Love is the third studio album by American rock band the Juliana Theory. It was released on February 4, 2003, through Epic Records. After signing to that label in mid-2001, the band connected with Jerry Harrison, and began recording their next album in early 2002. Harrison and the Juliana Theory frontman Brett Detar produced the sessions; recording was held at The Site in Nicasio, California, Sausalito Sound in Sausalito, California, Lightning Tiger Studios in San Rafael, California, and Detar's basement and bedroom in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Described as an alternative rock release, the album saw the band shift away from the emo sound of their past albums.
Background
The Juliana Theory released their first two albums Understand This Is a Dream (in March 1999) and Emotion Is Dead (in August 2000) through independent Christian label Tooth & Nail Records. Frontman Brett Detar said they signed "a horrendous deal" with the label. The band hired Lounder Than Bombs Management to aid them in securing a major label contract. The success of both albums (combined sales of over 100,000 copies) attracted attention from labels in mid-2001; staff from the companies appeared the group's shows. In June 2001, they signed a five-album contract with Sony Music Entertainment-imprint Epic Records, as the label was more "understand[ing of] the band", according to Detar. The label had better distribution than Tooth & Nail, which was an issue when the band's music was not available in other markets, such as Canada. They received some backlash from their fans who wished for them to stay independent.
As touring in support of Emotion Is Dead wrapped up in July 2001, the band spent the remainder of the year writing and demoing material for their next album. Around this time, drummer Neil Hebrank left the band; the band worked with two session drummers, before settling on Josh Walter. The members had known him from their childhoods; Walter learned the new material they had been working on and the older tracks quickly. In December 2001, they went on a tour of the North-Eastern US states; partway into the tour, Zao dropped off and was replaced by Piebald. When finding a producer, the band found former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison the most enthusiastic. They had attempted to get Butch Vig, who was occupied recording and performing with Garbage, and Metallica producer Bob Rock to no avail. Harrison had seen the band live a handful of times, and liked what he heard. Prior to recording, he spent a week hanging out with the group discussing song arrangements and work on other items, to see how they would interact with him.
Production
They began recording, with Harrison and Detar acting as producers, in early 2002 in California, a mere four weeks after Walter had joined. The bulk of recording was done in two months The Site in Nicasio, California. It was located in the middle of the words; Allen said they intentionally wanted to track in a secluded studio, away from the distractions of a city. Further recording was held at Sausalito Sound in Sausalito, California, Lightning Tiger Studios in San Rafael, California, and Detar's basement and bedroom in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. David Schiffman was the main engineer; Eric Thorngren handled vocal recording. Dave Simon-Baker, Matt Cohen, Kevin Scott, Ari Rios, Andrew Keating, and Jared Miller were assistant engineers; Simon-Baker and Cohen operated Pro Tools, while Lars Fox did additional digital editing.
Love cost $450,000 to make, in contrast to the $6,000 and $10,000 for their debut and Emotion Is Dead respectively. Detar said "a bunch of dumb things" led to them sending that much money. For example, Harrison billed the label $800 on a weekly basis to rent out his Pro Tools rig, which the group used for around four months. By the end of the sessions they bought the rig outright from Harrison. The long period of recording was down to their engineer, who left to adopt a daughter, resulting in the band hiring another engineer. A few of Detar's vocal parts were taken from demo recordings and added to the final studio versions as he perceived he wouldn't be able to best the performance of them, such as a scream on "In Conversation".