Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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International Musician And Recording World MAY 1979 - by Sean Mayes

IN THE STUDIO WITH BOWIE

This month sees the release of David Bowie's first studio album since "Heroes". At the time of going to press, no release date had been fixed and even the title seemed in doubt, although Lodger seemed the likeliest contender. Most of the recording was done last September in Switzerland, between the European and Ear East legs of Bowie's '78 world tour. The musicians he used in the studio were all members of his stage band: Carlos Alomar (rhythm guitar), Adrian Belew (lead guitar), Dennis Davis (drums), Simon House (violin), George Murray (bass) and Sean Mayes (piano), aided and abetted by Brian Eno on synthesizers, tape loops and baton.

Bowie's methods of recording are unique. He assembles songs at first without words from fragments of instrumental music and electronic sounds. Often the musicians themselves didn't know quite what they were playing or what it was destined for. In an IM exclusive, Sean Mayes (who also plays piano with rock 'n' rollers Fumble) recalls the chaotic, creative days they spent in the studio.

Lake Geneva is a beautiful stretch of water - a small sea surrounded by mountains and sunny vineyards. At one end of the lake is Montreux, a quiet, elderly Swiss resort, and down by the water in this unlikely setting is the Mountain Recording Studio.

Simon and myself, the two British members of the band, had flown out that morning from London to Geneva. We stepped out of the car to see a familiar group of figures standing around in the hot September sun Dennis, Adrian, George. Brian (Eno) and a skinny figure with a crew cut: David needed a shave, and looked drawn but alert. He gave us a grin and a quick hug of welcome. We went into the cool elegant Swiss control room. Most studios I've been in have an urban staleness redolent of late night chain smoking, but this one was fresh as a mountain stream. Gleaming equipment, thick pile carpet, rough stone walls, very chic. Three small TV screens gave a fragmented impression of the studio itself drums, mike stands, Carlos tuning a guitar.

There was a vast studio next door to the control room, but David had chosen the intimacy of a small studio up a winding stairway, where there is little screening between the instruments, and the piano is blanketed by a huge white fur carpet which cascades to the floor like the mountain slopes outside.

Tony Visconti was sitting at the mixing desk, a small, dark expatriate New Yorker. He is cheerful and good company, which helps create a relaxed atmosphere in the studio and disguises his efficiency which can match David's fast pace of working. David had been there a few days with the rhythm section - Carlos, George and Dennis and he started by playing the backing tracks they had recorded so far. These were just roughly mixed with occasional fragmentary ideas for vocals. David sat there, his eyes bright, sometimes singing a bit - "Yassassin!", "Red sails..." I remember - and telling us some of the instrumental lines he wanted here and there. My immediate impression was of some very lively music, everything more "up" than his recent work, but as yet there was virtually no synthesizer or lead guitar. This was just riffs and rhythms. They all had working titles - This tangled web, Portrait of the artist, etc., but I don't think any of these survived onto the final album; they were just for reference.

Over the next couple of days we laid down a few more basic tracks, this time with all of us playing. David or Brian would provide the chord sequence, often quite a short one, and we would play this over and over continuously. These chord seqi nces were produced by various methods, sometimes almost at random. On one occasion Brian, who is a quiet English eccentric, wrote out a collection of cards with chords on them B flat, E, C, E, G, E flat. Am, Cm then pinned these on the wall and, giving us a basic rhythm, pointed to these with a baton as the spirit moved him, while we played. (There was some grumbling about this "back to school" session.) Sometimes one of them would suggest a different tempo or change the rhythm, and we'd play the whole thing over again for a while.

At the end of the day Tony would run off rough mixes of everything on reel-to-reel for them to take away, listen to and cut up. The next day they would be back with spliced tapes, often loops, then these edited versions would be reproduced by splicing or looping the unmixed multitrack master and copying it onto a fresh tape, which would become the new master and all further recordings would he done on the remaining tracks of this tape. I'm not sure now which tracks of this album contain loops, but an obvious example for this method on "Heroes" would be Blackout, where the whole song is built on two basic structures over which the vocals create three distinct sections, including Get Me off the Street which fits over both backing structures. This method seems to work because David has such a strong lyrical sense. He has a way of producing vocal lines which spring from the roots of the music something which became obvious to me on tour when he recreated each song every night, often subtly varying the vocal line.

David was very keen on spontaneity - he liked everything to be recorded in one or two takes, mistakes and all, and when someone seemed to be getting too familiar with what he was playing David would get him to play something else. Often when he chose which section of something to make into a loop, he would pick the part with the most mistakes, which by being repeated became an integral part of the song. Sometimes he proceeded seriously with much thought, at other times the approach would be lighthearted, almost frivolous. For us as musicians it could be puzzling, even frustrating, but when the music took off we would enjoy it in the spirit of a jam, not knowing what the result would be or what on earth it would become after the dynamic duo had been busy with their scissors.

On one occasion, everyone swapped instruments Tony on bass, George on drums, (Carlos on organ, I think, and Brian on piano. The track became the single Boys. Another time someone was sent to the local music shop to borrow three mandolins which Adrian. Carlos and Tony strummed and tracked on Amazing Journey (or whatever it's called!)

A few days after I got there all the basic tracks were down and Carlos, George and Dennis flew back Io New York. Then Adrian, Simon and I would alternate in solo sessions in the studio while the others played trisbee in the gardens outside, these sessions were pretty intense: I would sit at the piano, Tony in the control room, and David would run up and down between us, humming ideas. On Africa, for instance, I played rhythm for most of the track with a solo in the middle a fairly grandiose theme in classical style. We went through it bit by bit. David sitting beside me while I made notes. I played it through once with the track then we recorded it four times, note for note, and the tape speed was fractionally altered each time so the piano was out of tune with itself to produce an underwater sound. Somehow I got through it all without a slip, so then we went on to the next track, then the next. By the end of the day I was left with no clear impression of anything I had played it was like remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it. It only came back to me again when I heard the finished LP a few days ago half a year later!

We worked fast, and I was through just five days after I arrived. Notes from the last day: Take a huge sandwich to studio, consume in the sun till people arrive. Brian plays through a tape he's been editing and looping ("Here we go loop de loop," hums Tony). David says, put on Fury. Tony: That was Occident Prone. Brian: What a terrible pun! David: That was Brian's. Brian: Yes, I'm sorry, I've been playing with words again. Finally - See you in Sydney, David says.

That was seven months and a Far East tour ago. David and Brian did more work on the backing after we left, then it stayed like that until this March, when David took the tapes to New York. He wrote all the words in a week, working at a white heat inspired by the city. He did one section with Roger Powell (keyboards on tour) and some more work with Adrian - the end of one number consists of three guitar solos on separate tracks mixed in and out, David playing with the sliders like a TV game.

I have listened to the album a few times now, and though I may of course be biased. I'm sure it's one of his strongest ever. It has vital rhythms and vivid colours and is bursting with ideas. There is an immediacy and liveness which I like to think reflects the great feeling the band had on stage. There is little point in my reviewing the album - plenty of people will be eager to do that - but I found it fascinating to be part of the making of it, and to glimpse some of the inspiration of this bizarre but very human genius.