Hey guys! So in case you didn’t catch it, here is a track by track analysis of our new album I did for Alt. Press magazine. Want to know the meaning behind every song!? Check it out!

Sugar Sweet - This was the first track written for Everything Collide. It was actually written before our debut album, [2008’s] Come Around, even came out. This song really sets up the entire attitude and approach we took with the album. It brought back the “windows down” feeling we wanted for a summer release. The funny thing about it is that it isn’t about the typical, innocent love story. It may sound like it is, but it’s about falling for someone and then later realizing they aren’t who you thought they were. We all go through it.

Thunderstorms - No lie, this song was written in the shower. We were on Warped Tour last summer, and on an off-day in Montana, I wrote this as I was taking my first shower in a week. I quickly got out and sang the words into my phone and then later mixed them with an instrumental demo we had recorded a few months earlier. In the recording process, we used a lot of really cool guitar effects including the famous Rockman X100, which is actually a headphone amp. [Classic-rock producer] Mutt Lange used this on every Def Leppard album, and we wanted to give it a try, so we did and we loved it. Thunderstorms are used as a metaphor for things like being away on tour, at school or just general relationship turmoil. Everyone can relate.

Here With You - This is the song I was most excited to record, and it happens to be my personal favorite on the album. This was also written on Warped Tour in between cases of PBR. The original demo was a lot faster and less country-driven, but [Everything Collide producer] Jordan Schmidt had a really cool guitar part, which opens the song, and we loved the way it fit, so we decided to take it into more of a country direction. The funny thing is, it isn’t a love song at all. It’s about being away from home and then finally being able to come back and see all your loved ones, friends and favorite places in your hometown—more specifically in Minneapolis, where we’re from.

Only One - This is the only song on the album that we co-wrote with someone else other than the B-side “You Lost Me.” We were on tour in the U.K. with Cobra Starship when their bassist, Alex Suarez, played us this pop demo he had recorded with a friend. We all really liked the chorus and other aspects of it, so we took it home and reworked the music and some lyrics. The original demo we did was really straightforward rock, but at the last minute we decided to make it minor [key] and swing the rhythm.

Addicted To When You’re Gone - The original demo of this song was written on Warped Tour by Ben [Peterson, keyboards] and Chris [Lee, drums]. It was cool to see other guys in the band start to come into their element with writing. Pat [Brown, vocals] and I wrote all of 2008’s Come Around, and I was really commanding the ship, so to speak, on this album, so it was really great when the other guys brought this to the table. It wasn’t until the vocals were tracked that we realized what was in our hands. This was one of the hardest songs to really wrap our heads around. We didn’t know what we wanted with it, and it took lots of lyrical work in the studio to really churn it out. But once we did, we were blown away. Jordan really kicked ass on this song and had many great ideas that transformed this into one of the best songs on the album.

Shadows - “Shadows” stirred up a lot of shit. When I say shit, for lack of a better word, I mean it in a good way. I wrote this song with an acoustic guitar sitting at the end of my dock at my lake house in Duluth, Minnesota. It’s definitely a cliché setting, but, hey, it worked. I sent the demo to [Epitaph owner Brett Gurewitz] and he loved it. He wrote back saying he wanted me to sing it on the album. I didn’t really know how to take what he said. We talked about it as a band and gave it a shot. After this, we really looked at our band dynamically and realized that there was a lot of untapped talent within the five of us that we had never used before. So with this on our minds, it really opened us to trying many new things on the album, especially vocally. Lyrically, the song really hits home with all of us in the band. Many people spend their lives unhappy, whether it’s with themselves or their surroundings, and they do nothing about it. All of us have gone through major identity crises throughout life and especially with the course of our band. Everyone is always trying to find their footing or niche. This song is about not being true to yourself and realizing that only you can control your fate. It’s told from a first-person point of view as if you’re having a conversation with the “real you.”

Believe In Me - Everyone loves a good ballad. We got tired of albums that sounded like the same song was on repeat 12 times in a row. All great, classic albums have a great ballad. It’s a timeless formula and we wanted to take a crack at it. This is another “late-night-Warped-Tour-bus-song,” and we had an awesome time recording it. We did a lot of cool experimenting with Pat’s voice on this, just trying to find new ways to sing things to give it more of a three-dimensional feel. Nothing beats a love ballad in the middle of a rock record.

Letting Go - This was the last song written for the album. During the course of our three-year history as a band, we’ve all been in and out of relationships. This song is about giving yourself to someone completely and being put through hell and back only to be left behind. We all have to learn how to accept the fact that sometimes, no matter how badly you want or work for something, it isn’t meant to be. Everyone in the band went through this within the last three years, and we all grew closer because of it. I hope people can relate and find peace in this track because it has even helped some of us get over things and accept reality. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Light It Up - This is one of the three songs Mike Shipley mixed on the album—the other two are “Here With You” and “Addicted To When You’re Gone.” We demoed this track along with “Sugar Sweet” back in December 2008 right after our tour with Cobra Starship. After that, it kind of went under the rug as I kept writing. When we got together for pre-production, we pulled it back out and started to work it out. The funny thing is that we didn’t really change anything from the original demo.

I Can’t - This song almost didn’t make the album. We wanted a 10-song album, but both Jordan and Brett wouldn’t stand for this song not being on the album. The decision to include it was made when Jordan offered to pick up my tab at Perkins if I agreed to put it on. We are definitely glad we did now.

Wonder Why - This is another track Ben and Chris wrote on Warped Tour. Chris even wrote most of the guitar parts. We liked the ambient vibe in the beginning of it and ran with it. Pat wrote the lyrics in our apartment the night before we recorded them. The lyrical meaning is very under-the-surface as well. As we grow and change as people, our relationships with friends, family and loved ones do as well. This song is about resenting someone, then eventually laying down arms and coming to terms with them. You never know who could be a great friend if you would just give them a chance.