We Are Augustines are We Are Augustines no longer, now they’ll just be known as Augustines, what they were supposed to be named all along. After a legal battle before the release of Rise Ye Sunken Ships, the Brooklyn band had to amend their name to avoid a lawsuit. Now, that’s been remedied the band is entirely focused on their work to support their next full-length album, due out on February 4th. Talking with Alternative Addiction, Augustines’ bassist Eric Sanderson discussed the transition from Rise Ye Sunken Ships to working on their most recent LP. “We felt really fortunate going into this record because we were able to work through a lot of stuff in our lives and we had come to the point to where we were professional musicians,” stated Sanderson. “With the last record we still had day jobs. We had come to terms with who we are, what we do, and how we do it. We were able to make a record from a place where our foundation was strong. We toured for about two years all over the world. We wanted to capture the energy from that experience. We took about two weeks off and then we headed into the studio. We found this romantic, beautiful church in upstate New York. It’s filled with instruments and we brought up all of our gear up there and we hibernated for a month up there just the three of us. We worked from 9 to 9 everyday and we just lived and breathed music everyday and that’s where this record came from.” The record came from those sessions but a big help in the process came with producer Peter Katis. Rise Ye Sunken Ships was produced by the band, the new album was co-produced by the band with the aid of Peter Katis. Sanderson working with a producer for this record had to be and they had been wanting to work with Katis anyway. “It’s an incredible amount of work to take on,” started the bassist explaining the role of a producer. “Producing a record isn’t just providing input in the process. A big part of producing a record is looking at a budget and then looking at a time frame and then making things work. You have to make sure the record gets done with those constraints then you make the record as good as it possibly be. On this record we didn’t have unlimited time. We went directly into everything and we didn’t have flexible schedules. Working with Peter, we felt that we could confidently do what we needed to do. Even more importantly, Peter is an incredible talent and we’ve wanted to work with him for years. We approached him to do the last record, but things just didn’t line up and we weren’t able to do it. With this record we called him up and his schedule went with ours and we were able to do it. He’s a talented musician, he’s an incredible mixing engineer and he’s a fantastic producer. It was nice to have a second set of ears on the work we were doing.” Not only that, Katis gave Augustines some motivation in the studio and he dealt with the stress of the band outside the studio so they didn’t have to worry about it. “A producer is like another band member. When you’re working together it’s a battle. You’re dealing with emotions and high-stress situations. You’re dealing with labels, management and people wanting to hear songs. You’re fending off all of these external sources of stress so that everyone can stay focused on the music. Peter has said that every artist he had ever worked with; it was a life or death situation. Whether that’s the first record or the fifth. Every record that you make, if you care at all it’s a make or break record for them. There’s a lot of pressure in the studio and it’s a special thing to share with somebody. We grew from his experience in the studio and we really relied on him while making this record.”