David Bowie's producer says new record is 'quite a rock album'

Despite its wistful lead single, David Bowie's surprise new record is "quite a rock album", his producer Tony Visconti said on Tuesday. The Next Day is a mixture of "classic Bowie" and "innovative Bowie", Visconti promised, made by an artist who is both happy and in good health.

The album was recorded in New York and in secret, on and off over the past two years. "We never spent more than two to three weeks at a time recording," Visconti told BBC News. "Usually we'd work on one or two songs in an afternoon, and whip them into shape so they'd sound like great rock tracks." They would only add vocals later. "That's the way I've been working with [David] since The Man Who Sold the World [and] he hasn't really changed in his approach."

Visconti – who has now produced 13 Bowie albums – said he was surprised with the decision to make Where Are We Now? the LP's first single. "It's maybe the only track on the album that goes this much inward for him," he said. "I thought to myself: 'Why is David coming out with this very slow, albeit beautiful, ballad? … He should come out with a bang.' But [David] is a master of his own life. I think this was a very smart move, linking the past with the future, and I think the next thing you hear from him is going to be quite different."