Taking Back Sunday rented a room in Manhattan, sharing it with the Sleeping and writing songs with laptops and guitars. Typically, they arrived at about 10 am; some evenings, Lazzara showed up after the band to write melodies. The group wrote 20 songs before discarding half, and recorded 14 or 15 demos in their home studio. According to bassist Matt Rubano, Fred Mascherino and Adam Lazzara's lyrics "are coming into a golden age. The tracks are really more rocking and we're trying some new things, but it's still us." For "Where You Want to Be" the group "didn't spend as much time playing together," but for "Louder Now" "we know each other's playing. We know what we want and don't want."