u/VNE47

Thought I'd share this, with some extra bits of info from studio notes and other internet sources/interviews.

April 2-6, 1990: Sessions at Smart Studios, Madison with Butch Vig producing. Eight songs were recorded, including "Immodium" ("Breed" working title), "In Bloom", "Stay Away", "Lithium" and "Polly"... Songs that were written and performed live over the last 3-4 months, with Chad Channing as drummer.

Original plans were to release an EP, but this idea was soon abandoned and the band would instead use the tracks as demos to ship for a new record deal, eventually landing one with Geffen Records.

By September 1990, Dave Grohl had joined the band as their drummer, after Dan Peters‘ brief stint and Chad Channing’s firing.

late April 1991: Final rehearsals take place ahead of the recording sessions, finalising some of the arrangements at Butch Vig's suggestions.

2 - 24 May 1991: Recording sessions take place at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA with Butch Vig co-producing & engineering.

Basic tracks were cut in Studio A for basically all the songs, taking around 5-6 days... Each song usually took two, three or four takes to nail. “Lithium” would be done to a click track at Butch Vig’s request, using an Alesis drum machine although Dave wasn’t pleasedyy. For "Something In The Way", however, they encountered some difficulty recording as a full band...

They soon moved to Studio B at Sound City, where overdubs were completed - bass, guitars and vocals. "Something In The Way" was completed there, where they cut Kurt’s acoustic guitar & vocals and cut bass & drums to that, repeatedly punching in to match the timing. More time was spent on the guitar and vocal overdubs, Kurt still writing lyrics by that stage…

24 - 28 May 1991: Initial mixing took place at Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood... Some last-minute guitar & vocals were also done. They’d fully mixed 3-4 songs, but did not feel satisfied with them. The rest wound up being left as rough mixes... They were relatively burned out from the recording, and felt it was best to bring in a fresh pair of ears.

July 1991: mixing completed by Andy Wallace at Scream Studios in Studio City, California, with some overseeing from the band & Butch Vig. Wallace's approach was applying more EQ, and using samples to drive reverb sounds on the kick & snare without replacing the original sounds. Kurt had chosen Wallace as he liked his work with Slayer, though he later felt the record had too much polish for his liking once Nevermind became so successful…

26-27 July 1991: The album is officially completed, with final masters made and B-sides ready.

Autumn 1983: Following touring for The Hurting, the band work on "The Way You Are" for a single release… Additional songs were also written at this time during rehearsals, including "Mothers Talk", "Head Over Heels" (evolving out of a motif in "Broken" a.k.a. "We Are Broken") and "The Working Hour".

December 1983: The band do a UK tour to coincide with the release of "The Way You Are", where they road-test the aforementioned songs, alongside the B-side track "Broken". "Head Over Heels" is performed bookended by "Broken" as an interlude, and this arrangement remained on the album. Even the coda for "Broken" performed at Hammersmith Odeon was kept.

January-February 1984: Sessions take place for "Mothers' Talk" with producer Jeremy Green for a potential single release. However, the record company rejected it as it sounded too electronic & synth-oriented like "The Way You Are", which was deemed a commercial flop by the band's standards.

Eventually, Chris Hughes is brought back into the fold as producer, who could help bring the organic guitar-oriented sound the band were after. However, it became clear that they did not have enough songs to make a complete record. Thus, Roland took a break to write and develop more song ideas, out of which came "Shout", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and "I Believe". Although "Everybody" would be held over for some time due to Roland’s reluctance... Ian Stanley would also write "Listen".

April 1984 (estimate): Recording for the album officially begins, largely at Ian Stanley's house with Chris Hughes producing and Dave Bascombe engineering… The recording took seven months to complete, working largely on arrangements and developing the songs further from their initial form.

Of the seven months, "Mothers' Talk" and "Shout" both took 2-3 months to develop and flesh out into their final form, being released as singles in August and November 1984, respectively. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" took 5 days by stark contrast, as the very last track to be recorded, once Chris Hughes had convinced him of its potential…

October-November 1984: Mixing took place for over one month at Union Studios, Munich. The final lead vocals on "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" were completed there.

late November 1984: The album is officially complete, and so tour preparation & rehearsals begins for the album

25 February 1985: Songs From The Big Chair is officially released on Mercury records

Posted this on forums not long ago, thought I would re-share it here for your reference as an overview of the process.

Late 1983-Mid 1984: Early versions of "Liberian Girl" and "Dirty Diana" were developed during the Victory sessions, but Michael kept them for his own solo project.

February 1985 (estimate): Sessions take place for the Captain EO movie after We Are The World & Victory tour. "Another Part of Me" was recorded at Westlake Studio A, as was "We Are Here To Change The World" although possibly written earlier. Michael worked with John Barnes and engineer Matt Forger, both of whom would form the ‘B-team’

Spring 1985: Michael officially begins writing & pre-production on the Bad album in earnest:
“Al Capone” (later “Smooth Criminal”) and “Dirty Diana” were among the first songs worked on during this early period at Westlake Studio C with Forger and Barnes…

By May/June 1985, Hayvenhurst was officially upgraded and operational. Around August, Michael would be filming for Captain EO. Engineer/musician Bill Bottrell joined the 'B-team' in October 1985, becoming an integral part of the team whilst Matt Forger was focusing on Captain EO. Likewise with Synclavier operator Chris Currell, who joined in early 1986…

Over the next year and a half, Michael continued writing and recording songs for the album. He would communicate his musical ideas, and Barnes or Bottrell would help realise them using cutting-edge tools of the day like the Linn 9000 drum machine, plus Synclavier and Fairlight CMI computers. There was also a great deal of experimentation with finding new sounds, something Michael continued to push for future albums. The main focus was getting the songs as they were, Hayvenhurst offering the relaxed, creative environment.

4 August 1986: Recording officially commenced with Quincy Jones and the 'A-team’ at Westlake Studio D... Michael had already narrowed down the songs for the project from around 60 songs/ideas to 9, including “Streetwalker”. 
Basically, Quincy and the ‘A-team’ were re-creating the demos from scratch with proper studio musicians and getting them to album master quality, which was difficult at times due to Michael preferring the demos and felt they had more punch… Like on the demos, they worked primarily on the Synclavier with Chris Currell retained from the B-team.
Only “Another Part of Me”, however, kept the original 1985 recording made for the Captain EO film with minor updates.

At the same time, Michael continued to work with the ‘B-team’ back at Hayvenhurst - mostly Bottrell and Barnes. Attempts to bring them to Westlake not sit well with Quincy, who saw them as a threat to his role as producer… Things came to a head when Michael allegedly took the tapes for “Speed Demon” to Hayvenhurst for Bottrell to re-work behind Quincy’s back in December 1986. Inevitably, Bottrell was fired from the project the following month and the ‘B-team’ was dissolved. Currell, meanwhile, stayed as a Synclavier operator, Quincy feeling less intimidated by him.

February 1987: Halfway through recording, Quincy sought material from other songwriters for the Bad project to complement Michael’s songs… From this came “Man In The Mirror” and “Just Good Friends”.

June-9 July 1987: Final tense months before the Bad album was finally completed, which saw the A-team running two studios (C&D) full-time at Westlake, involving engineer Humberto Gatica like on Thriller... The last few weeks saw a toss between using “Streetwalker” and “Another Part of Me” on the album, with the latter winning…

Not to mention that the singles - Bad, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana etc. - had new mixes done ahead of their respective releases, and were inserted on the main album master for new pressings each time up until January 1988.

In honour of the release day of Hysteria, I thought I’d reupload /w some updates and additional info.

February-August 1984: writing and pre-production took place in Dublin with 4-track recorders, having hardly written anything while touring for Pyromania…. With some help from Mutt Lange, who was almost like a sixth member of the band. However, Mutt needed a break after constant work in the studio, so he bowed out and the band needed to find another producer…

11 August-late October 1984: The 'infamous' Jim Steinman sessions at Wisseloord Studios in Holland... Has been well documented this didn't work out because they had very different ideas on how to produce the record… The songs were cut live in the studio, when the band were used to doing their instrument parts individually which they felt was best… Basically, Jim wouldn't adapt, the band wouldn't compromise, and so they parted ways.

Early-mid November 1984: Sessions continue with the band producing themselves and David Thoener engineering, lasting a few weeks until Thanksgiving. They basically tried to salvage the Steinman recordings, re-doing guitars to beef up the sound… The drums from the Steinman sessions were drum samples, with Thoener saying Rick was eager to replace them but obviously never got around to it given what happened eventually.

late November 1984: Engineer Nigel Green joins the sessions, becoming a mainstay throughout the project as assistant producer… Even then, they were still trying to salvage from the Steinman recordings at Wisseloord.

31st December 1984: Rick Allen had his accident on the A57 outside Sheffield, in which he sadly lost his left arm, much to the band’s shock.

Early 1985: Recording continued at Wisseloord while Rick was in hospital recovering, despite the uncertain atmosphere looming… Rick eventually joined them after six weeks, and developed a custom-made Simmons SDS-7 drum kit /w left foot triggers which he got to practice with on his own in Wisseloord Studio 4. And continued to refine his technique while the sessions carried on over the next two years.

Also, by early 1985, they finally decided to scrap the eight backing tracks recorded with Steinman and recut the songs - primarily vocals and guitars - to a LinnDrum machine, but sessions were slow without Mutt's leadership and guidance...

mid-June - late July 1985: Lead vocal sessions at Studio Des Dames in Paris, with some band rehearsals. Mutt Lange finally joins in as producer after a much-needed rest. Only the vocals for "Animal" and "Run Riot" were completed at this time... Mutt also felt the material so far needed improvement, which sounded like a Pyromania II at this point, thus fully committing as producer much to the band's relief.

August 1985 - July 1986: Recording continues at Windmill Lane Studio 2, a cheap jingle studio in Dublin, where the bulk of the finished album was completed. They almost entirely started from scratch, re-writing and updating the songs under Mutt’s direction… A few new songs were written as well - "Hysteria", "Rocket", "Love And Affection" & the final song "Love Bites". While “Animal” had the music rearranged under the Paris lead vocal… The songs still featured a LinnDrum, a guide synth bass, guitars and some vocals.

August 1986: Break for the Monsters of Rock mini-tour, for some relief from the studio (only a week of lead vocal recordings for Joe at some point between shows)

September 1986 - January 1987: Final phase of recording at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands. There, they primarily added bass guitar and drums to the existing songs, alongside lead vocal work from Joe. Rick Allen programmed the drums on a Fairlight CMI computer, albeit manually with his Simmons kit hooked up to it... However, a couple of hiccups happened: Joe caught mumps in late November, then Mutt Lange had his own car accident which took a few weeks to recover from…

By early January, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” came about during a vocal session, with only Joe and Mutt being around. They put together a quick demo, and before long they had one more song… Phil, Sav and Steve would help develop it further, and there was the song in 10 days.

Late January 1987: Joe completes vocals for "Armageddon It" and (newly-written) "Pour Some Sugar On Me" at Windmill Lane II over 8 days... These were the final vocals recorded for Hysteria.

February - May 1987: Final production and mixing at Mutt Lange's private studio in Hindhead, Surrey... All the 24-track tapes were transferred & compiled, then the bulk of the Fairlight CMI programming was done by Phil Nicholas at Mutt’s studio including drums, bass parts, sound FX and keyboards. Mike Shipley and Nigel Green mixed the album with Mutt, running the Fairlight live in sync with tape so parts could be changed on the fly if needed.

Meanwhile, the band took a much-needed break and finished off 5 songs for B-side material. As well as coming up with additional song ideas including one by Phil & Steve which became “Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)”.

This might be a long post, but thought it was worth sharing…

May 1994: Writing and pre-production

October 1994-April 1995: Main writing and rehearsals take place in Lars' Dungeon... Alongside writing and jams for songs.

1st May 1995: Recording officially begins at The Plant Studio A in Sausalito, CA with Bob Rock producing and Randy Staub engineering... Takes around 10 days to set up a drum sound for the album, adjusting the room acoustics, followed by in-studio rehearsals.

16th May - 1st June 1995 - 1st set of basic track sessions, including the following songs:

• “Drivin’” (“Slither”)
• “Fix” (“Fixxer”)
• “2x4”
• “Skimpy” (“Carpe Diem Baby”)
• “Mart” a.k.a. “Martini” (“Where The Wild Things Are”)
• “Stream” (“Streamline”, a.k.a. “Wasting My Hate”)
• “Better” (“Better Than You”)
• “Fish” a.k.a. “Fish Tank” (“Prince Charming”)
• “Fuel”
• “Bitch” (“Ain’t My Bitch”)

24th July - August 7th - second set of basic track sessions, laying down multiple live takes to be edited and compiled later for overdubs. This including the following songs:

• “Bastard” (“Bad Seed”)
• “Lenny” (“Attitude”)
• “NC-17” (“Thorn Within”)
• “Believe” (“Cure”)
• “DD” (“Devil’s Dance”)
• “Load” (“King Nothing”)
• “Jack” (“The House that Jack Built”)
• ”Dusty” (“Poor Twisted Me”)

17th - 26th August: Metallica peform a few gigs, including London Astoria II and the Monsters of Rock festival

3rd November: The band film studio ”fan can” rehearsals

6th November - 13th December 1995: Third & final set of rhythm tracking sessions, including the following:“Mine Eyes” (“Low Man’s Lyric”)

• “The Unforgiven II”
• “Memory” (“The Memory Remains”)
• “Mama Said”
• “Mouldy” (“Hero of the Day”)
• "BHS II"/“Pulp” (a.k.a. “F.O.B.D”) - newly written in a studio jam, becoming "Until It Sleeps"
• “Boss” or “B.O.S.” (“Bleeding Me”)
• “Ronny” (“Ronnie”)
• “Outlaw Torn”

January 1996: "Mama Said" would be re-cut as a new arrangement with hot sticks... Additionally, the band had decided to narrow down the album into a single LP, choosing the most lyrically developed songs of the set to complete first.

1st March 1996: Sessions relocate to Right Track Studios in New York, with James finalising the lead vocals and lyrics after his father's passing the previous month... Plus further overdubs.

Early April 1996: Mixing begins on the album, marks start of crunch time. At the Record Plant, Randy Staub mixed in one room while overdubs took place in another engineered by Brian Dobbs. Mike Fraser also mixed at Quad Studios, NY just across the street.

1st May 1996: Load is officially completed.

July 1997: Sessions for Reload begin also at The Plant. Work was split across the three studios there, James doing guitars & vocals in one (or Kirk), Jason Newsted patching up bass parts in another and Lars editing the drums in a third room… They would basically trade tapes between the different studios – drums, then bass, followed by guitars. Mixing would also take place concurrently.

20th - 25th August 1997: Break in recording for a few European festival appearances - Pukkelpop (22nd, Belgium), Blindman's ball (23rd, Germany) and Reading festival (24th, England). En route, the band stop over in Dublin on 21st August to record Marianne Faithfull's vocals for "The Memory Remains" at Windmill Lane Studios.

26th August - October: Recording resumes at The Plant. Mixing was also started at the same time, with Randy Staub mixing in one room, Mike Fraser mixing in another and final overdubs in a third room.

15th October: Reload is officially completed.

Features different drum and guitar takes from Stewart & Andy.