 " Mothers of the Disappeared " was created and mixed at guitarist the Edge 's newly @-@ bought home , <unk> , which U2 used as a recording studio . Bono wrote the song on his mother @-@ in @-@ law 's Spanish guitar , and drummer Larry Mullen , Jr. created a drum loop that was sampled by producer Brian Eno . The melody came from a song that Bono wrote in Ethiopia in 1985 to teach children about basic methods of hygiene . Producer Daniel Lanois was the principal mixer of the song . Bono , likening the studio itself to an instrument , described Lanois 's mix as a " performance " . 
