Mark Mothersbaugh, the lead singer and keyboard player for the iconic new wave band Devo, recently revealed that Devo collaborated with David Bowie, Brian Eno, Holger Czukay (of Can), and a number of German electronic musicians in the late 70’s. During a Sonos event in Soho earlier in the month, Mothersbaugh reminisced about the special jam session, noting that it came about after Bowie approached the band in 1977 after a performance in Kansas City, stating, “David Bowie came up and he said, ‘I’d like to produce you guys.’ And we said, ‘Well, we don’t have a record deal.’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay for it.’”
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While the members of Devo were initially skeptical, Bowie proved he was serious about the proposal by joining the band during their second show at Max’s Kansas City later that evening. As Mothersbaugh told fans, “[Bowie] came out on stage and goes, ‘This is the band of the future, I’m going to produce them this Christmas in Tokyo!’ And we’re all like, ‘Sounds great to us. We’re sleeping in an Econoline van out in front on Bowery tonight, on top of our equipment.” Following this surprise sit-in, Bowie followed up on his proposal, with Devo flying to Cologne and recording in Conny Plank’s studio later that year.
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Most notably, during the conversation, Mothersbaugh explained that he had recently found the tape from this star-studded collaboration in Germany while cleaning out his studio. He then elaborated, “I haven’t listened to it yet because I just found this tape,” eventually adding, “There’s these tracks down below that say things like: ‘David’s vocals’ and ‘Brian’s extra synths.’ And I’m like, ‘I remember turning that stuff off when we were doing our final mixes.’”
While Mothersbaugh has the tapes, he has yet to reveal what he plans to do with the recently discovered recordings. However, fans eager to get a listen might be in for a surprise in the future. As he told the crowd, “I’m thinking we should see what’s on those tapes. I’m really curious to see what the heck they did.”
[H/T Far Out]