Archive Sunday #4 (Patreon)

AK: After recording the boys head to Steve Fisk's home studio to mix Teens of Denial! Again, we are skipping in time past the filming of the Something Soon music video to keep all of the recording posts grouped. This way we can debrief about the recording process in our first stream chat.

Unfortunately there aren't a ton of pictures here because we really only stayed in one room to mix. As illustrated by the few photos we do have, the mixing process can be tiresome. Mixing is a monotonous sport where even fatigue can hit the guy at the wheel, let alone the rest of the chumps sitting in the backseat. I (Andrew) distinctly remember being super excited to come watch a professional mix. I was eager to learn and take my own skills to the next level. I ended up walking away from the first couple of sessions feeling like I hadn't gleaned much. I realized that these days I could learn a lot more just from watching videos on YouTube. So that's what I did, and I only showed up to mixing sessions every so often after that.

Because we don't have a lot of pictures from the mixing sessions, we're attaching some mock-ups for the album cover. Enjoy!

WT: Dunno why Andrew is demurring about including the alternate album covers - to me, they were one of the most interesting surprises to pop up while going through the archives. It's easy to forget that the one that becomes THE one is originally just an option sitting among many. The cover and liner notes appear in the handwriting of Mike Zimmerman, a designer for many Matador albums, including this one.

Steve's house smelled of incense and kindness. It was a good place to mix. We did some recording there as well, including most of the Drunk Drivers vocals. I remember a lot of Dick's burgers and local burritos being brought back here. There was a nearby Mexican spot with very large burritos which were not at all helpful for staying awake during the recording process.