was looking at us like, "What the fuck are you doing?"" The band returned to their residence, "kick[ed] ourselves in the ass, and we came back and we killed it", according to Melillo. The band subsequently went on a songwriting trip to Monterey Bay where they spent time with each other. According to Melillo the catalyst was when Hacikyan said "Dude, it could be like this all the time ... we're going to all these awesome places, why can't we make it like that?" Hacikyan said that the difference between working with Squire and Feldmann was night and day. He added that it was "such a learning process ... from a life perspective we developed and learned so much". In early January 2008, it was announced that the band had launched a new website. It featured photographs of the group working in the studio with Feldmann. The band said Feldmann "really set the bar high and inspired us to leap over it with no fear of clearance". He showed the group that they were able to "do whatever we want as long as we gave it our all every step of the way." Recording took place at Feldmann's home studio in Los Angeles, California, dubbed Foxy Studios. Matt Appleton and Kyle Moorman engineered the sessions. On the recordings, Feldmann performed additional vocals, string arrangement, keyboards and percussion, while Appleton performed additional vocals, horns and keyboards. In addition, gang vocals were done by Hacikyan, Melillo, Czum, Feldmann, Kyle Moorman, Appleton, Chris Dauray, and Dave Taylor. Though Cimato left the group early in the recording process, his leave was not reported until mid-March. Melillo subsequently filled his position. Cimato initially tracked some parts, but were re-record for the most part. Hacikyan said Cimato was not "compatible. He wanted to do everything different for the band musically". The recording process was initially planned to last 30 days, however, it last three months and ended on March 21. Feldmann mixed the recordings while Joe Gastwirt mastered them. Composition Discussing the album title, Hacikyan said "we all took 180s in our lives, as individuals, as a band. As everyone changes, as does life, as does the earth. It is all a rotation". The album was briefly given the album Change, however, it became constant theme throughout the album. Hacikyan explains "[The album is about] internal change, external change, global change, political change, any change, really.