"Egypt Station" sessions at Abbey Road

“Egypt Station” was mostly produced by Greg Kurstin (with the exception of “Fuh You” produced by Ryan Tedder), and recorded between 2016 and 2018 in various locations, mostly Henson Studios in Los Angeles, Paul McCartney’s personal studio Hog Hill Mill and Abbey Road Studios. The exact recording dates are not known.

From an interview of Greg Kurstin by Rolling Stone, July 3, 2018:

[…] We did some sessions at Abbey Road, which was very, very cool. I’d never worked there before, so it was amazing to go in there with Paul and get the tour and hear the stories.

Tell me more about what it was like working there.

I mean, it was amazing. He’d tell stories and you could visualize him and John [Lennon] and the band there as kids. They were just so young. He’d say, “Oh, yeah, we’d play down here and run up the stairs excited to hear what it sounded like.” I could visualize him as a young man recording those albums. They were so innocent. He told countless stories about the echo chamber. He said he’d hide out there with John, kind of giggling and laughing when there would be another session in another studio. If you solo’d any of those tracks you’d probably hear them laughing.

There were also lots of stories about the console. There’d be a setting for classical and a setting for pop. They’d have the switch set to pop when the Beatles recorded and John and Paul would be like, “Why do they get classical? What do they do that we don’t?” They thought they were getting short-changed or something.

At what point did the sessions move to Abbey Road?

I’m terrible with time, but it was towards the end of the album. It was more of a sweetening session, just the tail end of going through all the songs. We had a string quartet and a harp player. Then we had a cimbalom musician come in and to sweeten some of the songs, doubling some of the melodies. We doubled some of the piano. You can hear it on the intro to “I Don’t Know.” It was really, really cool. […]

Greg Kurstin – From Rolling Stone, July 3, 2018

Session activities

1. I Don't Know

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

2. Come On To Me

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

3. Happy With You

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

4. Dominoes

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

5. Back In Brazil

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

6. Do It Now

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

7. Despite Repeated Warnings

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

8. Hunt You Down

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording

9. Get Started

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording • It is not explicitly mentioned where this track has been recorded, but the chords overdubs suggest it was partly recorded at Abbey Road.

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