David Bowie and James Murphy nearly worked on a joint album together.
The LCD Soundsystem mastermind revealed the news in an interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1. Naming Lou Reed as the one person he’d have been most starstruck by, he explained: “that’s saying a lot because I knew David Bowie, I talked to David Bowie. I thought I couldn’t talk to him, but he was so gracious and so friendly… I had an email friendship with David Bowie, which one of the weirder, more amazing things.”
He went on to reveal that, though he played “a little percussion” on Bowie’s final album ‘Blackstar’, he was “supposed to do a lot more” and was “overwhelmed” when asked by Bowie and producer Tony Visconti to co-produce the record.
Feeling that he didn’t feel he “belonged” in that role, he also explained that there had been plans to record a collaborative album. “I reaced out to David and said ‘I’d love to do a record, just me and you’,” Murphy recalled. “He said ‘it’s funny you mention that, please look me up when you get back to New York’”. By the time that happened, Bowie had already started work on what would become ‘Blackstar’.
You can find the full interview here.
LCD Soundsystem will release their new album ‘American Dream’ on 1st September. They’ll follow it up with a UK tour, calling off in Manchester, Glasgow and London. You can find the dates in full below.
September
16 Manchester Warehouse Project
17 Manchester Warehouse Project
19 Glasgow Barrowland
20 Glasgow Barrowland
22 London Alexandra Palace
23 London Alexandra Palace