Writing and Recording Process
Omar Rodríguez-López wrote all the music for Frances the Mute while on tour for De-Loused in the Comatorium. Some musical motifs presented on the tour as jams found their place on the album. "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" includes two sections ("Facilis Descenus Averni" and "Con Safo") that first appeared as breakdowns in "Drunkship of Lanterns" (as heard on Live EP) and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" respectively, and several parts of "Cassandra Gemini" previously appeared in "Cicatriz ESP" performances (as heard on Scabdates). The album was initially to be titled Sarcophagus.
Rodríguez-López arranged and produced the recording sessions himself. Rather than bring his ideas to the band as a whole and working them out at group rehearsals, he met individually with each player to practice each part one-on-one. "We'll sit there and play it forever and slow—real slow—to understand what's happening. It's easy to play something fast and loud, but to play it soft and slow takes a certain amount of discipline. Then once we understand the part, everyone's free to elaborate—their personalities come out and it's not my part anymore; they get into and give it that swing that I can't give it." Rodríguez-López took the additional step of recording the band member separately before layering the various tracks to create each song. Drummer Jon Theodore was the first to record his parts, and he spent time arranging and mapping out the songs with Omar and in the process figuring out what the rhythmic structures would be stated on the recording process. "This is the first time I've ever been so methodical about recording. Normally I would go into the situation with as good an idea as I could, whether that was from performing the songs on tour or having a general road map. But this was the first instance where I considered every single hit all the way through, every figure up to and including every change. There were no question marks. So when I was tracking with the metronome it was just a question of right or wrong." An exception of such recording method was the centrepiece of the album, 32-minute "Cassandra Gemini", the middle section of which was edited from the long jam session.
Tracking this way had a mixed reception in the band; Theodore and bassist Juan Alderete responded to the individualistic approach while keyboard player Ikey Owens didn't like it at all. But, as Rodríguez-López said, "People filling in ideas can become tedious and counterproductive. You find yourself working backwards. When you're in the studio 'what ifs' are your biggest enemy, so my general rule is, if it's something you can't live with—if a sentence begins with 'I can't' or 'I will not'—then we examine it. But if it's 'maybe we should' or 'I think that' then it's like, hey man, full steam ahead. Not that there isn't a lot of refinement to what we do—obviously there is— but I consider it a balance of raw energy and refinement."
Frances the Mute featured the largest array of guest musicians on any Mars Volta album to date. Once again, Flea and John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers were featured, this time Flea contributing trumpet to "The Widow" and "Miranda...". "L'Via L'Viaquez" featured Omar's childhood hero, salsa pianist Larry Harlow, while "Cassandra Gemini" had Adrián Terrazas-González (who was later a full-time member of the band) on woodwinds. All the tracks also included full string and horn sections, arranged by David Campbell with the help of Omar Rodríguez-López.
In 2012, bassist Juan Alderete noted that Frances the Mute is the studio album he is most proud of.
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