I Am... Sasha Fierce - Production and Recording

Production and Recording

The recording of the album took place over an eight-month period, beginning in December 2007. Knowles recorded the album in sessions at Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta; Chung King Studios, Electric Lady Studios, Strawberrybee Productions in New York; GAD Studios in Ibiza, Spain; Mansfield Studios and The Campground in Los Angeles; South Beat Studios in Miami Beach; and The Boom Boom Room in Burbank, California. Knowles either co-wrote or co-produced all material on I Am... Sasha Fierce. She collaborated with several record producers and songwriters, including Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Stargate (a production duo composed of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen), Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Sean Garrett, Solange, Jim Jonsin, Rico Love, Ryan Tedder, Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford, Ian Dench, Dave McCracken, Wayne Wilkins and Elvis Williams. Knowles also collaborated with some musicians she had never worked with in the past, including Toby Gad and BC Jean on "If I Were a Boy", and Amanda Ghost on "Disappear".

"I'm a human being. I cry. I'm very passionate and sensitive. My feelings get hurt. I get scared and nervous like everyone else. And I wanted to show that about myself. It is about love. I'm a woman, I'm married, and this portion of my life is all in the album. It's a lot more personal. I'm very private and I don't talk about a lot of things, but there are certain songs that are on the album that are very personal. It's my diary. It's my story... I still have my album of fun songs."

—Beyoncé Knowles on the development of the album.

For the I Am... disc, Knowles was influenced by folk and alternative rock genres, while incorporating other instruments she had not normally used previously, such as the acoustic guitar. Tedder specifically assisted Knowles with crafting the album's balladry. The ballads were crafted in a way to combine "the best elements" of pop and soul music, while simultaneously "expanding the possibilities of both genres". Knowles attempted something different as people had strong expectations from her; she experimented with stronger lyrics. Knowles worked with Ghost to re-write Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" after having co-written "Disappear" in London. Ghost told The Daily Telegraph that they were both inspired by their then-recent marriages and had walked down the aisle to "Ave Maria".

During the eight-month period, Knowles recorded over 70 songs and decided during the editing process that she did not want to reconcile the two approaches into one disc. She explained, "There's my personal life, my sensitive side, and then me as a performer, sexy and energized and fun ... Artistically it was more fulfilling recording and writing ." If a song was meaningless to her, she cut them off during the process of elimination for the final track-listing.In the months leading up to the release of the album, Knowles released a statement on her official website giving details about the nature of the album and what could be expected from it. She said: "I am in a different place right now and I want people to see the many sides of me. The music is upbeat for the dance, fun side and it is reflective, passionate and serious for the personal side. It's me and I am so excited to share it with the world on November 18." Making comparisons to a magazine, Knowles further elaborated that the record was a double album and that it had two covers. The black-and-white artworks for the standard, deluxe and platinum editions of I Am... Sasha Fierce were all shot by German photographer Peter Lindbergh.