Recording
In a February 2008 interview with People, Aguilera stated that she was going to start recording new material for her forthcoming album at her Beverly Hills home. DJ Premier, who at the time was working on projects for his label, Year Round Records, shared plans to head back into the studio with Aguilera. About this he said, "She's doing an all pop album again, but she wants me to keep the tone like what we did before. She's ready to start next month." Linda Perry, who had previously worked with Aguilera was to be included in the project too. In an interview with Billboard in October 2008, Aguilera said that the album would be mostly produced by Perry. Aguilera set about contacting collaborators on her own accord, at the behest of then-husband Jordan Bratman, without relying on the record label A&R. Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler and her collaborator Samuel Dixon worked with Aguilera on a number of tracks for the album. Aguilera told Billboard that she is a big fan of Furler and stated that she was thrilled when Furler said that she wanted to work with her as well. They recorded together in the studio in January 2009, and according to Furler's blog the duo wrote four songs together during the sessions.
Members of British electronic band Ladytron, Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu, went to Los Angeles to meet Aguilera in December 2008 after hearing that they were one of her favorite bands. During the meeting, Aguilera identified what kind of Ladytron songs she liked, with Hunt later saying, "We were impressed because she had a real deep knowledge of our music – album tracks, not just the singles!". Ladytron said following about the sessions with the singer, "We went in with no expectations; the whole thing was a massive surprise. But it was incredible. She was so musically talented, a vocalist who really knows her voice. The first takes sounded really amazing, and while we'd made demos, it was only when her voice was on them that it all came to life. It's nice to talk about them, we've been sitting on this for a while." They finished the work with Aguilera in March 2009 and produced four or five tracks, but only three songs made the final cut. Two songs produced by Ladytron appeared on the Deluxe version of the album, "Birds of Prey" and "Little Dreamer." Meanwhile, the third track, "Kimono Girl" did not make the final cut, although it has been highly anticipated by fans. British band Goldfrapp said in a January 2010 interview that they did not finish the studio session and did not know whether their songs will make the final cut.
The Australian said that the production team, The Neptunes, were to work with Aguilera on the album. In an interview with HitQuarters, Dr. Dre protege Focus... said, "We did a song and an interlude together." He produced the beats for the track "Sex for Breakfast," which were then worked on by Aguilera and producer Noel "Detail" Fisher. Focus... got involved with the project because he and Aguilera share a loyal, long-time engineer in Oscar Ramirez; Ramirez suggested and arranged the pairing. Of the experience Focus... commented, " knows exactly what she is looking for and is not afraid to tell you. It was the first project I've ever worked on where someone sent me examples and showed me exact parts in the song they were looking for." Aguilera announced on her E! Special that she was going to be working with American dance-punk band Le Tigre. Aguilera said in August 2009, that she co-wrote tracks with British Tamil songwriter M.I.A. and Santigold, and according to the producer Tricky Stewart, Flo Rida would be featured on the album. Producer Polow da Don, who produced two of the three singles released from the project, was the only producer to be suggested by RCA and not contacted by Aguilera personally.
Additionally Stewart and Claude Kelly wrote the song "Glam", which was described as "a hard club song that's about high fashion. It's really for the ladies about getting dressed and looking your best, working it in the club and getting glam and sexy before you go out. ... It will surprise people. I'm calling it a modern day "Vogue." I wouldn’t say it unless I believed it." Kelly also co-wrote three other tracks for the album, including the first two singles "Woohoo" and "Not Myself Tonight". He described the four tracks as being "up-tempo and fun, they're party anthems but at the same time have underlying messages." Commenting on the experience of working with Aguilera, Kelly said, "What people don’t know about her is that she’s actually a really good writer. She has good ideas, good melodies, good concepts … She’s really involved from the very beginning to the very end."
Read more about this topic: Bionic (Christina Aguilera Album)
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)