Out of all the Relient K albums I've been involved with, Air For Free was probably the most relaxed to make (which was exactly the opposite case of MMHMM), and maybe the most fascinating as to the creative process of it. Part of the charm of the early records (everything before MMHMM) was that they were created in my home studio at the time up in Ohio and there was no pressure of a commercial studio. At that time, Matt [Thiessen] was not real motivated or "inspired" to make a record. I suggested that if we did do a record that we should get out of the Nashville studios and do something totally different for us: record something in a remote location with sort of a "mobile" unit, like the Led Zeppelin albums that were done in a castle. [Matt] Hoopes found a 100-year-old cottage on a dairy farm in the country that had an 80-year-old grand piano. The piano was really worn out, but it tuned up and became inspirational for Matt to play. We set all of us up together in this room and cut basic tracks live as a unit (I played bass to fill that spot), and we tracked all different kinds of songs that had been swirling about in Matt's head. The results are wide-ranging and colorful; to me, it's a bunch of clever individual tunes that you wouldn't think would work together on a record, but somehow they do. I guess you could call it RK's version of The White Album. That's what I call it anyway lol.
        - Mark Lee Townsend, album producer



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