Powderfinger returned from their break and began work on their sixth album in 2006. The band recorded in Los Angeles with Rob Schnapf, and released "Dream Days at the Hotel Existence" in 2007. The album's name came from a book called "The Brooklyn Follies" that Fanning was reading when the band recorded. "Dream Days at the Hotel Existence" contained songs about politics and the lives of Indigenous Australians, and also about love. Because of the political lyrics on one song, "Black Tears", the album was nearly banned.