Recording & producing:
The New America was recorded in September 1999 in Kauai, Hawaii in just six weeks! Can you believe it? They mixed and mastered the record in L.A. and finally finished it in late February, 2000. The first song was written in November of 1998, but they wrote many more songs than actually ended up on the album. Talk about creativity!
Graffin and Rundgren started communicating around the time of Graffin’s 1997 solo album, American Lesion. Bad Religion’s manager knew how much Graffin admired Todd Rundgren, so she sent Greg’s demo tapes for American Lesion to Rundgren’s manager. And guess what? Rundgren liked the material! But they didn’t get together until it came time to make The New America. When Rundgren reviewed Graffin’s demos, he mainly focused on the lyrics. He suggested a more proactive lyrical direction, you know, instead of the typical Bad Religion “what a bunch of crap the world is” kind of thing. Rundgren wanted more of a sense of “there’s work to be done and let’s organize to do it.” And it seems like Graffin took his advice and started rewriting some of the lyrics. How cool is that?
Greg Graffin absolutely loved working with Todd Rundgren. He said Rundgren spent more time with him as a songwriter than almost any other producer. And he still loves the songs on that album. That’s some serious admiration right there!
On Kauai, Hawaii, they set up in a rented space on an old sugar plantation. But it wasn’t just any space, it was an old, non-climate-controlled barn that was initially built for the drying and curing of marijuana. Talk about a unique recording location! The current owners, who are professional photographers, thought it would be fun to have a band come and set up in their garage. But let me tell you, it was completely primitive. Can you imagine recording an album in a place like that?
But you know what? They made it work. Rundgren said there are no studios of sufficient size and soundproofing out there anyway. And with a band, the loudest thing is the drummer, especially when you have a drummer like Bobby. So they had to find a place where they wouldn’t get a lot of complaints about the noise. And they did it!
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
Leave a Reply