OF MICE & MEN On Advantages Of Working Without An Outside Producer: 'There Is No Time Limit To Creativity'

In a new interview with Norman "Sargento" Garcia of France's Metal Obs' magazine, OF MICE & MEN vocalist/bassist Aaron Pauley and drummer Valentino Arteaga spoke about the band's ninth studio album, "Another Miracle", which arrived last November via Century Media Records. Regarding why they decided to handle the production process themselves this time around, Aaron said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Part of it was just — we started self-producing during COVID era when studios were shut down and that sort of snowballed into us producing a few albums, then signing a new deal where the precedent was for us to keep self-producing. But, yeah, I think long story short, a lot of it is— That's a definite plus, just having more control, and not just control for the sake of control, but being close to the art."

After Garcia noted that it's "difficult" to have a member who is recording all the bass tracks and doing all the mastering and producing himself, like Pauley did on "Another Miracle", Arteaga concurred. "Oh, man. I mean, dude, [Aaron is] a savant. He's so good at what he does. We're so fortunate to have such a talented and skilled member in the band.

"Truth be told, we had no idea, really, how deep the well was in his knowledge of everything," the drummer continued. "And I think that the self-production came out of necessity during the time of COVID. But now that we've been doing it for a while, it's really helped all of us understand more. And he's such an incredible teacher when it comes to those things that we really can be a lot more hands-on with the albums now and really kind of chisel away at the marble, if you will, on our own time.

"A lot of times when we work with producers, it's such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, like a couple of months, whereas we've been crafting these last three albums for years," Valentino explained. "And I feel like there is no time limit to creativity when we're recording and doing these ourselves because at any moment that inspiration or creativity can strike, we can just pop on our computers, record what we wanna record, send it to Aaron. He'll juice it up and make it sound awesome. And it can be very stream of consciousness as opposed to, like, under the gun. 'Let's hurry up and do that.'

"I think it's cool, especially now that we're this deep into our careers and on our ninth album, to be able to be completely hands-on with everything, have that line of communication open at any time, and being able to be creative and do, like I said, stream-of-consciousness writing," Arteaga added. "I think that that's how we're able to not only produce and write so much music, but then in turn share it and pretty much consistently put out albums every other year. And it's because the creativity just really never stops, and there's nothing ever that can really stand in the way, because now with technology and the things that we learn in self-producing, we're able to speak this new musical language of the future that when we first started, on our first couple of albums, we only really knew how to just play the instruments that we have in front of us — bass, drums, guitar, vocals. But now with technology and computers, we can use all these different mediums to be able to be creative and draw inspiration from, that I think is really cool. And that's how we keep it fresh and have fun with it still."

Last November, Pauley was asked by the JJO Discover New Music Podcast what musical direction he and his bandmates wanted to take on "Another Miracle". Aaron said at the time: "It's funny, 'cause I feel like we never really know. We've never discussed it. I don't think we've ever sat down one time and been, like, 'Where are we gonna go with this one?' But the feedback has been that this record is one of our heaviest in a long time. Some of the songs, I think, are our heaviest songs that we've ever dropped. And then I think it sort of takes the experimental nature of 'Echo' [2021] with some of the melodic nature of 'Tether' [2023], but then it dials up the intensity."

Aaron continued: "Much like our third album… And it's funny, 'cause going back in time and looking at things retrospectively, you always glean more from it. One thing I realized about that record is it was one that we had made where we did a significant portion of the writing, recorded a little bit of it, went on tour, and then we still had that sort of stage energy fresh in our minds when we went back into the studio. And this record was very much the same thing. 'Cause we started working on this basically shortly after releasing 'Tether', because — I don't know — we're just crazy. We always just start working on new music immediately. We really like the process. We love the process of getting together and making music. So once the record's done, we're, like, 'Okay, well, let's just start making music again.'"

Asked why it was "so important" for him and his OF MICE & MEN bandmates to handle the production process themselves this time around, Aaron said: "It's just something that we really enjoy. Like I said, we really love the process. It's a definite challenge when you take the reins for yourselves. But there is also a lot of creative freedom and just freedom especially with regard to time, when it's your own project. For us, doing it all in-house, if you can't sleep one night and it's 2:30 in the morning or something and you wanna wake up and put an hour of work in, you can do that. Usually when you're working with a producer, even though you are the one hiring them, there's always this feeling, especially with regard to experimentation, like, 'Well, I don't wanna waste too much of this person's time experimenting with an idea.' Generally the feeling when you're recording with a producer is, 'Oh, I should have been more prepared so I could just come in and record my parts.' But when you're sort of doing it yourself, you're sort of left to your own devices, which then is a perfect avenue for problem solving, which is a perfect avenue for growth and learning."

Reflecting on some of the downsides of producing an album themselves, Aaron said: "For us, it's really, really important that we have deadlines because otherwise we will sit and tinker with things forever. So for us, in a lot of ways, our deadline is sort of our producer. Plus, we've been really fortunate throughout our careers to work with some of the best producers in rock and metal, from people like David Bendeth and Howard Benson and Josh Wilbur, and every single one of them taught us invaluable lessons and made themselves available to us even when we started self-producing. Just 'if you ever need anything, just let us know'-type vibes, which, for us, you this is our third record that we've done that, and it was sort of borne out of necessity during the pandemic because everything closed and we still have to make music. So we just wanted to figure out a way of doing it to where our fans could still enjoy it, 'cause, regardless, we would still…I don't know. Even if nobody was listening, we would be getting together and making music. We're addicted."

Earlier in 2025, OF MICE & MEN released "Another Miracle"'s title track which marked their first new music since 2023's "Tether" and their first since signing to new label Century Media Records. More recently they shared "Wake Up", which spent several weeks climbing the Active Rock Radio chart in the U.S. while in the U.K. it received strong support from Radio 1, Kerrang! Radio, TotalRock and more.

Photo by Carissa Dugoni