Sessions for the album were held in three days at Progressive Studios in Anzac Ave, Auckland, with Terry King engineering.

The entire project was financed by Flying Nun and steered by Chris Knox and promoter Doug Hood.

"Direen's masterpiece, Beatin Hearts (1983), was recorded in Auckland's Progressive studios with prize money from the 1982 Battle of the Bands in Christchurch.

"[2] "The early Builders ... played gritty garage punk that owed a heavy musical debt to the Velvet Underground while addressing more indigenous lyrical concerns."

[3] "He [Direen] plays fucking brilliantly, throws all his gut feelings, hard-won insights and barbed intellect into these unique songs while the pinball machines and drunken flirtations drown him out" Chris Knox, quoted in 1994.