They are definitely from a personal point of view for me. I try to be poetic and use fairly general themes, without being vague so that the listener can make their own interpretation and decide what the lyrics mean to them to a certain extent. A lot of the general ideas and themes on the album came from a time of reflection I had when I was in Colorado quite a few years ago, which is why we decided to name the album that. I'd say some of the main topics I come back to are: people being deceitful or...

My record label was really unsure, but I said ‘Look. Either I go make this record or I go to a mental health clinic. So it’s really not your choice: This is what I’m going to do, for my own personal mental health. This is what I have to do, because music is my therapy.’

And that’s the one where Bill was like ‘Yeah, this is good, this is the best song you have. Let’s figure out how to incorporate drums into it and then it will be good.’ It took a long time, it was funny because Zack who’s always recorded with us, Zack from Dear Landlord, he said that it was great to finally record a song that doesn’t sound like every single...

Basically, I grew up in a "box"...I grew up as a Christian. And it wasn't until I went out into the real world and saw the gimmick and the manipulation and a lot of things behind Christianity and religion in general. I guess going out into the real world and seeing what would be coined as awful. Sometimes you need to go places to understand what they're all about, and it's so easy to stay inside of a comfort box and keep yourself safe; when you're out in the real world and...

It’s not done, I’m finishing it when I get back from this tour and it’ll hopefully be turned around really quickly so we can get it out as soon as possible. I’m definitely sick of waiting.

Rise is great. I mean, we've had them do more for us in the one year we've been signed to them than the other labels have done in the other 6 years we've been signed. They're really personable, they're literally a phone call away, as opposed to going through all these different channels just to talk to your own record label. They treat us like human beings, you know?

KD: Well they’re not… The Jesse one is a rock record and it’s like a ROCK record. More than anything I’ve ever worked on so far.
AH: Yeah it’s bloodthirsty. Sick. It is. I’ve only heard really bad sounding demos, but it’s a version of Kevin. It’s a version of him that’s kind of this punky, bloodthirsty, loud rock thing. And you can hear the Jesse influence. There’s this section that goes to half time in one of these songs that I really like. It was totally a momment...

I can probably say that this will be our last record on Universal. It was great, but major labels are always struggling. They’re polishing the brass on the Titanic. We had a good run, for sure, but there was always the risk of getting the major label rigmarole. It’s always about the profit. It’s always about the top dollar and what’s happening now, which is why every label is signing a bunch of bands that sound like Mumford & Sons. We released a super heavy rock record, but whatever. They’ve been good to us and breathed some good life into our career.

We've been ready to announce it for weeks but we procrastinated because we weren't sure what the...

Honestly, I think everything is possible, but I do not think it’s something that is totally likely in the near future. It comes up every once in while, with people asking us if we plan to return, or offers come in reunite, but it never seems to be the right time. Everyone has other stuff going on, but I think that it is something that could eventually happen. I’m not sure how much older we could get and still do it though [laughs]. An older version of Blood Brothers? I’m not sure that would be any good. Anything is possible though.

The last song on the record, 'Legendary', was the first song that made the album. It was the first that was written. I think the song was a bit of a turning point in general for us. It was the beginning of last summer, we had just gotten off tour, we had just moved into a house together in Tempe, Arizona, and living with each other for the first time.

We’ve stayed true to them since day one, starting with the Limitless EP, where we started doing things like that and showing everyone that they could be limitless. We continued that on the second record, writing songs like “Venice” and “Evidence” that are about speaking out against bullies, standing up for yourself, and being your own person.

Obviously when I was getting high and fucked up, I tended to talk a lot more shit and stuff. And now that I'm not using drugs, it's just not as fun, you know? It took all the life out of it, being rude and all that shit. I kind of have a new found respect for people have that have stuck around...and even ones that have talked shit,...

It's like this curse as a musician where you can sometimes second-guess yourself. With this album I was like, 'Let's just write this record and see what happens.' I think as scatterbrained and overpopulated as the world is right now, it just needs honesty and I wanted the music to be fresh and honest even if the music isn't some crazy, avant-garde thing.

There was a falling out at Bamboozle. A really bad one. But it wasn’t with Live Nation as a company. It was with a few individuals at upper management. And the rumors are true. I F bombed them. I went in and told them to take their job and stick it as far up their asses as they could put it. I said that, because I had reached a point.

There’s a lot of stuff we’ve done this year and we’ve gotten really good at just shutting off. There’s some things that are too big to even think about, and you get to the point in your head where all you can think about while you’re up there is when you used to do really small shows. Now it’s the Grammys, but it’s still the same thing. The environment is the same. It’s the same emotions. I play guitar the same way, Nate sings the same way, so it’s really important in those moments to treat it no different than like playing a club show.

POZ: More than guitar. Much more than you practice the guitar. Jason Tate would agree too.
Ryan: Does Jason Tate even know how to play guitar?