New David Bowie material to be released in next few years, says producer Tony Visconti

New material: Fans can look forward to new David Bowie music in the coming years
Alistair Foster3 June 2016
The Weekender

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David Bowie fans can expect a hoard of new material to be released in the coming years, according to his close friend and producer Tony Visconti.

The musician revealed he is in talks with Bowie’s management team to unearth songs the late star recorded but never released.

Visconti worked with Bowie on and off from 1969 until his final album, Blackstar, which was released two days before his death in January.

Bowie also told Visconti that he had recorded five other new tracks, intended for a follow-up album.

“I haven’t heard those songs yet,” Visconti told the Standard. “I might actually have to help his managerial company to find them.

"I have an idea where he might have recorded them, but there is also a lot of unreleased material from many albums.”

Visconti, 72, was born in New York and moved to London in 1968. He produced many of Bowie’s albums, including the trio of records he made during his stint in Berlin.

He added: “I think it’s logical that over the next few years, you’re going to hear a lot of stuff that you haven’t heard before.

Collaborator: Bowie's friend and producer Tony Visconti 
Redferns/Getty Images

"I’m in talks with his management and his label — there’s going to be some great Bowie stuff coming out.”

Visconti has just joined the judging panel of Sky Arts’ Guitar Star, the talent contest to find the best guitarists in the UK.

He believes musical virtuosos have gone out of fashion because of the industry’s obsession with “manufactured” pop music.

He said: “The reality and talent shows give you the impression that some fairy godmother’s going to come along and make you a star.

David Bowie - in pictures

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“Unfortunately too many people know about Auto-Tune. People have the audacity to audition being not very good and think that someone’s going to wave the wand.

"I’d like to dispel that theory by being on a show like Guitar Star. This is a no-frills talent show. I want people to understand that it’s much more rewarding when you attain some degree of fame through your own efforts; from hard, serious practice.”

Visconti also attacked the record business, saying: “For pop music, they [industry bosses] are terrified to lose that imaginary teen audience, so what they’ve been doing is just rehashing the hits of the last three months,” he said.

“‘Oh Britney Spears had a hit, let’s get someone else who looks just like Britney and get the same person who wrote it to write another one just like it.’

Then they started making pop records by committee. It’s so ridiculous — 15 people in the whole world are making the hits. The same people are writing for Lady Gaga that are writing for everyone else.

The team might be in Norway, Sweden, or Los Angeles. People who have never met each other are making hits together and it’s crazy.

“If this formula was working, you’d see that the record business would be a billion-dollar industry, but it’s not any more.

"This ‘manufactured’ stuff is selling less and less. A person like Alanis Morissette — Jagged Little Pill sold 45 million copies worldwide.

"Nowadays if you sell three million, which would put you in the Taylor Swift bracket, the record business people start jumping up and down. These aren’t sales to congratulate yourself on.

“In the Sixties up to the Nineties, what sold records was quality. Virtuosity was respected. People like that aren’t respected any more. But they still exist — they walk among us!”

Guitar Star begins on Sky Arts on June 14.

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