David BowiesBlackstardebuted Jan. 8 two days before the iconic musician died at age 69.
The album was quickly heralded as a standout in Bowies strong discography and even earned the No.
2 spot onEWs list of 2016s 50 best albums.
Credit: NILS MEILVANG/AFP/Getty Images; Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
As part of our year-end coverage, revisit that story below.
Click here for more Best of 2016 coverage.
The spirit in the recording sessions couldnt have been better.
I remember him saying to Mark, Feel free to play some odd meter stuff.
Whatever youre hearing, go for it.
It was that kind of spirit just really open and collaborative.
The work environment couldnt have been better.
Im an emotional player and I felt like that energy was moving around the room between us.
A lot of communication and a lot of interplay.
There was a lot of laughing and jokes.
Fun stories going around.
It was just fun.
It was really interesting to see what they did with it after we finished.
It was a lot of attention to detail.
It was overwhelming to me just to hear the whole sonic montage and how they put it all together.
How long did the process take?The first week of January 2015 we did a week of recording.
The first week of February we did another week.
And then in early March we did another roughly four or five day period of recording.
Overdubbing was in April, just one day in Tony Viscontis studio.
I heard it the first time in its entirety [in] November.
He had these vintage synths.
He did some neat percussion sounds, some electronic percussion sounds I think on Girl Loves Me.
He was there for a few days in February.
He had some ideas about different sonic things to add to the tunes, which was cool.
The music on that record is not cookie-cutter pop music.
Its progressive, boundary-pushing music.
Hes pushing the boundaries, completely committed to the art and living the art.
I remember talking to him generally about the grandeur of Charlie Parker.
It was inspiring to me and really exciting.
He was making notes I could observe him just processing that and working with that while we were recording.
When you communicated with him in November and December, what was his spirit like?
What did he think of the album?It was mostly about the record.
It was very positive stuff.
I think he was very happy with how the record turned out.
And I was thrilled that he felt that way.
