In a new interview, producer Tony Visconti says the ‘goal was to avoid rock’n’roll’ when writing Blackstar, while one band member says some lyrics reference Islamic State

Music producer Tony Visconti has shared some insights into the new David Bowie album, Blackstar. Describing the way in which Bowie wanted to deviate from his usual style, Visconti says the pair were “listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar”, ahead of the recording process, while his drummer reveals how one lyric was written about Isis.

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“We wound up with nothing like that, but we loved the fact Kendrick was so open-minded and he didn’t do a straight-up hip-hop record. He threw everything on there, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. The goal, in many, many ways, was to avoid rock’n’roll,” Visconti told Rolling Stone.

Also confirmed is LCD Soundsystem founder James Murphy’s involvement on the album. He played percussion on two tracks, though his role on the record was originally going to be more prominent. “At one point we were talking about three producers for the album: David, James and myself,” says Visconti.

“[Murphy] was there for a brief time, but he had his own projects to go off to.”

The piece details the way in which Bowie headhunted some of the musicians on his record – attending a jazz night in New York’s West Village, and as a result hiring a quartet led by saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who first appeared on his 2014 track, Sue.



The report says that one track uses words featured in A Clockwork Orange, while McCaslin says that Bowie told him a lyric on the album’s title track – which regularly refers to a “solitary candle” – was “about Isis”. Guiliana and Visconti, however, both said they did not know what the song’s backstory was.

Although later described as “inaccurate” by the artist’s team in a statement in October, one early review of Blackstar suggested that the record combines jazz, electronica, Krautrock and Gregorian chants, and sounds like his “oddest work yet”. It is to be released on 8 January.