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David Bowie's producer Tony Visconti has hit out at the state of modern music, and says that he hopes The Thin White Duke's upcoming release, The Next Day, will start a 'copycat trend' of good music.
Visconti has had a lengthy involvement with Bowie, and The Next Day will be the twelfth of Bowie's albums that Visconti has produced. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Visconti has said that he thinks modern music is too computerized, and that more bands should try and emulate the 70s.
He told the Reporter, "[Today's music] all sounds like it was made by the same person. It's very computerized. There's a style and a sound in all these modern records where they're interchangeable. It could be the same production crew, it could be the same singer, everybody is auto-tuned to death and the songs are very flimsy, it all relies on beats rather than quality lyrics.
"These days, if a kid gets a new laptop and there's Garage Band on it, within five minutes they sound like somebody on the radio. This can't be good. It's either the radio is bland or people have lower expectations."
He has also confirmed that Bowie will not tour in 2013, telling NME: "He’s fairly adamant he’s never gonna perform live again… One of the guys would say, 'Boy, how are we gonna do all this live?' and David said, 'We’re not'. He made a point of saying that all the time."
While Visconti said he does enjoy Florence + the Machine, saying that they're closer to the 'ethics' of 70s recordings, he was pleased to hear that The Next Day is outselling Rihanna.
He continued, "But I've heard that we're outselling Rihanna and that is wonderful. Not that I have anything against Rihanna, I love her dearly, but it's like there's something real now, and if this starts a copy cat trend, people might be making good records from now on. Maybe David has started this new trend.
"But honestly, it's because it's so refreshing. You can tell it's a studio-made record, it's not done on a computer. It's really beautiful and organic and it sounds good on the radio too."
Bowie performing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno in 2004
Visconti also reassured fans of Bowie's health, dispelling the rumours that Bowie could be suffering from heart problems.
"He had surgery in 2004 and he's been healthy ever since," Visconti said. " Because he hasn't come out and said anything, people suspect the worst. And it was frustrating. I would have lunch with him and I’d tell people that he looks fantastic and he sounds great and all that. And people would not believe me.
"Someone recently said to me, 'Well, why didn't he make a statement?' And I mean, that's silly - can you imagine David Bowie getting on television and saying, “I'd like to tell everyone that I'm healthy?” So what could he do? Nothing. This album is physical evidence that he's fine."
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