Photo by Mark Del Castillo

In 1984, Dave Harris of the band Fashion teamed up with Richard Wright, who had recently been let go from Pink Floyd during the making of The Wall, to create a unique project called Zee. Together, they crafted and released their debut album, Identity, which saw moderate success. Unfortunately, the Zee project was short-lived, as Richard soon rejoined Pink Floyd, now led by David Gilmour following Roger Waters’ departure.

In 2019, Dave Harris surprised fans by remastering and re-releasing Identity as a tribute to Richard, who had sadly passed away in 2008. I had the opportunity to interview Dave about his collaboration with Richard and the renewed interest in Identity.

To further support the re-release, in 2021 I reached out to Grammy nominee producer and engineer Tim Palmer, whose credits include work with icons such as U2, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Tears for Fears, The Mission, Mighty Lemon Drops, Gene Loves Jezebel, Pearl Jam, David Bowie’s Tin Machine, HIM, Blue October, Jason Mraz, The Polyphonic Spree, The House of Love, Texas.

Though Tim was busy, I was thrilled that he took the time to respond. His insight into the album’s recording process sheds new light on a project that holds a special place for fans of both Richard , Dave and 1980s electronic music.

Recently, I was reminded of our brief conversation and decided to publish his response for the first time, sharing a rare glimpse into Tim’s work on this one-of-a-kind album.

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