This is a more mature album for us. It's our second album out, and we want to be more grown-up. This record is sort of a coming-of-age. It's more about being 26 than 20 or 21.

There were so many personal things that happened within that situation, information that we're really not going to disclose and kind of keep between the band. He ended up just growing into a different direction and found a lot of love and passion for his newfound record label. That's kind of the direction he wanted to go. Yeah, we wish him all the best of luck.

It just so happened that the Dixie Chicks were recording next to us. Our producer knew their producer ... so we were able to work a little bit of magic.

We're definitely hoping for that. And I feel like especially Ryan made more of a conscious effort than I think maybe he needed to kind of get away from that (pop-punk sound).