The Drawn and Quartered EP
| Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True | ||||
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| Studio album by Fair to Midland | ||||
| Released | June 12, 2007 | |||
| Recorded |
Metalworks Studios Mississauga, Ontario |
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| Genre | Alternative metal, progressive metal, art rock | |||
| Length | 47:41 | |||
| Label | Serjical Strike Records/Universal Republic | |||
| Producer | David Bottrill | |||
| Fair to Midland chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| Alternative Addiction |
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| Daily Dischord |
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| IGN | (8.8/10) |
| Metal Perspective |
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| Sputnikmusic |
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Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True is the third full-length album by alternative metal band Fair to Midland. It is the band's major label debut after two self-released albums. Fables from a Mayfly was released on June 12, 2007 with its two singles "Dance of the Manatee" and "Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes" both charting in the U.S. rock charts.
After their independent debut album in late 2001, The Carbon Copy Silver Lining, and their second album, 2004's Inter.funda.stifle, the band toured extensively to promote the albums, building up a fanbase in the Dallas, Texas Deep Ellum music scene. However, attempts to branch out into bigger music scenes, such as Los Angeles, proved futile for the band. A lack of progress, combined with increasing costs of self-funding all of their efforts, and Sudderth and Campbells college aspirations, led the band to contemplate breaking up. Just as the band was seriously discussing a break up, they received a call from Serj Tankian, frontman of American hard rock band System of a Down. Their albums and live shows had caught his attention, and showed interest in signing them to his vanity label Serjical Strike, on Universal Republic Records. This rejuvenated the band's confidence, and they signed on in April 2006, starting work on a new album shortly after.
From the start, the band chose to revisit many of the songs from Inter.funda.stifle which they felt could benefit from a professional music producer and bigger production budget. The band chose to work with music producer David Bottrill, who had previously worked on Tool's 2001 album Lateralus, and Mudvayne's The End of All Things to Come, to create "a big, epic feel" to the album. Tankian would also be present during the sessions, advising and acting as an executive producer. Bottrill affected the band's songwriting process; while in the past, a single band member would write and present their own songs, and then orchestrate the instruments around it, whereas Botrrill would have them write the songs together. This led to less "dead ends", where singular members would write a song by themselves only to not be on the same page as the rest of the band, resulting in wasted time and material. The band wrote "four or five" of the songs in the studio with Bottrill, including their second single, "Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes", and the rewrite of "A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara". The band spend four weeks in pre-production, writing new tracks and polishing ones chosen to rework from Inter.funda.stifle, and took another two and a half months recording the album. Only one to two of the weeks were spent on vocal takes, of which lead vocalist Darroh Sudderth found especially stressful, even losing hair in the process. Overall, the process of making the album took roughly six months.
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