This is a transcript of an interview I did for David Buckley's book on David Bowie, Strange Fascination, out on 9/23/99 from Virgin Books.
1. I'd like to have some general info about your other production work before you worked with David.
I'm a producer, engineer, and musician based in New York City, where I've lived since 1987. I got my start in New York working for producer
Arthur Baker at his studio, Shakedown Sound. At that point I was a bassist but I wanted to become a recording engineer and mixer, with the
intention of eventually becoming a producer. Musically, at the time I was primarily into rock and folk music, and I assumed my
engineering/ production career would follow along a similar path. After going to college in Indiana and doing an internship in Dallas,
Texas, I decided to go to New York because I couldn't stand LA, and London seemed too complicated from the immigration side of things.
When I arrived in New York my experience with dance music was minimal. The only studio that would hire me as an assistant was Arthur's - all the
other ones wanted me to clean toilets for six months before I'd get to look at the desk. Even though I knew little about programming, sampling,
or dance music in general, I went for it. It was trial by fire. I had to learn fast as Arthur would throw you right on the session if you
were a warm body and you had a clue. In six months I was engineering, in nine months I was mixing. At Shakedown I hooked up with the DJ
Junior Vasquez, and we were a team for a couple of years. We were a good match - he was just beginning to produce, and I was sharpening
my methods of mixing, sampling, playing and programming. We learned a lot from each other. In 1990 we went up to Paisley Park and worked with
Prince, and ended up doing remixes for him for a few months after that. This was the apex of the dance thing for me, and I started producing
on my own after that, in the UK and Europe. I wanted to get back into rock but bring all that I had learned with me, and make it a bit more
interesting.
2. Why did David pick you to work on the album and did you meet up with him to discuss ideas before recording?
A couple of factors were responsible. David came to work at The Looking Glass Studios because he knew Philip Glass, most recently from Philip's
symphonic arrangement of 'Low'. David had been working on '1.Outside' at the Hit Factory, among other studios, and he wanted a change. David,
Reeves Gabrels, and Andy Spray from Isolar fell in love with Philip's studio immediately - it has a nice big control room, and a window with a
view of the Manhattan Bridge. They were going to bring in an engineer from the Hit Factory, then decided that they should go with somebody who
really knew the room. I was the perfect candidate, as I had been working at Looking Glass since 1991 - I did Deee-Lite there, among many projects -
and it had been my base of operations for some time by that point. After we met David realized he knew some of my work, most recently Babylon
Zoo's 'Spaceman'. (I also worked on 'Fame '90' with Arthur Baker, which David found out about much, much later!) The making of the album that
would become 'Earthling' grew out of David wanting to finish up a song he had begun in Switzerland, called 'Telling Lies'. The first thing we
did was add more parts to what already existed. Zach Alford came in to do drums, Reeves added guitars, I did some programming, and David did more
vocals and had some keyboard ideas. I then mixed this version at Electric Lady Studios. I also did my own remix at the time, which would become
known as the 'Feelgood' mix when it was released as part of an Internet-Only single. After this, he said he wanted to do an album, with me
involved, after they finished their summer '96 festival tour. I didn't really believe him - you hear that sort of thing all the time in this
industry, and most promises don't materialize in the end. I went to see them play in Leipzig, Germany during that tour, while I was working in
Berlin. This was the first time I met Gail Ann Dorsey and Mike Garson. David continued to go on about making a record. I still wasn't sure whether
or not to believe him, but sure enough when they got off the road, two days later they showed up at the studio.
3. Were you a big Bowie fan before Earthling?
Who wasn't? I had spells of being into his music. The first time I heard 'Space Oddity' was in 1973. I figured it out on guitar a few years later,
which really knocked me out - I thought the chord progression was so cool. 'Fame' was a big one of course. The first album I had a lot of exposure
to was 'Station to Station'. They used to play it a lot on WPLJ, a major FM album station at that time ('76) in New York. 'Golden Years', 'TVC-15'
and 'Stay' were staples of that station's programming - I guess this dates me, you'd never have that now! I missed out on Low, then got into
'Heroes' and 'Lodger' and of course 'Scary Monsters'. "Ashes to Ashes' was an amazing song to me at the time. It still is. I got a little off the
boat after that, though certain songs - 'China Girl', 'This is Not America', 'Under Pressure' - still pulled me in. I didn't dismiss David, I was
just into other things. I was mostly into his music, not the style thing. I sure wasn't one of those lightning-bolt kids - I was far too geeky
at that age to do anything like that! I was one of the ones who stayed home in their rooms learning the songs. I used to play 'Rebel, Rebel' in
adolescent bands - thank God no tapes of that exist! The costumes and make up were okay, and the androgynous stuff was interesting, too -
I remember the 'Boys Keep Swinging' clip where he was all those female characters, and 'Ashes to Ashes' where he's the clown. There was
something compelling about it all, even though most of my male friends at the time were grossed out! Once we began the record, every once in a
while when I'd be programming I'd look over at David on the couch - he'd be smoking and reading, as usual - and the sunlight would catch him at
just the right angle, and for a split second it'd hit me - it's fuckin' Ziggy!
4. I understand that Earthling was recorded at Philip Glass' studio. Why was this venue chosen and did the choice of venue influence the
album in any way?
See my previous answer for a lot of this (2). I think Looking Glass, and Soho in New York City, had a lot to do with the record. The staff of the
studio was incredibly accommodating yet quirky. Reeves and Gail soon began calling Looking Glass the 'Clubhouse'. David and Reeves would go out
to art galleries while I would do some busy work, look for sounds or fix something. It was incredibly comfortable and loose, and the view of the
outside world with day turning into night seemed to add a lot as well. Friends from the DB universe would pop in. David Lynch, Tony Oursler,
Lou Reed, others. My then-three year old daughter would come in and play David's sax. Of course, he never knew about that ...
5. I have read that the whole album took a matter of a few weeks to write and record. Did the speed of the whole operation surprise you?
Very much. I had heard from Reeves about the making of '1.Outside' - hours of jam sessions which were then edited into songs and overdubbed further
- and it seemed like this was an option at first. We tried this the first time the full band came in after a lot of the songs were already
partially written and recorded, and it didn't seem to pan out. Most of the song ideas that David, Reeves and I had already begun seemed like a
better starting point, rather than fishing for a nugget through a couple of hours of jamming on miles of tape. When the tour ended, David and
Reeves came in for two weeks before the rest of the band - Mike, Gail, and Zach - showed up. We began putting song ideas and arrangements into the
computer, not to tape. I had begun getting into hard disk based recording, and at that time I was getting reasonably good at it, enough to track
vocals and guitars right to the hard drive. My equipment at the time was pretty simple - a Jaz cartridge, 2 inputs and 2 outputs, and not much
else - but it proved to be an ideal way of getting audio information into a format where you could easily move it around at a whim. We would
come up with a verse and a chorus section, then David would say 'let's hear a verse, a chorus, a verse, a double chorus, a break,etc....' and
I would be able to do all that in about 30 seconds. If I were dubbing and splicing tape, it might take a few hours to get it right! We were all
immediately sold on this, and this was how the songs were created. When the band came in they added their parts over what we had started - by this
time we'd upgraded to a larger system capable of handling what we needed - and when it came time to do drums, this was the point where we'd finally
put all the tracks from the computer onto tape. I anticipated that we'd be working on the album for 6-9 months, then mix. I was pleasantly
surprised.
6. Apart from 'Telling Lies' I understand that the whole of the album was written in the studio. How did the music and lyrics come together
and what were the respective roles of Reeves, Bowie, the band and you?
When I visited the band on the '96 festival tour, David asked Reeves and I to get together ideas and tracks for possible use on the album. When
we met after the tour, we played all these ideas and chose bits and pieces to start with. I'll get more into song-by-song specifics later on.
As we'd work on a track I'd see David jotting things on Post-it notes or in his computer. Reeves and I would concentrate on the music, though David
would have certain lines he would hear or certain sounds he'd want to try. The framework of most of the songs was done this way - once that was in
place the band would overdub their parts.
7. How does David compare to the other great vocalists you have worked with and what sort of vocal sound were you trying to get on the album?
David may have been the easiest vocalist I've ever worked with. He was definitely 'old school' - just send him out there and he'd have it done in
a flash! There were very few multiple takes - he'd sing all the way through, unless he forgot a word or something, in which case I'd back up a
few seconds, drop in, and proceed. He had no particular preferences for types of headphones, headphone mixes, or microphones. I have an old
Neumann tube mic which I tracked all of David's vocals with, and it sounded perfect for him. I didn't really go for a particular sound while
recording, I just wanted to capture everything I could, which meant recording and saving everything from the very beginning. Lucky for me, because
the guide vocal – the first run-through - for 'little Wonder' ended up being the only one he ever sang on that track! Most vocals were first take,
which I'd never have happen in my career. While doing the first arrangement of 'Dead Man Walking' we (or rather, I!) lost David's vocal - it just
disappeared from the hard drive before I could back up the days' work. I had the job of telling him...which luckily turned out to be no big deal.
He just went out and did it again! Of course, the next day we upgraded so that this would never happen again ...
8. Did David come in with a musical plan for the album and did you regard his affinity with dance music as opportunistic or heartfelt?
I have read in interviews that he wanted to update the sort of music that Big Audio Dynamite were making in the 1980s - to mix guitar-based
rock with contemporary dance grooves.
David's plan was to have melody-driven songs over tracks that had guitar and groove, whether it be techno, jungle, or whatever. I never heard the
B.A.D. reference at the time, but it certainly does make sense. I didn't find David to be opportunistic at all - I believe he was genuinely
excited by dance music and the scene that goes with it, the way it keeps changing and reinventing itself in such an organic way, from bedroom to
bedroom, club to club. He was truly inspired, I think, and believed in what we were doing - another reason for our brisk pace. There was very
little second guessing, if any.
9. Although the album was well received by critics and Bowie's hardcore fans (I thought it a terrific album), it did not cross over into the
mainstream market at all. Was this ever an intention and where you surprised that the album wasn't a bigger hit? Were you surprised at the choice
of singles?
I was surprised that it wasn't bigger than it was. There was a lot of publicity before the record came out, reviews, other related events like the
Bridge School benefit with Neil Young and the 50th Birthday concert and broadcast - all of it good. It felt like a huge wave, the likes of which
I'd never experienced before. We did the round of shows - Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Letterman (I say 'we' because I went along to
help supervise the mixing at those shows). In the end, it couldn't get on the radio or MTV to the extent that everyone had hoped … yet every
review of the record I read was so positive. Of course, in this industry you never know. The choice of singles seemed right to me.
10. Earthling was trailed in the media as Bowie's drum 'n' bass album. Was it the intention to sell the album this way, despite the fact that
under half the tracks have a drum 'n bass edge? What I'm getting at here is that a lot of people I've spoken to were put off by this sales
strategy (thinking like me that most of drum 'n bass was substandard and dopey) and even David himself appears bemused in interviews that the
media thought of the album as his jungle opus.
I never thought that it was a drum 'n' bass record, or that David was attempting to become a jungle artist - I heard him say several times that
he had no intention of becoming one, it just wasn't the point. I'm not sure where that whole thing began or if/when it became a sales strategy,
or just wishful thinking on the part of some interviewers/reviewers/etc. People see what they want to see, you know. I'm not sure how many people
were put off in America - at that time not many people had heard of jungle, especially outside the cities.
11. Did David ever discuss the lyrics to any of the songs with you? Personally, I think it's a great album lyrically, rich in allusion
('Telling Lies' echoes 'The Book of Revelation', for example).
Not really, no. I know that some of the songs came about through his random process - getting the computer to spit out random patterns of words,
and building on that - but usually I was doing other things while he was scribbling away on the couch.
12. Did it ever strike you as incongruous that David was using contemporary dance music, which is essentially star-less (the Prodigy aside,
dance acts simply don't have an act), when Bowie himself is the world's greatest rock showman?
No it doesn't strike me as incongruous. To my knowledge, he was inspired by the music and sound of those groups, not their live performance -
he would supply the showman part!
13. Lyrically the album is quite introspective, sad, yearning, spiritual even. Did this reflect the fact that David was about to hit 50 and
was feeling a little more mortal than usual?
I don't know. My impression was that turning 50 didn't seem to bother him too much. We were probably too busy at that point to really deal with
it - getting the album done, and preparing for the Birthday Show.........
14. Does the fact that the album utilised the dance sound of the day (and recombined them) date the album unnecessarily?
I listened to it yesterday for the first time in over a year - it still sounds amazing, fresh. I don't feel like it will date itself embarrassingly,
like a lot of the records from the '80's with big hair and big snare drums, and not much else. The songs are there, and the production is pretty
tasteful. Sure, there will be '90's references, but I think that's a good thing.
15. I'd like to talk to you in detail about the creation of each of the tracks on the album and how they were put together musically.
How much of the music was band created and how much was Bowie's? Does David employ certain distinctive chord sequences or phrases? Even though
Bowie is attempting a mix of dance and rock there's something irreducibly 'Bowiesque' about the sound and I was wondering if you could trace this
to the deployment of any trademark chord changes.
Track by track, you asked for it! You can use what you want of course, but I didn't write all of this strictly with the intention of it being
published. It's a good thing for me to write down all these things to keep as a record of, well, making a record.
Little Wonder : Reeves and I began work on this track one day when David was otherwise occupied. Armed with some new drum loops and a tape of
Reeves making guitars noises, we set to it. Reeves had been getting really into the VG-8 and coming up with all sorts of wacky sounds. I had to
go home the previous night to babysit, so Reeves spent the evening with my assistant, Dante DeSole, laying down all sorts of sonic treats.
This tape they made was extremely valuable- from it we also drew sounds that inspired the development of Battle for Britain, Law, and Seven Years
in Tibet. The next day we presented David with what we'd done - basically a rhythm track with a sprinkling of noises and synth parts. First,
David came up with a sequence of the samples Reeves had created - the sounds that make up the intro of the song. Then David sat down with an
electric guitar - we had him and Reeves set up with miniature Fernandez electric guitars, which we were recording constantly - and came up with
the chord sequence. He said it was like a '50's chord sequence (I believe he called it 'street corner singing', though I recognized it as a doo-wop
progression) with a twist - the last chord was a half step higher than usual. Perhaps this is what makes it 'Bowie-esque', this little quirk.
Usually, each song had at least one or two. Then the 'so far away' section came straight after that and a basic arrangement was created in the
computer. A flurry of Post-it notes later that day, and we had the framework of the lyrics, a guide vocal, and a title. The second verse was
written a few weeks later.At this stage the idea for Little Wonder was that it'd be a 9 minute jungle-electronic epic- much longer than on the
album, but essentially the same idea. At that point I never would have thought we could have cut it into a four minute single. The middle was to
be filled with all sorts of effects, atmospheres, breaks, etc. This took quite a while to finish. Some ideas (the train after the 2nd verse for
instance) made it into the body of the song.When the band showed up, they added their parts - Gail put down the bass, Zach the drums, Mike a
harpsichord pad. These gave a much more rock shape to the track and for the first time it was apparent, to me at least, it could be a single.
Looking for Satellites : This was the second track we worked on, and it sprung out of an idea I had created over the summer. I had wanted to try
something in 3 - I hadn't heard much electronic stuff in 3 so I set out to make one. This was one of the first attempts to consciously make
something out of 'junk' - a theme throughout the record, of taking any sound and making something musical out of it. I used samples from lots of
records I'd done before and reshaped them, twisted them, made them into new sounds through manipulation and combination with other sounds.
When I played it to David and Reeves it was the foundation - the rhythm, some chord information, and a few musical lines. David and Reeves
immediately scrapped the chords and built a new progression based around a diminished chord. This became the verse, and we returned to Dmajor -
the original key of the track, as so many of the samples were tuned to it - for the chorus. Again, it was a case of David and Reeves jamming
against the track to come up with chord sequences. This was also the first time where they became aware that I was recording everything in the
computer. Reeves' solo came about by experimenting - as they usually do - and they were doodling, deciding on approaches to take. David thought
that Reeves should try to play the entire solo on one string - it would shape his playing and note choices accordingly. All of the attempts were
recorded and we made one coherent, fantastic solo out of a few different choices - we took little pieces, moved sections around a bit. We began
to see what was possible with hard disk recording. A whirlwind of cigarettes and Post-It notes in the back of the room, and most of the vocal
was done that day (a second verse was added in a few weeks). Of course, I didn't realize they were finished vocals....I figured they were only
amazing guide vocals, to be replaced by the 'real' vocal later, as is usually the case. When the band came in, this was the first track they
played to. Gail's bass really made the track sing. It was also my first attempt to compile Zach's drums in the computer and straighten out the
timing problems.
Battle for Britain (The Letter): Another track which sprang from an idea that I'd come up with over the summer, my attempt to do a jazz-tinged
jungle track. The only real jungle thing I'd done was the Feelgood mix of 'Telling Lies', which I found to be great fun. There weren't any
boundaries, and I didn't have any particular reverence for the form or anything. Again, David scrapped the chords, and the electric guitars
came out to figure out new ones. I found the chord progression to be real catchy but unique, and I felt like this could be our first real 'Bowie'
song. I think at this point I felt the focus of the record come together, it was the first time I heard mention of david's intent for the record
to be melody driven - there would be actual songs over intense atmospheres, but the atmosphere wouldn't dominate. I got excited.
Again, a repeat if the day before - we were cranking these out one per day. Reeves would be coming up with guitar parts and sounds, I'd be at the
computer recording him or working on the arrangement, and David would be on the couch listening to the track over and over, writing the lyric.
At days' end he'd do a vocal.The arrangement of this track took an interesting turn. In the middle David wanted to have a piano solo - he imagined
Mike Garson playing Stravinsky over mad beats. Also, I had been experimenting with chopping things up in the computer and throwing them about -
I'd read about the Beatles during Sgt. Pepper, chopping up bits of tapes for 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', and reassembling them in a
random fashion. My attempt to do this became the break after the piano. Once again, when the band came in they added their parts. Gails' bass
once again provided supple support to the programming, and Mike's piano worked out perfectly. The drums were another matter. When I recorded
Zach on 'Telling Lies' earlier in the year, David wanted to make a loop of his drums- Zach played a few bars, and I sampled it and sped it up to
a typical jungle tempo of 160 BPM. It then took on the frenetic, double time feel of jungle. He then played his live drums over this in half time,
so that you had both sets of rhythms going at the same time. The trick would be that he had to play exactly in time or it would sound like a
train wreck. We didn't have a lot of time during 'Telling Lies' - he did a few takes and we bounced them together on tape. It was pretty solid,
and I just ducked the loop a bit when Zach was a little out of time. Zach is a good drummer, but I really couldn't expect anybody to keep in time
with 160 BPM.When it came time to do 'Battle for Britain' (only called 'The Letter' at this time) we decided to go one better - the drums and
programming had to be seamless. The drums were loaded in the computer and manipulated each and every beat to match the programming. It took days.
The results speak for themselves.
Seven Years in Tibet : This came about from a track Reeves had written on the summer '96 tour. I believe it was called 'Brussels.' Again, it was a
case of taking preconceived idea, and finding new chords. This one took on an amazing shape, in the end. The usual routine - use some of Reeves'
samples from the sample tape (David would have them on the keyboard, and he'd chose a few to use) break out the guitars and come up with chords,
then a lyric at day's end. This track seemed promising but it wasn't favorite until the band came in. They made it take on a new life, especially
Mike Garson's Farfisa organ solo, inspired by Reeves. Reeves never gave up on this track, he was really the one who saw this one through, he had a
real vision for it. This re-inspired David, who came up with ideas such as running his voice through a ring modulator in the choruses.
Dead Man Walking : The first attempt to write a song in the studio without a pre-existing idea. David wanted it to be techno influenced, in
particular by the band Underworld. We came up with a basic rhythm program, and immediately David turned to the guitar and the 'Superman' chords
came out, as well as the story about Jimmy Page. Another 'Bowie' song was coming, I could tell. Our routine as usual - Reeves searched for some
guitar sounds for the verse, I came up with the Moog synth part at the beginning, and David wrote a lyric, my favorite of the record.This was the
track where I lost his guide vocal while backing up the drive (we decided then and there to upgrade), and after telling him, he sang it over the
next time we addressed the track. David actually sang this again during the mix, the only track he sang over.When the band came in, instead of
focusing the track like the other songs, they made it even more blurry. Too many elements on tape! It was a bit hard to listen to for a while.
As Reeves had done for 'Seven Years', I really took it upon myself to work this track to some conclusion. It took five days to sort it out during
the mix, but it became a real epic. I begins completely programmed, and by the time it's finished, it's completely live.
Telling Lies : We did this in spring, before the tour. David had a demo of it from Switzerland, and he wanted to finish it. It was a quickie,
done in a couple of days, most of the time devoted to the live drums (I've already explained how the drums were done......) We mixed it, then I did
a remix called the Feelgood Mix, and A Guy Called Gerald did a real underground jungle thing with it. These three tracks were the ones released as
the internet single. Then, during the record David decided to touch it up a bit - he changed the lyric slightly, Reeves added some guitar synth
lines, Gail did a more melodic bass, Mike some keys, and I added in a few sounds from the remix I did. The major change was in the structure,
where after the second chorus we cleared the track out, leaving Mike's synth pad and a piano part from the remix. Then the song built itself up
again. David was insistent on 'Telling Lies' - it was never one of my favorites, until we completed it for the album.
The Last Thing You Should Do : This was meant to be a B-Side. After mastering the album it was decided we'd need some additional material for
B-Sides. Reeves and I did the entire track in a day - drums, guitars, bass, programming, etc. David heard it, added a synth part in the middle
(the descending piano part in the break) then did a lyric and vocal in something like 20 minutes. We did a quick mix right then and there, and
figured, voila, our first B-Side, and a great one at that. The next day the plan changed - this would be on the album, replacing a remake of
'Baby Universal' and a beautiful acoustic version of 'I Can't Read' (which eventually wound up on the BBC Radio acoustic special, The Birthday
Show, and on the soundtrack to The Ice Storm). I had to admit I missed 'I Can't Read' being on the record - I disagreed strongly with David at
the time - but his argument was that 'Last Thing' fit in better conceptually. I think time has shown him to be correct.
I'm Afraid of Americans: This was reconstructed from an earlier version of the song done during the 1.Outside period for a soundtrack I think
(don't ask me which one). There we a couple of 48-track masters for it, and we pulled things off of several different reels to make this new
composite. It was quite a clean up job, not the most enjoyable as we were trying to salvage something. Of course, it did come together..!! David
added some new lyrics, Mike some electric piano, Reeves an amazing assortment of fuzz boxes to create a wall of noise (he wanted to use all the
ones in his collection) and Gail and Zach their bits. Law (Earthlings on Fire) : The first track we started working on after the end of the summer
'96 tour, which was based on one of Reeves hotel-room ideas called 'Bits'. It changed direction a few times, until it assumed more the shape of a
sound collage. It's also the only track with a real guitar amp - the rest of the record is VG-8 and pedals. Gail, Zach and Mike don't play on it
at all. David sang into an empty water cooler bottle, among other things, and we played around a lot with an Eventide 910 Harmonizer, an old
electronic pitch shifter which David probably used in the '70s.
16. How much did Bowie deliberately borrow from his back catalogue?
I know, for example that 'Dead Man Walking' uses the same chords as 'The Supermen' (chords 'given' to David in the 1960s by Jimmy Page),
whilst the synth line on 'The Last Thing You Should Do' comes from 'The Laughing Gnome', via 'Speed Of Life' and 'Beat Of Your Drum.' Bowie
appears to be in a state of on-going dialogue with his past. 'Dead Man Walking' was a good example of this, as well as the updated 'Fame', 'V2
Schneider', and 'Stay' from the Earthling tour. But, as far as 'The Last Thing', I'm unaware of any conscious borrowing in this track. It didn't
strike me that we were avoiding his catalogue, to be sure. I had expected that working with David would mean no revisiting the oldies, a cue I
got from the Sound and Vision tour, which was supposed to be the last time a lot of old tunes would see the light of day. From my perspective he
seems rather comfortable with his past.
17. Is he as funny as he appears in interviews!? Any pithy or amusing anecdotes about the recording of the album?
Yes, he's amazingly funny and charming. That record was an absolute pleasure to make. The studio staff bent over backwards because he truly
appreciated them and he was genuine. David would go from explaining his views on modern art and sharing books with the works of Damien Hirst and
Joel Peter Whitken, to enjoying us throwing muffins out the studio window onto the tops of taxicabs. My twisted sense of humor fit in perfectly
with him and Reeves from Day One. David would make fun of me in my biker shorts; I'd tell him and Reeves to piss off and go find an art opening
when they were bothering me. David, Reeves, Andy Spray, and myself went to Ireland for pre-production for the Earthling tour. Four guys alone,
no women - it pretty much turned into what sort of silliness you'd expect. One day I received some CD's of a record I'd worked on with Arthur
Baker - I believe it was a Babylon Zoo single. After working with Arthur for ten years he still couldn't spell my last name right, and sure enough
my credit was wrong. I got really angry and flipped out, throwing the CD down the hallway. I then look at David, who is mockingly following my
example and has a handful of my personal CD's that he's ready to throw them out the window. He then says, as if I've caught him with his hand in
the cookie jar, 'I thought that was what we were supposed to be doing'. I was never let off the hook about my name after that.
18. When did David come up with the title for the album?
It was some time around the Roseland show in New York - Sept 14th, 1996. I recall it had come up during that previous week, though I don't remember
the exact day. At that show he asked the audience if the album should be called 'Earthling' or 'Earthlings'. The audience chose the former.
The art for the album came together over the course of recording the album. Every new idea or concept would be put up on the wall. By the end of
tracking the walls of the studio were filled with the artwork that would become the album.
19. The Earthling album appears to have killed off the planned three-album collaboration with Eno. And Bowie appears unsure of how to follow
it up,given that it's two years now since the recording of the album. Do you think David could take the sort of innovative dance/rock fusion on
Earthling anywhere else?
I don't know. That record really makes a statement, in my opinion, and I don't know where you could go with it next, or if you'd want to go
somewhere with it. Where's the next level? Then again I'm not inside his head, so I don't know how he feels about it...... I think one great thing
about David is that he knows when to quit, and reinvent. You can see that throughout his career, I'm sure.
20. Do you have plans to work again?
In the immediate future, not to my knowledge. But you never know!
21. By the way, I forgot to ask you about the 50th Birthday show which you mixed. Any thoughts on this project!?
Or on any live mixes you did from the 1997 tour?
We began working on the Birthday Show right after the album was mixed. We created several new arrangements of songs. This was an amazing thing
to work on for me technically as I hadn't done much work with video. Some things were incredible - everyone involved know that this was something
special. All the musical guests were so glad to be there, the feeling backstage was genuinely warm. At the party afterward, David seemed very,
very happy, which was a nice thing to see. On a more personal note, I did the backing arrangement for the solo version of 'Space Oddity', which
meant a lot to me. Some things were downright pathetic, like keeping on schedule with the video people, who'd move the goalposts every other day
while I was mixing, and not supply us with up-to-date edits, and really had zero interest in the audio quality of the project - they'd just assume
use the rough mixes from the night of the show (and indeed one of the broadcasts did, by mistake - they couldn't hear the difference). Tim Pope was
great, but at times the rest of the video team treated us like an unnecessary pain in the ass, which is not that unusual in those situations,
so I'm told.
Before the Birthday Concert we recorded several acoustic versions of older songs for a BBC special. This was an amazing session. We did most of
the songs in a day - David, Reeves, and Gail together live. I added some strings and keys after the fact. David did 6 lead vocal tracks in 2 hours.
By the time I did the mixes for what was intended be the Earthling Live CD, I had mixed most of the songs before, several times. Some tracks were
nearly always stellar - Seven Years in Tibet, Battle for Britain, Little Wonder, Last Thing You Should Do. These were guaranteed never to
disappoint, and were usually pretty easy to mix. Satellites, I'm Afraid of Americans and Telling Lies were more typical in that there would be
on-nights and off-nights. Some tracks, like Law and the album version of Dead Man Walking, were never played live (though they did perform a
version of Moby's remix of Dead Man Walking).
1. I'd like to have some general info about your other production work before you worked with David.
I'm a producer, engineer, and musician based in New York City, where I've lived since 1987. I got my start in New York working for producer Arthur Baker at his studio, Shakedown Sound. At that point I was a bassist but I wanted to become a recording engineer and mixer, with the intention of eventually becoming a producer. Musically, at the time I was primarily into rock and folk music, and I assumed my engineering/ production career would follow along a similar path. After going to college in Indiana and doing an internship in Dallas, Texas, I decided to go to New York because I couldn't stand LA, and London seemed too complicated from the immigration side of things. When I arrived in New York my experience with dance music was minimal. The only studio that would hire me as an assistant was Arthur's - all the other ones wanted me to clean toilets for six months before I'd get to look at the desk. Even though I knew little about programming, sampling, or dance music in general, I went for it. It was trial by fire. I had to learn fast as Arthur would throw you right on the session if you were a warm body and you had a clue. In six months I was engineering, in nine months I was mixing. At Shakedown I hooked up with the DJ Junior Vasquez, and we were a team for a couple of years. We were a good match - he was just beginning to produce, and I was sharpening my methods of mixing, sampling, playing and programming. We learned a lot from each other. In 1990 we went up to Paisley Park and worked with Prince, and ended up doing remixes for him for a few months after that. This was the apex of the dance thing for me, and I started producing on my own after that, in the UK and Europe. I wanted to get back into rock but bring all that I had learned with me, and make it a bit more interesting.
2. Why did David pick you to work on the album and did you meet up with him to discuss ideas before recording?
A couple of factors were responsible. David came to work at The Looking Glass Studios because he knew Philip Glass, most recently from Philip's symphonic arrangement of 'Low'. David had been working on '1.Outside' at the Hit Factory, among other studios, and he wanted a change. David, Reeves Gabrels, and Andy Spray from Isolar fell in love with Philip's studio immediately - it has a nice big control room, and a window with a view of the Manhattan Bridge. They were going to bring in an engineer from the Hit Factory, then decided that they should go with somebody who really knew the room. I was the perfect candidate, as I had been working at Looking Glass since 1991 - I did Deee-Lite there, among many projects - and it had been my base of operations for some time by that point. After we met David realized he knew some of my work, most recently Babylon Zoo's 'Spaceman'. (I also worked on 'Fame '90' with Arthur Baker, which David found out about much, much later!) The making of the album that would become 'Earthling' grew out of David wanting to finish up a song he had begun in Switzerland, called 'Telling Lies'. The first thing we did was add more parts to what already existed. Zach Alford came in to do drums, Reeves added guitars, I did some programming, and David did more vocals and had some keyboard ideas. I then mixed this version at Electric Lady Studios. I also did my own remix at the time, which would become known as the 'Feelgood' mix when it was released as part of an Internet-Only single. After this, he said he wanted to do an album, with me involved, after they finished their summer '96 festival tour. I didn't really believe him - you hear that sort of thing all the time in this industry, and most promises don't materialize in the end. I went to see them play in Leipzig, Germany during that tour, while I was working in Berlin. This was the first time I met Gail Ann Dorsey and Mike Garson. David continued to go on about making a record. I still wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, but sure enough when they got off the road, two days later they showed up at the studio.
3. Were you a big Bowie fan before Earthling?
Who wasn't? I had spells of being into his music. The first time I heard 'Space Oddity' was in 1973. I figured it out on guitar a few years later, which really knocked me out - I thought the chord progression was so cool. 'Fame' was a big one of course. The first album I had a lot of exposure to was 'Station to Station'. They used to play it a lot on WPLJ, a major FM album station at that time ('76) in New York. 'Golden Years', 'TVC-15' and 'Stay' were staples of that station's programming - I guess this dates me, you'd never have that now! I missed out on Low, then got into 'Heroes' and 'Lodger' and of course 'Scary Monsters'. "Ashes to Ashes' was an amazing song to me at the time. It still is. I got a little off the boat after that, though certain songs - 'China Girl', 'This is Not America', 'Under Pressure' - still pulled me in. I didn't dismiss David, I was just into other things. I was mostly into his music, not the style thing. I sure wasn't one of those lightning-bolt kids - I was far too geeky at that age to do anything like that! I was one of the ones who stayed home in their rooms learning the songs. I used to play 'Rebel, Rebel' in adolescent bands - thank God no tapes of that exist! The costumes and make up were okay, and the androgynous stuff was interesting, too - I remember the 'Boys Keep Swinging' clip where he was all those female characters, and 'Ashes to Ashes' where he's the clown. There was something compelling about it all, even though most of my male friends at the time were grossed out! Once we began the record, every once in a while when I'd be programming I'd look over at David on the couch - he'd be smoking and reading, as usual - and the sunlight would catch him at just the right angle, and for a split second it'd hit me - it's fuckin' Ziggy!
4. I understand that Earthling was recorded at Philip Glass' studio. Why was this venue chosen and did the choice of venue influence the album in any way?
See my previous answer for a lot of this (2). I think Looking Glass, and Soho in New York City, had a lot to do with the record. The staff of the studio was incredibly accommodating yet quirky. Reeves and Gail soon began calling Looking Glass the 'Clubhouse'. David and Reeves would go out to art galleries while I would do some busy work, look for sounds or fix something. It was incredibly comfortable and loose, and the view of the outside world with day turning into night seemed to add a lot as well. Friends from the DB universe would pop in. David Lynch, Tony Oursler, Lou Reed, others. My then-three year old daughter would come in and play David's sax. Of course, he never knew about that ...
5. I have read that the whole album took a matter of a few weeks to write and record. Did the speed of the whole operation surprise you?
Very much. I had heard from Reeves about the making of '1.Outside' - hours of jam sessions which were then edited into songs and overdubbed further - and it seemed like this was an option at first. We tried this the first time the full band came in after a lot of the songs were already partially written and recorded, and it didn't seem to pan out. Most of the song ideas that David, Reeves and I had already begun seemed like a better starting point, rather than fishing for a nugget through a couple of hours of jamming on miles of tape. When the tour ended, David and Reeves came in for two weeks before the rest of the band - Mike, Gail, and Zach - showed up. We began putting song ideas and arrangements into the computer, not to tape. I had begun getting into hard disk based recording, and at that time I was getting reasonably good at it, enough to track vocals and guitars right to the hard drive. My equipment at the time was pretty simple - a Jaz cartridge, 2 inputs and 2 outputs, and not much else - but it proved to be an ideal way of getting audio information into a format where you could easily move it around at a whim. We would come up with a verse and a chorus section, then David would say 'let's hear a verse, a chorus, a verse, a double chorus, a break,etc....' and I would be able to do all that in about 30 seconds. If I were dubbing and splicing tape, it might take a few hours to get it right! We were all immediately sold on this, and this was how the songs were created. When the band came in they added their parts over what we had started - by this time we'd upgraded to a larger system capable of handling what we needed - and when it came time to do drums, this was the point where we'd finally put all the tracks from the computer onto tape. I anticipated that we'd be working on the album for 6-9 months, then mix. I was pleasantly surprised.
6. Apart from 'Telling Lies' I understand that the whole of the album was written in the studio. How did the music and lyrics come together and what were the respective roles of Reeves, Bowie, the band and you?
When I visited the band on the '96 festival tour, David asked Reeves and I to get together ideas and tracks for possible use on the album. When we met after the tour, we played all these ideas and chose bits and pieces to start with. I'll get more into song-by-song specifics later on. As we'd work on a track I'd see David jotting things on Post-it notes or in his computer. Reeves and I would concentrate on the music, though David would have certain lines he would hear or certain sounds he'd want to try. The framework of most of the songs was done this way - once that was in place the band would overdub their parts.
7. How does David compare to the other great vocalists you have worked with and what sort of vocal sound were you trying to get on the album?
David may have been the easiest vocalist I've ever worked with. He was definitely 'old school' - just send him out there and he'd have it done in a flash! There were very few multiple takes - he'd sing all the way through, unless he forgot a word or something, in which case I'd back up a few seconds, drop in, and proceed. He had no particular preferences for types of headphones, headphone mixes, or microphones. I have an old Neumann tube mic which I tracked all of David's vocals with, and it sounded perfect for him. I didn't really go for a particular sound while recording, I just wanted to capture everything I could, which meant recording and saving everything from the very beginning. Lucky for me, because the guide vocal – the first run-through - for 'little Wonder' ended up being the only one he ever sang on that track! Most vocals were first take, which I'd never have happen in my career. While doing the first arrangement of 'Dead Man Walking' we (or rather, I!) lost David's vocal - it just disappeared from the hard drive before I could back up the days' work. I had the job of telling him...which luckily turned out to be no big deal. He just went out and did it again! Of course, the next day we upgraded so that this would never happen again ...
8. Did David come in with a musical plan for the album and did you regard his affinity with dance music as opportunistic or heartfelt? I have read in interviews that he wanted to update the sort of music that Big Audio Dynamite were making in the 1980s - to mix guitar-based rock with contemporary dance grooves.
David's plan was to have melody-driven songs over tracks that had guitar and groove, whether it be techno, jungle, or whatever. I never heard the B.A.D. reference at the time, but it certainly does make sense. I didn't find David to be opportunistic at all - I believe he was genuinely excited by dance music and the scene that goes with it, the way it keeps changing and reinventing itself in such an organic way, from bedroom to bedroom, club to club. He was truly inspired, I think, and believed in what we were doing - another reason for our brisk pace. There was very little second guessing, if any.
9. Although the album was well received by critics and Bowie's hardcore fans (I thought it a terrific album), it did not cross over into the mainstream market at all. Was this ever an intention and where you surprised that the album wasn't a bigger hit? Were you surprised at the choice of singles?
I was surprised that it wasn't bigger than it was. There was a lot of publicity before the record came out, reviews, other related events like the Bridge School benefit with Neil Young and the 50th Birthday concert and broadcast - all of it good. It felt like a huge wave, the likes of which I'd never experienced before. We did the round of shows - Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Letterman (I say 'we' because I went along to help supervise the mixing at those shows). In the end, it couldn't get on the radio or MTV to the extent that everyone had hoped … yet every review of the record I read was so positive. Of course, in this industry you never know. The choice of singles seemed right to me.
10. Earthling was trailed in the media as Bowie's drum 'n' bass album. Was it the intention to sell the album this way, despite the fact that under half the tracks have a drum 'n bass edge? What I'm getting at here is that a lot of people I've spoken to were put off by this sales strategy (thinking like me that most of drum 'n bass was substandard and dopey) and even David himself appears bemused in interviews that the media thought of the album as his jungle opus.
I never thought that it was a drum 'n' bass record, or that David was attempting to become a jungle artist - I heard him say several times that he had no intention of becoming one, it just wasn't the point. I'm not sure where that whole thing began or if/when it became a sales strategy, or just wishful thinking on the part of some interviewers/reviewers/etc. People see what they want to see, you know. I'm not sure how many people were put off in America - at that time not many people had heard of jungle, especially outside the cities.
11. Did David ever discuss the lyrics to any of the songs with you? Personally, I think it's a great album lyrically, rich in allusion ('Telling Lies' echoes 'The Book of Revelation', for example).
Not really, no. I know that some of the songs came about through his random process - getting the computer to spit out random patterns of words, and building on that - but usually I was doing other things while he was scribbling away on the couch.
12. Did it ever strike you as incongruous that David was using contemporary dance music, which is essentially star-less (the Prodigy aside, dance acts simply don't have an act), when Bowie himself is the world's greatest rock showman?
No it doesn't strike me as incongruous. To my knowledge, he was inspired by the music and sound of those groups, not their live performance - he would supply the showman part!
13. Lyrically the album is quite introspective, sad, yearning, spiritual even. Did this reflect the fact that David was about to hit 50 and was feeling a little more mortal than usual?
I don't know. My impression was that turning 50 didn't seem to bother him too much. We were probably too busy at that point to really deal with it - getting the album done, and preparing for the Birthday Show.........
14. Does the fact that the album utilised the dance sound of the day (and recombined them) date the album unnecessarily?
I listened to it yesterday for the first time in over a year - it still sounds amazing, fresh. I don't feel like it will date itself embarrassingly, like a lot of the records from the '80's with big hair and big snare drums, and not much else. The songs are there, and the production is pretty tasteful. Sure, there will be '90's references, but I think that's a good thing.
15. I'd like to talk to you in detail about the creation of each of the tracks on the album and how they were put together musically. How much of the music was band created and how much was Bowie's? Does David employ certain distinctive chord sequences or phrases? Even though Bowie is attempting a mix of dance and rock there's something irreducibly 'Bowiesque' about the sound and I was wondering if you could trace this to the deployment of any trademark chord changes.
Track by track, you asked for it! You can use what you want of course, but I didn't write all of this strictly with the intention of it being published. It's a good thing for me to write down all these things to keep as a record of, well, making a record.
Little Wonder : Reeves and I began work on this track one day when David was otherwise occupied. Armed with some new drum loops and a tape of Reeves making guitars noises, we set to it. Reeves had been getting really into the VG-8 and coming up with all sorts of wacky sounds. I had to go home the previous night to babysit, so Reeves spent the evening with my assistant, Dante DeSole, laying down all sorts of sonic treats. This tape they made was extremely valuable- from it we also drew sounds that inspired the development of Battle for Britain, Law, and Seven Years in Tibet. The next day we presented David with what we'd done - basically a rhythm track with a sprinkling of noises and synth parts. First, David came up with a sequence of the samples Reeves had created - the sounds that make up the intro of the song. Then David sat down with an electric guitar - we had him and Reeves set up with miniature Fernandez electric guitars, which we were recording constantly - and came up with the chord sequence. He said it was like a '50's chord sequence (I believe he called it 'street corner singing', though I recognized it as a doo-wop progression) with a twist - the last chord was a half step higher than usual. Perhaps this is what makes it 'Bowie-esque', this little quirk. Usually, each song had at least one or two. Then the 'so far away' section came straight after that and a basic arrangement was created in the computer. A flurry of Post-it notes later that day, and we had the framework of the lyrics, a guide vocal, and a title. The second verse was written a few weeks later.At this stage the idea for Little Wonder was that it'd be a 9 minute jungle-electronic epic- much longer than on the album, but essentially the same idea. At that point I never would have thought we could have cut it into a four minute single. The middle was to be filled with all sorts of effects, atmospheres, breaks, etc. This took quite a while to finish. Some ideas (the train after the 2nd verse for instance) made it into the body of the song.When the band showed up, they added their parts - Gail put down the bass, Zach the drums, Mike a harpsichord pad. These gave a much more rock shape to the track and for the first time it was apparent, to me at least, it could be a single.
Looking for Satellites : This was the second track we worked on, and it sprung out of an idea I had created over the summer. I had wanted to try something in 3 - I hadn't heard much electronic stuff in 3 so I set out to make one. This was one of the first attempts to consciously make something out of 'junk' - a theme throughout the record, of taking any sound and making something musical out of it. I used samples from lots of records I'd done before and reshaped them, twisted them, made them into new sounds through manipulation and combination with other sounds. When I played it to David and Reeves it was the foundation - the rhythm, some chord information, and a few musical lines. David and Reeves immediately scrapped the chords and built a new progression based around a diminished chord. This became the verse, and we returned to Dmajor - the original key of the track, as so many of the samples were tuned to it - for the chorus. Again, it was a case of David and Reeves jamming against the track to come up with chord sequences. This was also the first time where they became aware that I was recording everything in the computer. Reeves' solo came about by experimenting - as they usually do - and they were doodling, deciding on approaches to take. David thought that Reeves should try to play the entire solo on one string - it would shape his playing and note choices accordingly. All of the attempts were recorded and we made one coherent, fantastic solo out of a few different choices - we took little pieces, moved sections around a bit. We began to see what was possible with hard disk recording. A whirlwind of cigarettes and Post-It notes in the back of the room, and most of the vocal was done that day (a second verse was added in a few weeks). Of course, I didn't realize they were finished vocals....I figured they were only amazing guide vocals, to be replaced by the 'real' vocal later, as is usually the case. When the band came in, this was the first track they played to. Gail's bass really made the track sing. It was also my first attempt to compile Zach's drums in the computer and straighten out the timing problems.
Battle for Britain (The Letter): Another track which sprang from an idea that I'd come up with over the summer, my attempt to do a jazz-tinged jungle track. The only real jungle thing I'd done was the Feelgood mix of 'Telling Lies', which I found to be great fun. There weren't any boundaries, and I didn't have any particular reverence for the form or anything. Again, David scrapped the chords, and the electric guitars came out to figure out new ones. I found the chord progression to be real catchy but unique, and I felt like this could be our first real 'Bowie' song. I think at this point I felt the focus of the record come together, it was the first time I heard mention of david's intent for the record to be melody driven - there would be actual songs over intense atmospheres, but the atmosphere wouldn't dominate. I got excited.
Again, a repeat if the day before - we were cranking these out one per day. Reeves would be coming up with guitar parts and sounds, I'd be at the computer recording him or working on the arrangement, and David would be on the couch listening to the track over and over, writing the lyric. At days' end he'd do a vocal.The arrangement of this track took an interesting turn. In the middle David wanted to have a piano solo - he imagined Mike Garson playing Stravinsky over mad beats. Also, I had been experimenting with chopping things up in the computer and throwing them about - I'd read about the Beatles during Sgt. Pepper, chopping up bits of tapes for 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', and reassembling them in a random fashion. My attempt to do this became the break after the piano. Once again, when the band came in they added their parts. Gails' bass once again provided supple support to the programming, and Mike's piano worked out perfectly. The drums were another matter. When I recorded Zach on 'Telling Lies' earlier in the year, David wanted to make a loop of his drums- Zach played a few bars, and I sampled it and sped it up to a typical jungle tempo of 160 BPM. It then took on the frenetic, double time feel of jungle. He then played his live drums over this in half time, so that you had both sets of rhythms going at the same time. The trick would be that he had to play exactly in time or it would sound like a train wreck. We didn't have a lot of time during 'Telling Lies' - he did a few takes and we bounced them together on tape. It was pretty solid, and I just ducked the loop a bit when Zach was a little out of time. Zach is a good drummer, but I really couldn't expect anybody to keep in time with 160 BPM.When it came time to do 'Battle for Britain' (only called 'The Letter' at this time) we decided to go one better - the drums and programming had to be seamless. The drums were loaded in the computer and manipulated each and every beat to match the programming. It took days. The results speak for themselves.
Seven Years in Tibet : This came about from a track Reeves had written on the summer '96 tour. I believe it was called 'Brussels.' Again, it was a case of taking preconceived idea, and finding new chords. This one took on an amazing shape, in the end. The usual routine - use some of Reeves' samples from the sample tape (David would have them on the keyboard, and he'd chose a few to use) break out the guitars and come up with chords, then a lyric at day's end. This track seemed promising but it wasn't favorite until the band came in. They made it take on a new life, especially Mike Garson's Farfisa organ solo, inspired by Reeves. Reeves never gave up on this track, he was really the one who saw this one through, he had a real vision for it. This re-inspired David, who came up with ideas such as running his voice through a ring modulator in the choruses.
Dead Man Walking : The first attempt to write a song in the studio without a pre-existing idea. David wanted it to be techno influenced, in particular by the band Underworld. We came up with a basic rhythm program, and immediately David turned to the guitar and the 'Superman' chords came out, as well as the story about Jimmy Page. Another 'Bowie' song was coming, I could tell. Our routine as usual - Reeves searched for some guitar sounds for the verse, I came up with the Moog synth part at the beginning, and David wrote a lyric, my favorite of the record.This was the track where I lost his guide vocal while backing up the drive (we decided then and there to upgrade), and after telling him, he sang it over the next time we addressed the track. David actually sang this again during the mix, the only track he sang over.When the band came in, instead of focusing the track like the other songs, they made it even more blurry. Too many elements on tape! It was a bit hard to listen to for a while. As Reeves had done for 'Seven Years', I really took it upon myself to work this track to some conclusion. It took five days to sort it out during the mix, but it became a real epic. I begins completely programmed, and by the time it's finished, it's completely live.
Telling Lies : We did this in spring, before the tour. David had a demo of it from Switzerland, and he wanted to finish it. It was a quickie, done in a couple of days, most of the time devoted to the live drums (I've already explained how the drums were done......) We mixed it, then I did a remix called the Feelgood Mix, and A Guy Called Gerald did a real underground jungle thing with it. These three tracks were the ones released as the internet single. Then, during the record David decided to touch it up a bit - he changed the lyric slightly, Reeves added some guitar synth lines, Gail did a more melodic bass, Mike some keys, and I added in a few sounds from the remix I did. The major change was in the structure, where after the second chorus we cleared the track out, leaving Mike's synth pad and a piano part from the remix. Then the song built itself up again. David was insistent on 'Telling Lies' - it was never one of my favorites, until we completed it for the album.
The Last Thing You Should Do : This was meant to be a B-Side. After mastering the album it was decided we'd need some additional material for B-Sides. Reeves and I did the entire track in a day - drums, guitars, bass, programming, etc. David heard it, added a synth part in the middle (the descending piano part in the break) then did a lyric and vocal in something like 20 minutes. We did a quick mix right then and there, and figured, voila, our first B-Side, and a great one at that. The next day the plan changed - this would be on the album, replacing a remake of 'Baby Universal' and a beautiful acoustic version of 'I Can't Read' (which eventually wound up on the BBC Radio acoustic special, The Birthday Show, and on the soundtrack to The Ice Storm). I had to admit I missed 'I Can't Read' being on the record - I disagreed strongly with David at the time - but his argument was that 'Last Thing' fit in better conceptually. I think time has shown him to be correct.
I'm Afraid of Americans: This was reconstructed from an earlier version of the song done during the 1.Outside period for a soundtrack I think (don't ask me which one). There we a couple of 48-track masters for it, and we pulled things off of several different reels to make this new composite. It was quite a clean up job, not the most enjoyable as we were trying to salvage something. Of course, it did come together..!! David added some new lyrics, Mike some electric piano, Reeves an amazing assortment of fuzz boxes to create a wall of noise (he wanted to use all the ones in his collection) and Gail and Zach their bits. Law (Earthlings on Fire) : The first track we started working on after the end of the summer '96 tour, which was based on one of Reeves hotel-room ideas called 'Bits'. It changed direction a few times, until it assumed more the shape of a sound collage. It's also the only track with a real guitar amp - the rest of the record is VG-8 and pedals. Gail, Zach and Mike don't play on it at all. David sang into an empty water cooler bottle, among other things, and we played around a lot with an Eventide 910 Harmonizer, an old electronic pitch shifter which David probably used in the '70s.
16. How much did Bowie deliberately borrow from his back catalogue?
I know, for example that 'Dead Man Walking' uses the same chords as 'The Supermen' (chords 'given' to David in the 1960s by Jimmy Page), whilst the synth line on 'The Last Thing You Should Do' comes from 'The Laughing Gnome', via 'Speed Of Life' and 'Beat Of Your Drum.' Bowie appears to be in a state of on-going dialogue with his past. 'Dead Man Walking' was a good example of this, as well as the updated 'Fame', 'V2 Schneider', and 'Stay' from the Earthling tour. But, as far as 'The Last Thing', I'm unaware of any conscious borrowing in this track. It didn't strike me that we were avoiding his catalogue, to be sure. I had expected that working with David would mean no revisiting the oldies, a cue I got from the Sound and Vision tour, which was supposed to be the last time a lot of old tunes would see the light of day. From my perspective he seems rather comfortable with his past.
17. Is he as funny as he appears in interviews!? Any pithy or amusing anecdotes about the recording of the album?
Yes, he's amazingly funny and charming. That record was an absolute pleasure to make. The studio staff bent over backwards because he truly appreciated them and he was genuine. David would go from explaining his views on modern art and sharing books with the works of Damien Hirst and Joel Peter Whitken, to enjoying us throwing muffins out the studio window onto the tops of taxicabs. My twisted sense of humor fit in perfectly with him and Reeves from Day One. David would make fun of me in my biker shorts; I'd tell him and Reeves to piss off and go find an art opening when they were bothering me. David, Reeves, Andy Spray, and myself went to Ireland for pre-production for the Earthling tour. Four guys alone, no women - it pretty much turned into what sort of silliness you'd expect. One day I received some CD's of a record I'd worked on with Arthur Baker - I believe it was a Babylon Zoo single. After working with Arthur for ten years he still couldn't spell my last name right, and sure enough my credit was wrong. I got really angry and flipped out, throwing the CD down the hallway. I then look at David, who is mockingly following my example and has a handful of my personal CD's that he's ready to throw them out the window. He then says, as if I've caught him with his hand in the cookie jar, 'I thought that was what we were supposed to be doing'. I was never let off the hook about my name after that.
18. When did David come up with the title for the album?
It was some time around the Roseland show in New York - Sept 14th, 1996. I recall it had come up during that previous week, though I don't remember the exact day. At that show he asked the audience if the album should be called 'Earthling' or 'Earthlings'. The audience chose the former. The art for the album came together over the course of recording the album. Every new idea or concept would be put up on the wall. By the end of tracking the walls of the studio were filled with the artwork that would become the album.
19. The Earthling album appears to have killed off the planned three-album collaboration with Eno. And Bowie appears unsure of how to follow it up,given that it's two years now since the recording of the album. Do you think David could take the sort of innovative dance/rock fusion on Earthling anywhere else?
I don't know. That record really makes a statement, in my opinion, and I don't know where you could go with it next, or if you'd want to go somewhere with it. Where's the next level? Then again I'm not inside his head, so I don't know how he feels about it...... I think one great thing about David is that he knows when to quit, and reinvent. You can see that throughout his career, I'm sure.
20. Do you have plans to work again? In the immediate future, not to my knowledge. But you never know!
21. By the way, I forgot to ask you about the 50th Birthday show which you mixed. Any thoughts on this project!? Or on any live mixes you did from the 1997 tour?
We began working on the Birthday Show right after the album was mixed. We created several new arrangements of songs. This was an amazing thing to work on for me technically as I hadn't done much work with video. Some things were incredible - everyone involved know that this was something special. All the musical guests were so glad to be there, the feeling backstage was genuinely warm. At the party afterward, David seemed very, very happy, which was a nice thing to see. On a more personal note, I did the backing arrangement for the solo version of 'Space Oddity', which meant a lot to me. Some things were downright pathetic, like keeping on schedule with the video people, who'd move the goalposts every other day while I was mixing, and not supply us with up-to-date edits, and really had zero interest in the audio quality of the project - they'd just assume use the rough mixes from the night of the show (and indeed one of the broadcasts did, by mistake - they couldn't hear the difference). Tim Pope was great, but at times the rest of the video team treated us like an unnecessary pain in the ass, which is not that unusual in those situations, so I'm told.
Before the Birthday Concert we recorded several acoustic versions of older songs for a BBC special. This was an amazing session. We did most of the songs in a day - David, Reeves, and Gail together live. I added some strings and keys after the fact. David did 6 lead vocal tracks in 2 hours. By the time I did the mixes for what was intended be the Earthling Live CD, I had mixed most of the songs before, several times. Some tracks were nearly always stellar - Seven Years in Tibet, Battle for Britain, Little Wonder, Last Thing You Should Do. These were guaranteed never to disappoint, and were usually pretty easy to mix. Satellites, I'm Afraid of Americans and Telling Lies were more typical in that there would be on-nights and off-nights. Some tracks, like Law and the album version of Dead Man Walking, were never played live (though they did perform a version of Moby's remix of Dead Man Walking).