As Pink Floyd’s 1977 album ‘Animals’ continues to be celebrated for its impact on rock music, drummer Nick Mason offered an insight into the band’s dynamics during its creation in a previous interview with Goldmine, challenging the longstanding narrative of internal conflict.
Contrary to popular belief, the musician described the recording sessions for ‘Animals’ as a pleasant and almost familial experience, noting:
“Funnily enough, I think it was all a rather sort of cheerful period. We’re always seen as being at war with each other permanently, but actually, it was great. We were surrounded by friends and family, almost. Roger’s house was walking distance from it, and I’d have been a bike ride away from it if I rode a bike, but I don’t.”
Balancing Music With Leisure
Recalling the casual environment, he added:
“A great atmosphere. It really was a situation where you could go off and play snooker. Roger had not spent that much time specifying the tape recorders, but he did spend time on getting a snooker table.”
Technical Challenges And Punk Influence
In a 2022 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Mason also touched upon the technical aspects of ‘Animals.’ He acknowledged that it was one of their rougher productions, coinciding with the rise of punk and the use of their newly built, budget-constrained studio. Talking about the studio conditions, he said:
“There was absolutely nothing to stop one of us engineering a guitar solo. I have a memory of Roger and me actually supervising a guitar solo of David’s and actually wiping it by mistake… That was, again, something you wouldn’t get at Abbey Road.”
A hybrid multichannel SACD featuring stereo and surround remixes of ‘Animals’ was released exclusively through Acoustic Sounds in September 2022. The band also released a 2018 remix of ‘Dogs’ as a digital single in July 2022. This reissue reached number 21 on the Billboard 200, its highest position since March 1977.
