13 Blues was recorded at Montreal's Hotel2Tango studios and co-engineered by ex-Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman and Silver Mt. Zion's live soundman Radwan Moumneh. It's also the band's first LP to feature former Hangedup drummer Eric Craven behind the kit, and the first to include a lyric sheet.  According to an interview with VPRO Radio in the Netherlands, Silver Mt. Zion originally began as a project in which Efrim Menuck hoped to learn how to score music. Already a guitarist in the Montreal-based musical collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor, he explained that he hoped to communicate better with his fellow musicians by getting familiar with music theory. This idea was soon abandoned as Menuck realized that he preferred not knowing precisely what he was doing when writing, opting to "fumble" instead.