Quotes from Tony Visconti

The ukulele was the first of many instruments they had bought for me. They got me a guitar when I was eleven, which my son Morgan uses until this day. They paid for 3 years of guitar lessons; they bought me a bass fiddle, which I still play.

My father loved people, children and pets.

No one else in our family was a professional musician so this took an enormous leap of faith on their part.

I could never have a better teacher in those days than my father.

Since my teen years I was interested in martial arts.

But some great records are are being made with today's technology and there are still great artists among us. Likewise there are artists today who are so reliant on modern technology, they wouldn't have emerged when recording was more organic.

Computers have virtually replaced tape recorders.

When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father's guidance. Thereafter, my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs.

Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica, mom sang in English and Italian, and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies, and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

His name is David Bowie and he's nineteen. Would you like to meet him?

One night David decided to start a spoken word album; David loved Iggy's stories about his days with The Stooges. For a few nights in a row, David, and I sat in the darkened studio asking Iggy questions with the tape rolling. The stories were both decadent and hilarious. I have never heard these tapes since; they would make perfect Podcasts.

One day Ron Mael of Sparks casually asked Morgan what he thought of the recording we were making. Morgan gave it a thought and wisely said, 'You have to put more sound between the speakers', stretching his arms wide. Ron turned to me with a surprised expression on his face and said, 'Wow.' Morgan's suggestion made us widen the stereo soundscape of that mix.

It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new.

Fortunately I own a vintage brain, and I am alive and well in the 21st century, still making records, still working at an intense pace and most of all, still having fun doing it.

Computers have virtually replaced tape recorders.

No one else in our family was a professional musician so this took an enormous leap of faith on their part.

My father loved people, children and pets.

My father had a brilliant scholastic record in high school and was awarded a college scholarship. Unfortunately he had to turn it down so that he could continue to support his family.

I could never have a better teacher in those days than my father.