before the band recorded the album. Johnson had never played the keyboard before but Cain taught him the parts that had already been written. Recording and production I Am the Movie was recorded at Red House Studios (later known as Black Lodge Recording) in Eudora, Kansas in February 2002 with producer Ed Rose, who also engineered and mixed the recordings. During their time in Eudora, the band stayed at a $100 a night two-bedroom apartment owned by Red House. "There were a bunch of mattresses thrown on the floor and we were living up there in one room," guitarist Josh Cain remembered. The title of the album came from Cain's older brother, Brian. Pierre considered each song from the album like a scene from a film, and he considered the title a joke on him. Austin Lindstrom originally recorded bass guitar on the album. The bulk of the album was recorded over a ten-day period. Due to the short amount of time they had to record, several choruses on the album feature copy-and-pasted (or duplicated) vocal tracks. The sessions with Rose were difficult; he would insult the members if they made a mistake. "It was a combination because he had some weird sort of back surgery that week; we sucked as musicians and thought we could do the whole album in ten days," Pierre recalled. Though they budgeted for a $4,000 recording, the original version of I Am the Movie ended up costing $6,000 to make. Release I Am the Movie was first released in the summer of 2002, as a hand-packaged floppy disk; the band cut open floppy disks and packed a CD-R inside. These were available on the band's website and at their concerts. Pierre estimated that 3,000 copies of this edition were sold. By the end of 2002, the band began receiving offers from various record labels, including Universal, Triple Crown Records, and Drive-Thru Records, and they performed at industry showcases. Meanwhile, Brett Gurewitz, founder of Epitaph Records, learned of the band from members of the group Matchbook Romance. He attended four of their shows in Los Angeles that Pierre later regarded as among his worst, as his voice was poor from constant touring. While they were interested in Universal, they chose to sign to Epitaph as they felt the contract was less restrictive and more honest. Eli Janney from Girls Against Boys helped the band secure