From Deseret News archives:

The Used letting 'magic come out'

Published: Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 12:00 a.m. MDT

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For the past couple of years, The Used felt, well, used.

"We were getting kicked around a lot by people, especially our management. So we fired our management," guitarist Quinn Allman said during an interview.

The band, which includes vocalist Bert McCracken , bassist Jeph Howard and drummer Dan Whitesides, also did an audit and got rid of the people who were doing the finances. "They weren't doing it right," Allman said.

And when the dust finally settled, Allman said he felt like all that was left was him, his guitar and McCracken's lyrics.

So when the band decided to begin recording a new CD, a follow up to the last full-length studio CD "Lies for the Liars," everyone knew there were going to be some changes in the studio, as well.

"We knew we wanted to do it raw," Allman said. "We wanted the mistakes to shine through. We wanted it to be real. We wanted it to reflect everything from the beginning. Just go in there and not try to perfect everything.

"Let the magic come out and don't try to create the magic."

So Whitesides and Allman, both Salt Lake residents, went to Los Angeles, rented a house, and wrote and recorded songs for two months.

"We came up with 30-something songs," Allman said. McCracken then took the tunes and wrote the lyrics.

"So when we went to the studio, we had all these songs done," Allman said.

The band then recruited producer Matt Squire this time around.

"We knew he was a good producer and laid-back a lot more than (previous producer) John Feldman was. He let us take the reins."

That's not to say the band isn't grateful to Feldman, who produced the its last three albums.

"(John) really taught me about arranging and songwriting. It's ingrained in my head," Allman said.

When finalizing the latest CD, "Artwork," the band had to narrow the 30 songs down to weed 11.

Allman said the chore wasn't as difficult as it could have been.

"When (the songs) are sitting in front of you, you can kind of start to gauge which ones made the grade."

Introducing new material into a set is another process, said Allman.