How Fit For An Autopsy’s Will Putney Wrote Their New Album While Producing Some Of 2019’s Biggest Releases

It'd be enough if Will Putney just wrote Fit For An Autopsy's new record, The Sea Of Tragic Beasts. The album is a triumph for the guitarist and songwriter, showcasing not only his band's growth but also how they've been able to expand the genre of deathcore as a whole. But Will hasn't just done that -- he's also been busy producing new albums by bands like Knocked Loose, Stray From The Path, and Norma Jean at his New Jersey studio, Graphic Nature Audio. Is it possible to juggle two such intense tasks, or did one have to take priority over the other?

"It was a little of both," says Will. "I gave myself some time this time around, to clear my schedule and get stuff done, so I wasn’t trying to make this record on top of other records. But I chipped away at these songs over the course of a year, and just wrote when I felt like writing, and then when I had enough stuff, we got started on the record.

READ THIS: How Fit For An Autopsy found a unified groove on their new album

"Generally, I approached this one more like a normal record I could make," he adds about Tragic Beasts, "so it wasn’t as cramped as it has been in the past."

Given that Will is surrounded by some of the most talented and inspired bands in the world right now, one wonders if he picks up certain playing styles of habits that he incorporates into FFAA's process later. But part of Fit's strength is their unique take on death metal, and Will actually found that his production work only further refined that sound rather than inundated it with anyone else's ideas.

"You’re always inspired by good musicians when you work with them -- there’s always some trick or idea or approach to writing a song," he says. "But generally, working with bands teaches me more about what I don’t want to do with [Fit For An Autopsy] than what I do want to do. I start to see a lot of trends and things being copied from other bands that makes me steer away from certain things so that we have our own identity. There’ve been plenty of times that I’ve gone down a path with a song, and then realized that it reminds me too much of another thing, and just kind of get rid of it."

To hear the fruits of Will's labor, check out Fit For An Autopsy's The Sea Of Tragic Beasts, out this Friday on Nuclear Blast and available for preorder.

Learn more about Will's production process through Art Of The Record, our video series that goes behind the scenes at Graphic Nature Audio:

• Art Of The Record: Fit For An Autopsy
• Art Of The Record: Norma Jean
• Art Of The Record: Stray From The Path
• Art Of The Record: Knocked Loose
• Art Of The Record: Thy Art Is Murder

And catch Fit For An Autopsy live at one of the following dates on their upcoming tour:

October

24—Brooklyn, NY — St. Vitus
25—Hamden, CT — Space Ballroom
26—Philadelphia, PA — Voltage Lounge
27—Frederick, MD — Café 611
28—Chapel Hill, NC — Local 506
29—Nashville, TN — The End
30—Atlanta, GA — The Masquerade

November

01—Tampa, FL — Crowbar
02—Orlando, FL — Soundbar
04—Austin, TX — Come and Take It Live!
05—Dallas, TX — Gas Monkey
06—El Paso, TX — Rockhouse
07—Mesa, AZ — Club Red
08—Los Angeles, CA — 1720
09—Fresno, CA — Full Circle Brewing Co.
10—Sacramento, CA — Holy Diver
12—Portland, OR — Paris Theater
13—Seattle, WA — El Corazon
15—Salt Lake City, UT — The Complex
16—Denver, CO — Bluebird Theater
17—Kansas City, MO — Riot Room
19—St. Louis, MO — Fubar
20—St. Paul, MN — Turf Club
21—Chicago, IL — Cobra Lounge
22—Detroit, MI — The Sanctuary
23—Rochester, NY — Montage Music Hall

READ THIS: Is deathcore dead?