While Noahjohn simply captured its live sound on disc, Charlemagne is a studio album. Coming off of a stint of touring with Noahjohn in February 2003, Johns returned home and buried himself inside Science of Sound, a Madison home studio, for a long, cold Wisconsin winter of recording. The album began with an acoustic guitar and a 1970s drum machine (Multivox Rhythm Ace FR-3). Charlemagne is a true solo album, as Johns wrote and recorded everything, aside from the lyrics to the album's final track, which were taken from Tenaya Darlington's poetry book, Madame Deluxe (2001 Coffeehouse Press). Charlemagne was mixed at Butch Vig's Smart Studios in July.