The first meeting we ever had with Dim Mak about this record, which took place about five months ago, we tossed around names of potential engineers. Engineering FMTM is a tall order because our songs are long and densely layered, and all three of us tend to be perfectionists about our music. We wanted to be sure to push our sound to a higher level on this one. Bayles' name came up as one option, but honestly, we figured he was out of our league. Couple months later, when we felt ready to book studio time, we wrote to Matt's manager; she got right back to us and was like "yeah, Matt's a fan of yours and would love to do it." We all shat an eggroll. We started talking to him on the phone about the project, and we could tell right away that we were going to get along with him cuz he had the three P's: Positivity, Professionalism, and Patience. We were like, dude... we're a good band, but we wrote the majority of this record over the internet, we haven't been practicing, and we argue over details a lot... so we're going to seem like sucky amateurs to you for the first few days... and he was like, dudes... believe me, no matter how bad you think you are; I've dealt with worse.
Bayles should be in the business of band making. He sees exactly what a bands strengths and weaknesses are right away, and he challenges everyone to simply be a BETTER band. If you're stressing about tiny details, he gets you to see the bigger picture. If you're just looking at the big picture and fucking up little details, he lets you know and gets you to stop fucking up. He hears what you're supposed to sound like, and then he takes you there. He is always on time. It seems that any project he accepts he believes in thoroughly and will see it through to the end come hell or high water. Right now, I am waiting to download our rough mixes... and I'm vibrating with enthusiasm. We're scheduled to fly up to Seattle to do the final mix with him at the end of June. For the next month, FMTM's job is basically to find & edit the spoken word samples & other sounds in order to imbue the album with thoughts, meanings, and atmosphere. We're having a lot of discussions about where we want to take the record thematically - and once we've done that, we can name the songs and announce an album title.
Here's a picture of the guitars I used to record this album. L-R they are a 1992 Model 650A, a 2006 Model 650D (which belongs to my girlfriend Robin), and a 1973 Model 480.
