A Fever You Can't Sweat Out - Recording and Production

Recording and Production

The band relocated to College Park, Maryland, to record their debut album beginning in June 2005. The label (Fueled by Ramen) wanted the band to head to the studio in March 2005, but Ross was attending college at UNLV and the rest of the band was still in high school. Urie graduated in May 2005 and the band pushed recording back to June; Smith and Wilson completed school online during production. The band had "half of the songs" completed by the time they entered SOMD! Studios at the beginning of summer, the rest were already written and came together in the sessions. The band was heavily inspired by music groups Third Eye Blind, Counting Crows, Arcade Fire, and The Decemberists during rehearsals, but were also influenced by Danny Elfman and Jon Brion film scores.

Recording was stressful for all of the young band members, all fresh out of high school. "We were in the studio for 14 hours a day for five weeks; we might have started losing our minds a little bit," Ross recalled humorously in a 2006 interview. The band lived in a one-bedroom apartment during the production, with all four band members sleeping in bunk beds. "Everyone got on everybody's nerves," said Ross. "Someone would write a new part for a song and someone else would say they didn't like it just because you ate their cereal that morning."

By the end of production, the band had not yet had a day off and were exhausted. After its completion, "we had two weeks to come home and learn how to be a band," Ross said.