I mean all of my songs for the most part, with the exception of "The Temptation Of St. Anthony," are basically a love/apology letter to my ex-girlfriend who is on the cover of the album. We're still really close but it was pretty rough for a while there and I wrote it during those rough periods. There's very little metaphor, which has always been something we used. It's still on the record but it's pretty obvious what the songs are about and I'm happy with it. I think that's the way we wrote our early songs and some of the lyrics are pretty cringeworthy but it's honest. So it is for me an...

I think that the things that inspired me is other music. I kind of went back, I was listening to The Idiot, for instance, when I hiked. That was like my hiking record. And it just sort of formulated from there and my mindset was just – I kind of wrote the song while I was hiking and I came back and just started writing it down. We all like those magic three chords and we’re influenced by the music that we love.

Grant says Stevenson is the "most comprehensive producer" the band has ever worked with. Skiba appreciated the producer’s candor: "He’ll tell you whether [your music] is shit or champagne," the singer says.