Making music in the desert was really cool, to say the least.

The isolation allowed us to get a clear vision of how the album is going to sound, feel and look. Having our studio outside of our comfort zone really allowed us to immerse. The inspiration out there is crazy. If one of us would hit a creative block we would walk outside and wander around the desert until BAM -- an idea lands in your head. It was as if the desert was a vending machine of ideas. 

We left Joshua Tree with a solid vision for the album. We made a ton of "sketches" out there, probably around 25 total. It's the audio equivalent of a pencil sketch before a painting. They are skeletons of songs that focus on a feeling, idea, or a certain technical concept. It could be something like a certain BPM, a style of chord progression, our take on another song, a feeling, or just whatever comes to mind at the time.

During the sketch phase, we intentionally limit our toolset. These days it's frighteningly easy to get lost in a sea of software or samples. Or hardware for that matter. We are endlessly fascinated with all of the new technology available, but that's not the point. The point for us is to write music.

(Audio heads: We used almost exclusively Native Instruments Komplete 8 to write the sketches, in Ableton. We ended up using the Maschine banks for almost everything, with default Ableton plugins for EQ/filtering/dynamics. If you have other tech questions, write them in the comments below)

The next step for us is selecting the best sketches, flushing out the ideas, and bringing them to life. 

But first, off to Europe for tour...

-The Glitch Mob