The Burning of Rome scores lofty producer ahead of Fernwood visit.

Punk legend/producer Paul Leary turned down a $20,000 gig with the Butthole Surfers at Austin Psych Fest last May to finish mixing a record for a rising indie band.

“I told him to go, that it was going to be a great gig,” says Adam Traub, lead singer and keyboardist for The Burning of Rome. “But he was like, ‘No, I’d rather stay home and mix your record.’”

When The Burning of Rome was shopping around for the right producer to bring Year of the Ox to fruition, Traub found Leary as a kindred spirit.

“I got on the phone with him and there was this instant synergy,” Traub says. “We started talking about our influences and what the goal of the album would be; my goal was to keep it in the vein of Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno.”

Year of the Ox straddles a line between pop-punk and industrial-synth; it also employs in-studio live recording and layered works that travel just far enough down the rabbit hole.

“The Complete Robot,” for one, is the tale of a bad trip on acid. The first-person account, coated in Flaming Lips intergalactic jelly, is about someone’s realization that their insides are made of mechanical parts and they’ve been living as a cyborg their entire life. The opener, “Animal,” is a punk rock welcome committee that reverberates in space. “Random Acts of Violence” delivers a barrage of playful harmonies with an almost ska-like rhythm, while “Space Age Stockholm Syndrome” rocks like a B-grade sci-fi flick infiltrated by David Bowie’s Labyrinthsoundtrack.

Traub’s vision for Year of the Ox was conceptually slippery – part of it was crafting clearly distinct songs that all still belong together – but Leary got it.

“Once we started talking there was no going back,” Traub says. “It seemed so effortless to explain my art to Leary.”

More than anything, the punk veteran helped focus TBOR’s sophomore effort.

“[Leary] was able to hone in and allocate responsibilities,” Traub explains. “He orchestrated everything in such an organized manner when it’s so chaotic.”

Leary also gave Traub a glimpse of what his ideal future may look like.

“I’ve seen where [Leary’s] gone in his career and it’s something that I admire tremendously and it inspires me to keep going,” Traub says. “That’s the end goal for me: to produce great records. He’s a fucking genius and I love him.”

THE BURNING OF ROME 10pm Saturday, Sept. 13. Fernwood Resort, 47200 Highway 1, Big Sur. Free. 667-2422.