You have to start with the Mellotron that Mike Pinder was playing. The way he got that sound was by bouncing between machines. We were only on 4-track machines, going up to 8-track for Lost Chord, so he would bounce the whole thing across many times to get that layered sound. That would be very time consuming for him and Derek Varnals, the engineer. They would work on it together.
Meanwhile, other guys were writing in the studio going (a high-pitched, wavering Mellotron ) through a progression of chords. So Ray and I found this broom cupboard that was attached to the studio. I’d go there with my acoustic guitar and flute, and we would write those things. It had a sound-proofed door so that the cleaners didn’t disturb us. It also had an entrance from the corridor that was also sound-proofed. It was a sealed little place. Everything that we wrote together – including Visions of Paradise – all of those things were written there.