Producer Tony Visconti says his children didn’t even know that he was working on a new David Bowie album.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Shirley Halperin has published a wonderfully insightful interview with Visconti following the unexpected release of new Bowie music this week.
Tony explained how a project of that magnitude was kept quiet for two years. “We respected David’s wishes. Simple as that,” he said. “We had to sign NDAs, non-disclosure agreements, but that wasn’t necessary. We love him so much and everyone in the project except for a few were old timers — people who made albums or toured with him. So of course, we didn’t Tweet or put it on Facebook or even tell our best friend. That was the hard part because people close to me wanted to know what I was working on and I couldn’t tell them. I knew if I told one of them, somebody would leak it and it would be all over the world in a day. I didn’t even tell my children what I was doing”.
Bowie dropped his first new music in 10 years this week. The song ‘Where Are We Now’ came with a mesmerizing video and details of his next album ‘The Next Day’ without notice on his 66th birthday.
In the interview with Shirley Halperin, Tony says of the album, “Some tracks sound like they would belong on Scary Monsters, others like they would be on Heathen.”
He reveals that the mystery woman in the ‘Where Are We Now’ video is the director’s wife, chosen because she looks like Coco, Iggy Pop’s girlfriend from the Berlin days.
Tony says David health is fine and that reports have been exaggerated. Why didn’t he tell everyone he was okay? “Can you imagine David Bowie getting on television and saying, “I’d like to tell everyone that I’m healthy?,” Tony said.
As for the Lefsetz rant the other day, Tony summed it up telling Shirley that “he is basically an old fart and I am bored with what he says”.
Read Shirley Halperin’s interview with Tony Visconti in the Hollywood Reporter here
