 " Birthday " was written by Perry , Bonnie McKee , Cirkut , Dr. Luke , and Max Martin . The latter three produced the song and contributed to the instrumentation and programmed their respective instruments . The drums were played by Steven Wolf , while the horns were played by the Saturday Night Live Band , arranged by Lenny Pickett and engineered by Dave O 'Donnell . Its audio engineering was done by Peter Carlsson , Clint Gibbs , Sam Holland , and Michael Illbert . The track was finally mixed by Serban Ghenea at the MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach , Virginia , accompanied by the mixing engineer , John Hanes . The song itself was recorded at various studios , including Luke 's in the Boo in Malibu , California , Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood , California , Playback Recording Studio in Santa Barbara , California , MXM Studios in Stockholm , Sweden and Secret Garden Studios in Montecito , California . 
