest records have come out of there. So it's got a definite atmosphere and reputation, built purely on its expertise and professionalism. And you often bump into Diana Ross or Mick Jagger in there, it's that sort of place. You wouldn't even know it's there from the outside, there's no sign or anything.

"It's a great place to use, technically. If you want anything at all, they'll hook it up for you — everything's interlinkable between the three studios and if you want to try something really different technically they'll organise it.

"Like when we were doing Wild Boys with Duran Duran, we had four Studer A800 multitrack tape machines running in sync — 96 tracks. Nile Rodgers was producing, and for the vocal chant on that he kept double-tracking things, slowing them down, speeding them up... so the vocals were absolutely huge, massive.

"They have loads of Pultec Eq machines everywhere as well which are really good — racks and racks of them. They're great when you want to fatten bottom, middle or top and still have it nice and clear rather than woolly."

Hasn't the Power Station got a world-famous drum sound?

"Err... well, actually we cut six of the eight tracks in Maison Rouge studios in London. Now our engineer Jason Corsaro wants to build a drum room like the Maison Rouge one in the Power Station so he'll be able to choose between that sound and the one he normally gets here. It's just a big stone room with glass windows, very very live-sounding.

"Jason was using 38 mikes on the drumkit. God knows what he was doing... actually I think only God did. No, I'm joking, actually he's really good. He's the Power Station's number one engineer and he worked on Mick Jagger's album and Madonna's one... all the big stuff."

So what did you do in the Power Station, Daddy?

"I suppose you could describe my role as like the chili in the sauce. The guitar has always had that edge to it, and this LP definitely has a meaner plot to what I'm used to working with. I've really enjoyed it, letting rip with blistering guitar solos. But I also play some choppy Funk rhythm stuff.

"You have to do that if you're playing with Tony, because the way he plays makes it natural to slot in and play precise rhythmic lines. Like the rhythm line on Some Like It Hot, I rest the palm of my hand on the bridge to damp the strings and use the left hand to invert the chords. You can damp by pulling your left hand off the fretboard to cut the note short or by damping with the right, and I prefer the latter. It's just part of my style.

"That's caused me a lot of problems with tremolo arms, though — I have a particular dislike of the Floyd Rose because you can't rest your hand on it properly. Whereas the one that Schecter make you can, but it's not as durable. They gave me one and I broke it, but my roadie figured out why and they strengthened it so it all works really well."

What other tricks did you use?

"Well, I use different tunings quite a lot — they're good for coming up with different melody lines or chords, ones that you wouldn't normally find.

"Jason was using 38 mikes on the drum kit. God knows what he was doing. In fact, I think only God did"

"And I've sussed out a way to do that finger tapping stuff, the Eddie Van Halen trick, much more easily. I was getting frustrated trying to learn how to do that but if you tune the guitar to a scale, all tones or half-tones, using just the light strings, Es and Bs, you can hammer on with the left hand and pull off what sounds like a really fast two-handed solo. But it isn't. It sounds really good, you can't tell the difference."

Your next subject is guitars, Andy. Go.

"I've been fortunate enough to get the first one of a new series of 'strats' that Schecter have been developing. It's got an upside-down neck, like Hendrix's, but it's right-handed. That means that the string tensions are reversed; the top E is much slacker. It's really odd to play until you get used to it and at first it presented tuning problems but they've got it together now. You can put much heavier strings on it, if you don't cut your fingers to pieces on them, and it's brilliant for solos and string-bending things.

"I used that, and a normal Schecter 'strat' and a Telecaster on the album. I don't use the Yamahas that much these days because I find I can get more versatility out of the Schecters. The pickups on those are very powerful, even though they're single-coil, so you can get that very loud, very dirty sound even on the back pickup and you can go in between on the five-way pickup switch and get a very powerful out-of-phase sound. Really lovely necks on them, too.

"I never used to like Strats much until a little while ago. I had one which I stripped down and rebuilt myself which was just a newish Fender, but I was never into the whole Strat sound, having five ways with the pickups and all that.

"But recently, particularly with the Power Station stuff, I've had to draw on many aspects of the guitar so I started using a Strat and a tremolo arm. It's for the more mature player, I think. When you're young you just want to hear cranked-up humbuckers screaming. But as my style has developed — and it's still in the formative stage; I don't think anybody really does develop a style until at least their late twenties — I've got more and more into the sort of style you find sounds best on a Strat.

"I've been listening to loads of things, shopping around and taking different elements of other people's styles to try and form my own out of that."

Like what?

"Jeff Beck, mainly. The way that he plays is mindblowing. That guy is so good. The Jesus Christ of guitar. His soloing particularly is outrageous; as a guitar player you listen to him and you're amazed. One second he'll be up here on the neck and a hundredth of a second later he'll be at the other end... that annoys me when I hear it so I listen to it and copy it and work on it until I can do it. And then I'll take the element that intrigues me and try and incorporate it within my own style.

"I love Nile Rodgers' guitar playing — he's one of the foremost rhythm men in the world, certainly the best Funk player without a doubt. I like rhythm players generally. Chuck Berry... Bo Diddley, he's a monster. And Pete Townshend. A choppy player, again, very tight; down on the beat, on the 'one' every time. He's no lead player though.

"Lead guitarists? Angus Young, definitely. I love that manic approach. Eddie Van Halen, of course — he's the boss of that superfast style. And the Blues men, BB King, Muddy Waters.

"With BB King, though, you can't copy what he does at all. Watching him live he just puts his head up and plays. He probably doesn't know what notes he's playing, it's just years of practice and knowing the neck.

"That's the reason why you need a lot of time to really get good at guitar playing. The only person I can think of who had a distinctive, good style of his own when he was still young was Gary Moore. Everybody has to treat it like an endurance test, almost. You can get bored with playing and then you put the guitar down for a while and come back to it with fresh enthusiasm and new ideas, but you've got to keep going. I could stop playing now, just keep my hand in enough to play a few concerts and make a few quid. But I don't want to, I want to keep going. Now I've got the opportunity I'd like to blow people's minds.

"But that's enough of me going on."

"It's just what people have been playing for years except we play it faster now"

Okay, then, let's get technical again. What amps do you use?

"Marshalls. I'm having some specially made with two pre-amps in each one so it's like a clean and a dirty channel and you can switch instantaneously from one to the other. I use a stereo set-up, so that's four amps and four for backup.

"Why Marshalls? They're such a basically useless amp, that's why. They're simple, solid and easy to handle. On stage you know what you're doing with them. You turn the treble up and you get more top, you turn the presence up and the sound's there... and that's your lot. They're clean or they're dirty and that's all the choice you get.

"I've taken Marshalls round the world three times and never had a problem. They just don't break, and when all's said and done nobody's ever built anything that sounds like them. There's something... undeniable about the whack you get out of them. When you're a kid you dream of having racks of Marshalls because everyone seems to use them but really when you've tried everything — and I must have — you find out why.

"In the studio I use Mesa Boogies and they're great, but if you're playing live and that particular night there isn't enough cut to your sound, there's far too many controls to have to play with on stage. Marshalls are foolproof. And they're the classic Rock amps. I've got an old Les Paul Goldtop and if you put that through them you get that great, thick late '60s Rock sound. Instant Jimmy Page!"

What about effects?

"I've got rackfuls of effects. I use a Nady wireless system which goes to a little Boss Octave Divider in mono, and two Ratt overdrives which I use because they complement the valve overload sound rather than screw it up by giving it that horrid transistorised quality. It's really unusual to find overdrives which'll give you a good sound through a valve amp. Sometimes I use the two out-of-phase with one another which sounds real weird.

"Then a little mono echo thing which I nicked from Steve Stevens, Billy Idol's guitarist, and sounds like a machine gun. Then I split the signal into stereo and use a stereo AMS echo, a flanger and a harmoniser. And finally it all goes into the amp.

"But having described all that lot, I still think it's in your fingers and the feel you've got, not your gear. I still look for the same things any guitarist has ever looked for... competence on the instrument and stretching your technique within your own time, mastering the art of the guitar to the level of today.

"And you've got to keep going. They figured the basics out a long time ago. Rhythm playing, solos, scales, the rudiments of guitar playing haven't changed for years. R&B is still a great area to draw on for influences. Chuck Berry could play pretty fast and probably exactly the same licks I'd play but with a different sound and in a different context. But there are people like Eddie Van Halen, and even still Beck, who are taking R&B or even Funk styles and orientating them to today, taking them one step further.

"It's just what people have been playing for years except we play it faster now."

So will the next Duran Duran album be full of screaming Metal solos? Or did Mr T enjoy it so much he's not going back to playing pretty Pop?

"Oh no, this was just a one-off. We were allowed to do an album like this Power Station one because everybody ignored us. The record company thought we were just pissing about and they only decided to take any notice when we sent them a bill for a photo session. Next time, though, they'll be breathing down our necks to make it more commercial, saying 'we want singles' all the time. Mind you, the next Duran album's going to be pretty hot..."

I believe some like it that way.