"The Ladder" was recorded from February–May 1999 at Armoury Studios in Kitsilano, a western neighbourhood of Vancouver. Fairbairn is credited as the producer and Mike Plotnikoff the engineer and mixer. The album's title was inspired by the Indica Gallery in London that housed an art exhibition in 1966 where John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, who had constructed her "Ceiling Painting" (or the "YES Painting") which required people to climb a ladder and look through a magnifying glass suspended from the ceiling, which allowed them to see the word "YES" in tiny letters on a framed piece of paper on the ceiling. During the recording, the band lived in different apartments within the same building and travelled to and from the studio together. White recalled that the band had not done such a thing since they recorded "Going for the One" (1977) in Switzerland and felt such a situation benefited the album's progression.