The Uplift Mofo Party Plan - Recording and Production

Recording and Production

It wound up turning into a seven or eight-month ordeal of uncertainty and frustration. We got spread thin very, very fast on the money the record label allocated us. This was a crazy, crazy record. That it even came out at all is a miracle considering the diverse personalities.

“ ” -Producer Michael Beinhorn, on the recording of the album

While Kiedis was in rehab, the band sought a new producer for their next album. Aspiring producer Michael Beinhorn was looking for work at EMI Records after several unsuccessful projects on other labels, when a man working at EMI approached Beinhorn and suggested that he work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as "no one what to do with them". Beinhorn recalled of the situation: "Though their music all seemed kind of abstract, there was definitely an excitement to it. I thought they needed a lot of arrangement help ... I also quickly learned that at the record label actually hated the Chili Peppers, like openly reviled them so bad that they didn't even want them to succeed. It was the weirdest thing." He contacted the band to meet up, and instead of arranging a formal meeting, the band proposed to meet him at a club in New Orleans called Tipitina's. Beinhorn was impressed by the band's originality and non-conformist attitude and decided to work with the band. Kiedis then sat down with Beinhorn to discuss the recording of the album; Kiedis planned to record the album in ten days and write the songs during the recording sessions.

The album was recorded in the basement of the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood. Although Kiedis had recently become clean, his withdrawal symptoms increased and affected his musical contributions to the group. After fifty days of sobriety, Kiedis decided to take drugs again as a one-time attempt to celebrate his new music, which led to his resumed addiction. The recording process for the album became difficult as Kiedis would often disappear to seek drugs. Beinhorn recalled that "There were points in pre-production where I really thought the record wasn't gonna get made." Kiedis felt "excruciating pain and guilt and shame" when he would miss a recording session so he would try to write lyrics while searching for drugs; although the band was upset by his drug use and frequent disappearances, they were impressed with his musical output at the time.

Although Kiedis' drug use disrupted the early recording process, the Chili Peppers still had an enjoyable time recording the album. The band was musically inspired by the rejoining of their original drummer Jack Irons, which added "such an important and different element to our chemistry." Beinhorn encouraged the band to expand their musical horizons on the album, and although the band were initially uncomfortable stepping out of their comfort zone, the members began to feel that Beinhorn was helping them produce their best work. Slovak helped Kiedis record his vocals on the album. In between takes, Slovak would run around the studio out of excitement and say "This is the most beautiful thing we've ever done." Slovak reflected on his deep connection to the album in his diary; "It was so fun. I'm so extremely proud of everybody's work—it is at times genius." During a jam session, the guitarist created a melodic riff which differed greatly in style from the band's previous work. While Slovak nearly abandoned the riff out of fear that it was too much of a departure stylistically, Beinhorn saw potential in the new melody-based style and encouraged Slovak to turn the short tune into a full song. While the band was skeptical at first, each member began writing their own musical parts and the song became one of the album's three singles, "Behind the Sun".