knew his audience. Because of the stress of the Serious Moonlight tour, Bowie found himself at a creative stalemate; he would later admit that touring always left him devoid of new ideas. At the conclusion of the tour, Bowie went on holiday in Bali and Java with his friend, singer Iggy Pop. Biographer Nicholas Pegg writes that until the success of Bowie's recording of "China Girl", Pop's fortunes had been dwindling since 1979 and he was forced to tour constantly. After holidaying together, Bowie was eager to work with Pop on his next record. Although Bowie felt he was ill-prepared to record a new album, pressure from the label to release a follow-up led him into the studio in the spring of 1984 unprepared. Following the release of Let's Dance, Bowie said he wanted his next record to "go further"; he wanted to explore R&B, funk and reggae music. Bowie did not invite Nile Rodgers, the co-producer of Let's Dance, to work on the new record. Though initially surprised, Rodgers later attributed the decision to Bowie wanting to prove he could make hits without a "celebrated hit-maker". Bowie chose Derek Bramble, a former bass guitarist for the band Heatwave and more recently a producer for David Grant of the band Linx instead. "I had no idea, he just came searching for me," Bramble later said. As he had done with Rodgers for Let's Dance, Bowie invited Bramble to Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, to record demos of his new material. Emphasising reggae, a group of local Swiss musicians cut demos. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, musicians present at the Tonight sessions said the demos were "tremendous", describing them as "funky, raw, [and] full of promise". The engineer of Let's Dance, Bob Clearmountain, was asked to return but was unavailable; he suggested Hugh Padgham, who had worked with XTC, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, and more recently with the Police as a producer. Padgham later admitted to having mixed feelings about working solely as an engineer but accepted Bowie wanted to work this way. Padgham suggested Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Canada, where he had recently completed work with the Police. Writing and recording Recording for the new album officially began at Le Studio in May 1984, less than five months after the Serious Moonlight tour. Bowie arrived for the sessions with eight of the nine songs that would appear on the album. This