are very important to the band. "We love playing live," said Scogin, "That's what this band are all about: playing live shows." This mentality leaked into their recording process: the band's first album was recorded entirely live in one take. Their next two efforts followed more traditional recording sensibilities: "We may go in and [fix] this one part," explained Scogin, "but [...] there's lots of stuff we probably should have tightened up. [Laughs.] But that [keeps] it feeling like a real record." Despite their attentiveness to the recording process, Scogin has maintained that their focal point is live performances, "...recording records, that's all circled around hopefully bringing more kids to the live show so we can perform for them." The band's shows have built up a reputation; MTV called them "the thing of metalcore legend". When tasked to describe their set on the Scream the Prayer Tour in HM Magazine, Corey Erb wrote: Artists who possessed strong showmanship skills have largely influenced Scogin; some of these artists include James Brown, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. He is also fond of Arcade Fire, The Beatles, Björk, Interpol, and The Killers. In an interview, Scogin expressed a desire to have seen At The Drive-In and Nirvana before they disbanded. Scogin's introspective lyrics have covered topics like materialism, death, and the Nashville Christian music industry. The lyrics for Wars and Rumors of Wars were formed after a family loss: "...only a year ago my father passed away. And I hate to say this, because it sounds like such a band-dude thing to say, but the lyrics are a lot darker than any other record just because of how personal they are for me." Scogin usually refers to his lyrics as poems and has maintained that "a song is never finished but abandoned." "...as an artist you can forever be changing a song or making a song 'better' or whatever but the moment that you stop recording and send it off to be mastered you have not 'finished' the song…you have only abandoned the song and that is how it will stay forever." His lyrics sometimes espouse Christian themes and beliefs, albeit subtly. For example, the track "Yellow Dress: Locked Knees" from Everything... contains the Spanish lyrics "Jesus, yo quiero que este mundo te conozca."; when translated, it says "Jesus, I want this world to know You." The song "And Shot