In November, 2003, drummer Devours issued a statement announcing he was leaving Oleander to join the band Ima Robot. The decision was amicable and, in 2004, the band went into an unofficial hiatus. During that time, vocalist Thomas Flowers co-founded the band Black Summer Crush with Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday and drummer, J. Harley Gilmore. Flowers later told Alternative Addiction, "We toured relentlessly, we had done anything that was ever asked of us and more by the record labels, and the payoff was diminishing. So we made a conscious decision to get back to normal life."