Exasperated, the band travelled to an island in the Gulf of Thailand, where Dempsey wrote "Monsters" in 20 minutes. He said the song, about overcoming self-doubt, broke the drought: "As soon as I stopped thinking about it, as soon as I stopped being a songwriter, it came. So after that, we came home and wrote about 20 songs." Ashworth described Dempsey's guitar work: "Paul was a really percussive guitarist: he's a drummer, first and foremost and he actually taught Clint to play the drums. So he comes from playing the guitar from a really percussive perspective; from a very Fugazi-type of world, creating every aspect of a song on the guitar instead of just melodies."