Recording
Holder was interviewed for the Slade Fan Club Newsletter of April, May and June 1976. Holder stated "We recorded the album in New York (The Record Plant), where we spent something like six weeks on it. We did it all in one go, more or less, well we also did a couple of days in a L.A. studio a couple of months before, just to get into the swing of things."
Holder also stated that the band's intention was to concentrate on producing a really first class album which meant taking time off of touring. "We decided not to rush the album, like we have done on past recording sessions. We wanted to get everything just so. It wasn't just a 'wam bam' job. The sound and production is the best yet."
According to the Holder, the reason why the band went to America was purely to record an album over there. "The album is why we went to the States, not for tax reasons, folks! We wanted to get fresh ideas, we felt we were getting a bit stale living in England."
According to the fan club, guitarist Dave Hill remarked a few months before the interview that New York was literally throbbing with ideas. He said inspiration came just by strolling along the sidewalks, drinking in the bars and chatting to the old men or old women in the local drugstores.
Holder replied "Yeah, he's right, New York is such a lively, vibrant city, just living there gave me and Jim a lot of ideas to work on."
Holder spoke of the musical influences on the album. "Ya know we've been influenced by a lotta things, particularly soul. We used some coloured chicks for back-up vocals and I really enjoyed working with them, it was something different for us, and at the same time it gave our a lot of body! Those girls have great voices. We enjoyed doing all sorts of sounds, like country, funk, rock. I mean every track has its own particular style."
Holder spoke of the album's title, "No it doesn't really carry any interesting meanings. We didn't quite know what to call it, and then one day we were listening to one of the tracks called "Nobody's Fool", and we decided we'd just add an 's' to 'Fool', and call it "Nobody's Fools". Good though ain't it?"
Holder was asked whether he personally thought the musicianship was better on the album. "We had a long time to get things how we wanted them. I mean we had six weeks in the studio to get better and better, so the playing got better, and the sound got better, so yeah in terms of improvement it's a big step ahead."
Lea spoke in a mid-1976 fan club interview about the recording of the album. "We just got a terrific buzz when we were working on the album. We were more relaxed than we've ever been, more willing and able to be more experimental in the studios, and we took it easy and relaxed. Certainly we felt we had a good product in the making, so it seemed right to put everything we had into it."
In an early 1986 fan club magazine interview, Hill spoke of the album. "We were maybe musically cleverer in those early years, which could have introduced us to new things - but it never happened, apart from "How Does It Feel?". "Nobody's Fools" was a bit different, wasn't it? That was recorded in America, but it didn't happen over there."
The album's cover was created to coincide with the band's 10th anniversary, adopting the same positions of the cover for the 1970 album Play It Loud.
Read more about this topic: Nobody's Fools (album)
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“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)
“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)
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)