Bowie started writing the songs for "Reality" as the production for his previous album "Heathen" was wrapping up. Some songs he wrote quickly: "Fall Dog Bombs the Moon" was written in 30 minutes. Other songs, such as "Bring Me the Disco King", was a song Bowie had tried his hand at as early as the 1970s and had tried again with 1993's "Black Tie White Noise" as well as "Earthling" in 1997. The album was recorded and produced in New York City's Looking Glass Studios and co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti. Bowie wrote four or five tracks at his home studio before coming to Looking Glass. Bowie and Visconti took those tracks and worked those into about 7 songs, before adding overdubs like rhythm guitars and keyboards. According to Visconti, they took care during this part of the process to record things properly, saying "we'd hardly redo anything. I always record things carefully in the first place, because I know we're not going to redo them, and so a lot of the demo parts ended up on the final version." They then took "a short break" during which time Bowie wrote a few more songs, and then they started the overdub process over again with that new material.