Jackson Rathbone wrapped up four days of work at the Warehouse studio on March 14. The 100 Monkeys vocalist–multi-instrumentalist and star of the Twilight movie franchise is busy producing Vancouver band the Bleeding Horse Express. He’ll mix and master their debut album at a super-secret location somewhere in town over the next few weeks on mobile gear he shipped up from L.A.

Rathbone first caught the Express—led by vocalist-guitarist Brad Damsgaard—when it and 100 Monkeys both played at a Neptoon Records in-store in April 2009. “It’s the style of music that I grew up on,” Rathbone told the Straight. “It’s southern rock. I’m always a little homesick when I’m outside of Texas or Louisiana, which is pretty much every day, so when I get to hear this kind of music, it just lifts my soul.”

Rathbone took the band under the wing of his Happy Jack Music publishing company when he asked to do an album swap, only to find out that Bleeding Horse Express didn’t have a record out. “Brad was like, ”˜We don’t have a CD yet,’” Rathbone recalled, “and I just thought, ”˜That’s insane. Their music’s amazing.’ ”

Besides taking production duties for the first time outside of 100 Monkeys, Rathbone makes a small cameo on the record, playing an “old bluesy crawl” with a broom and old circus drum liberated from a psych ward. “I bring psychotic juju,” he said.