Gilbertson started writing songs at age 16, nearly 20 years ago, and has been wanting to record an album for at least 10 years. One night at a Toner bar gig, the band was talking about album aspirations with Tim Nelson, who offered to help them make an album at his home studio.

Over the past year, they’ve worked through recording the 11-song album with Nelson, and the band couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. “I don’t think we could’ve gotten any better going to a recording studio,” Gilbertson said.

In a way, the album was just a way of clearing the boards, taking the best of what band members have written so far and getting it down before moving ahead with a more defined sound for the band, something Gilbertson and Roberts describe as heavier and less “chill,” with more attitude. A couple of Gilbertson’s seven songs on the album date back to his beginnings as a songwriter, and Roberts and guitarist Travis Reininger each have two songs on the album as well.

The album kicks off with Gilbertson’s “All Half-Hearted (Comatose),” with the song preceded by Gilbertson’s studio chatter about how he wants to add harmonica and twangy B-bender guitar parts to the song, kind of an inside joke with the band because those the final recording didn’t include any of that.