what do great artists do when you see a
world around you that's in turmoil some
of the best artists make you feel good
they look to the future night nights
again okay what about four Mexican
Mexican lucky we're up all night to get
lucky
where I come from groove is is
everything groove is something that's
rewarding on a on a spiritual level on a
primal level an intellectual level and a
physical level mean you feel it the
first time I went into a club and I
heard a Donna Summer record with my
girlfriend at the time she was a
waitress in a really cool jazz club we
walked into a disco I was right in our
neighborhood but we had never been there
before they were playing love to love
you baby and just the magic of that
groove and the way it just sort of wrap
my body is what I feel like when I
listen to this record
I was in the house band at the Apollo
Theater when I was a kid and the main
role that I learned to play in R&B music
was to support those stars that came up
on stage and play more of a secondary
role but I wasn't playing a secondary
role in fact I was playing a primary
role because a lot of the stuff that I
was playing if you take that part out
the song goes away it's not there
anymore my style of disco was based on
jazz fusion if you will I came up in the
jazz fusion era
I grew up making records that had to be
interesting with a lot of what we call
the one time only events that would
happen throughout the course of a linear
a linear journey a song and so it's that
single note thing in the midst of that
in the middle of that truck that makes
the melodies and the licks just for to
jump out at you because I'm playing a
melody in between playing the rhythm so
you hear the only device that we had to
clear a path to make our own way was our
music that's all we had we did have
money we couldn't pay off a DJ we
couldn't do anything all we had to do is
say listen to this if you like it could
you please play it and let's see what
happens no one would have known chic had
I not been able to get that very first
record to the DJ it's too different
before that's how we became known we
were an R&B band that had figured out
this jazzy type of formula to present
music that DJ's could listen to one time
and play it and the people would hear it
one time and respond and that's how we
crafted our records do you play it first
time you got them
90% if not higher of all recordings that
I've ever made in my life have been a
result of a very impromptu initial
meeting that feels so natural and so
organic that she has to take it to the
next level Bowie I met at an after-hours
Club he was sitting all by himself
drinking orange juice all literally all
by himself Madonna I met her she was an
opening act for another group that I was
interested in seeing Duran Duran were
opening for blondie you know and so it's
all these wacky random events that
turned into real relationships and
that's what happened here I mean we'd
met years ago at a dock pump listening
party in New York we almost hooked up in
Paris but I got stuck in San Tropez or
maybe it was the other way around they
were stuck in San Tropez and I was in
Paris but you know all of these close
shaves and the next thing you know they
said hey man we're in New York
recording come on down to the studio and
it really basically happened in a very
organic way you know as artists we
follow each other's careers and it was
just it was uh they were cooler than I
thought you know the best collaborations
in my life are when the people you work
with are as good as you expect and then
even better to that you realize that the
person brings more to the party because
you inspire that other artist to go to
another level as they do you so you you
know when I work with the guys it wasn't
like I was just Nile Rodgers doing a
session or collaborating it was being
inspired by people and artists that make
you go to another level
they make you up your game even if your
game is pretty good is this felt the
same as when I work with like Bernard or
or Herbie Hancock
or or Bowie or Madonna or any of the
cool people that I've worked with where
we make each other better
that those are the kind of relationships
I live for almost I mattify a hundred
percent of the big records that I've
produced I play on doesn't make any
difference if it's a band and they have
a guitar player or two so um if I'm you
know with Duran Duran who or you know
whatever and I'm doing something like
notorious and it's like a you know you
can still tell it's Niall rudders
because even though I'm playing now
that's not on any chic record but on
Duran it was the right thing to go and
it's you know that's the essence of my
playing is that it's always about cool
voice leading what we call smooth voice
leading not playing like some wacky
stuff to go hey notice me I'm playing
one time all the events to keep the
journey interesting here's the thing
that's really amazing about this record
for me not only do we record it in the
studio where I recorded my first chic
single not only do I know it as Hendrix
estudio Electric Ladyland but that's I
grew up as a child in that neighborhood
that that I mean that's my hood that's
you know I walk that Street
dozens a time with my parents I played
in that recording studio before it was
even a recording studio when it was a
nightclub called generation it was like
amazing I've had jams in there with
everybody from the scene back when I was
a kid in the late 60s so there are a lot
of spirits if you will talking to me
that's what music is that's what art is
it's it is timeless when you see a great
painting from the Renaissance this Bob
Dylan would say it's like looking at
current events
you've had such an effect on pop music
such an effect on dance music can you go
through some of your big monstrous hits
you hear in this in this record my type
of chord playing is not like the normal
guitar player because I do a lot of
inversions so like on a typical song
light let's dance where the basic chords
were something like but I play it when
I'm playing a song like let's dance eat
on the Bowie record I loot I don't do
the traditional Nile style because I was
trying to be and I tried to have an
original approach on it that record on
random access memories you know I wanted
to be Nile but I wanted to be a new Nile
the robot says artists have evolved um a
lot of artists that were you know maybe
20 years younger than myself explained
to me which I never even thought about
they say uh before we did hip hop what
do you think we're listening to
there was no your pop we're listening to
disco that's why the first big hip hop
record is a sample of one of my records
rapper's delight'
comes from good times this is what
happens right this is what happens to
life it evolves it just it changes you
can't help it
and that's what has happened with the
robots they've come to a place that's
beyond where they started and they've
evolved they're in a style of music that
I think I'm virtually I know pretty well
and and I feel like I'm working with
contemporaries I feel like I'm working
with people who grew up with me and who
feel it the same way we felt the vibe
when we were creating this stuff it's
like they went back to go forward the
song is going to be I think the track of
the summer can we play it wow that's
cool that's disco that is cool oh thanks
again nice to get lucky we're up all
night to get lucky
thanks again lucky Mexican lucky Mexican
lucky night second lucky night second
lucky Mexican lucky
thanks again lucky we're up all night to
get lucky we're up all night to get
lucky
thanks again lucky thanks king lucky
we're up all night to get lucky
Mexican lucky we're up all night to get
lucky
Mexican lucky we're up all night to get
lucky we're up all night to get lucky
we're up all night to get lucky