Fish wheel salmon species Chinook, Chum, Coho, Sockeye, and Pink) and other anadromous species of fish, has given fish wheels their second name as "salmon" wheels. Although salmon were prioritized by commercial fishers and Indigenous peoples (albeit for different reasons,) other fish such as steelhead trout ("Oncorhynchus mykiss"), ooligan ("Thaleichthys pacificus"), and lamprey ("Lampetra tridentata") were also considered valuable catch. While the fish wheel is best known for its presence on the Northwestern coast of North America, there is debate whether the technology arrived via Asian migrants who had come to labor in the gold fields, by Scottish and Russian migrants, or
What It Is to Burn the label. Reines offered the group a chance to perform and subsequently invited his sister, and co-label owner, Stefanie to the performance. The pair were impressed and signed the group. Pre-production and demos were done at DML Studios in Escondido, California in February and April 2001. They began recording "What It Is to Burn" in June at Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, California with producer Mark Trombino. They started tracking guitars in July. Strohmeyer used Fender guitars and Marshall amplifiers. Linares used ESP guitars and Mesa amplifiers. Trombino did guitar effects for the album, earning him a programming credit in