Photo by Mark Del Castillo

In 1984, Dave Harris of the band Fashion joined forces with Richard Wright — recently departed from Pink Floyd during the making of The Wall — to form a short-lived but distinctive project called Zee. Together, they created Identity, a bold, synth-driven album that diverged from mainstream sounds of the era and achieved modest success before the collaboration came to an end. Richard would later return to Pink Floyd under David Gilmour’s leadership following Roger Waters’ departure.

In 2019, Dave Harris remastered and re-released Identity as a tribute to Richard, who had sadly passed away in 2008. I had the privilege of speaking with Dave about the album’s creative process, its legacy, and the renewed interest it has found among fans of both Wright and 1980s electronic music.

To further support the reissue, I reached out in 2021 to Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Tim Palmer — the original engineer for Identity and a respected figure whose credits include work with U2, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Tears for Fears, Pearl Jam, David Bowie’s Tin Machine, and many others. Despite a busy schedule, Tim kindly took the time to share his memories of working on Identity, offering fresh perspective on a unique project that continues to intrigue listeners decades later.

Having recently revisited our exchange, I’m pleased to publish Tim’s reflections here for the first time — a rare glimpse into the making of a forgotten gem in Richard Wright’s post-Pink Floyd catalog.

Liam : Hi Tim, In 1984, when the album was being put together, what was the process for constructing an album made entirely with electronic elements? With today’s technology, artists use tools like Pro Tools and Cubase to arrange and layer parts easily. But back then, without modern software, how did artists layer individual parts and build a complete track?

I assume Dave and Rick had the main parts written already, but I’m curious—without today’s digital tools, what was the method for bringing all the layers together?

Tim : So the album was recorded on 2 inch 24 track analog tape, Studer tape machine, very old school. The Fairlight CMI sequences were new technology, but they they gave out a code, their own code tracks. So that was printed on one of the tracks of the, analogue tape machine, usually track 23 or 24. And, basically, the Fairlight would sync itself up to the code on that track.

So, obviously, we went through syncing it up, adding all the parts, all the drums, the brass, the parts, the keyboards, the organs, and then added any extra overdubs that were done in the studio, the vocals, guitars, bass, that sort of thing. And once that was all recorded onto the 24 track tape, it was very simple. We just mixed it like many albums in the seventies all manually. We didn’t have automation. Everybody grabbed a fader.

For further information on Tim’s career visit his website : https://timpalmer.com