Hiatus (2009)

"We took an entire year off, gathered our thoughts, mended some wounds and hopefully grew a little personally"

- Patrick Hallahan
(Democrat and Chronicle, August 2010)

"We've always toured at a pace that most bands really don't. You could start to feel that burn, and you don't want it to get to the point where it's detrimental to you or anyone else around this project that you've been around for years."

- Patrick Hallahan
(Democrat and Chronicle, August 2010)

"The idea of a hiatus was kicked around right after a full year on the road or in the studio. We had been hitting it hard and I think the cumulative effect of touring and not spending enough time at home and not giving enough time and attention to the other side of life started to take its toll, physically and psychically. We were going to break for a while anyway and didn't have anything scheduled, so it just made sense all around. It was more of a preemptive strike and I think it was really good for everyone. It's good to recharge the batteries once in a while and to maintain a balance between personal life and band life."

- Bo Koster
(Post-Gazette, August 2010)

"I think we were pretty tired and needed a little break. There wasn’t bad blood or anything; we were just all worn out. So we took a break, and everyone jumped off and did a little head clearing, worked on some other projects—Bo’s been producing, and Tom and Jim and Patrick and I all did some playing with other people, recording and stuff. The little breaks really give you a nice perspective to dig back in. You can just hammer and hammer and hammer, and it starts to get kind of numb if you’re not careful. I feel like we were all really fresh when we reconvened. We eased ourselves back into it. This was the first time we really took our time with it."

- Carl Broemel(The Santa Barbara Independent interview, June 2011)