page_title: Simulation Theory (album)
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: Simulation Theory (album) / Recording
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of AIR Studios, AIR Lyndhurst Hall - Hampstead, London. Published by Ville Hyvönen on Flickr on April 18 2017, under the title "Air studios, London".
context_page_description: Simulation Theory is the eighth studio album by English rock band Muse. It was released on 9 November 2018 through Warner Bros. Records and Helium-3. Muse co-produced the album with Rich Costey, Mike Elizondo, Shellback, and Timbaland. Following the darker themes of Muse's prior albums, Simulation Theory incorporates lighter influences from science fiction and 1980s pop culture, with extensive use of synthesisers. The contemporary political climate of the United States informed the lyrics.
  Rather than working on the album as a whole, Muse focused on recording a single track at a time. Recording began at AIR Studios in London in early 2017 with Elizondo, before embarking on a tour of North America. Production restarted in Los Angeles in late 2017 with Costey, who previously produced Muse's albums Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations.
  The album cover, designed by Stranger Things artist Kyle Lambert, and its music videos homage 1980s pop culture such as Back to the Future, Michael Jackson's Thriller, and Teen Wolf.
context_section_description: Muse began writing and recording their eighth studio album following the conclusion of the Drones World Tour in late 2016. The band spent time at AIR Studios in London, England, with producer Mike Elizondo until they left to embark on a tour of North America with PVRIS and Thirty Seconds to Mars in May 2017. Three tracks were written and recorded during these sessions; information that had been relayed by the band to a fan that visited them at AIR Studios in March 2017. One of the tracks, "Dig Down", was released following the conclusion of these sessions in May 2017. At the end of the tour, the band moved to Los Angeles, California, to restart production, this time with collaborator Rich Costey, who co-produced Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations.
  Rather than concentrating on the album as a whole, as they had on previous albums, Muse focused on recording and mixing one track at a time. The band hoped this would improve the individual quality of the songs, and they worked with no particular theme in mind, even halfway through its production.
  One of the first tracks produced with Costey was "Thought Contagion", based on a bassline and theremin melody conceived by Bellamy. The band began recording it in November, and replaced the theremin with a ten-layer vocal chorus performed by Bellamy and bassist Chris Wolstenholme. The verses were originally intended to be supported by a heavier, arena-style drum sequence, before experimentation with programming led to a trap-inspired drum sound that emulated the Roland TR-808. The folk rock-inspired track "Something Human" was also co-produced with Costey. Shellback and Timbaland also co-produced tracks.
caption: AIR Studios in London, England, where the first recording sessions for Simulation Theory took place in early 2017.
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