Recordings. Eulogy first contacted them in June 2005, and sent them their contracts in September 2005. After a few months of re-working the contracts, they formally signed in December 2005. Set Your Goals went on a brief West Coast tour in February 2006 leading up to recording sessions of their debut. Mutiny! was made at the Laundry Room in Seattle, Washington, between February 20 and March 11, 2006. The sessions were co-produced by Barrett Jones, who also acted as engineer. Brown was previously aware of him through his work on I Am the Avalanche's self-titled (2005); the band lived in an apartment in Washington. Jones played keyboards on "An Old Book Misread" and "Echoes". In addition to their regular instruments, the band members provided additional roles: additional bass guitar by Brown on "Mutiny!", "To Be Continued..." and "Don't Let This Win Over You"; backing vocals by Yoha on "Mutiny!" and Ambrose on "To Be Continued..."; and additional gang vocals by the band. Jones mixed the recordings, before they were mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side studio. Composition Set Your Goals are influenced by older melodic hardcore bands such as Lifetime and CIV, with elements of newer acts like the Movielife, New Found Glory, Rufio and Bodyjar. While their self-titled EP displayed a fair mix of hardcore punk and pop punk, Mutiny! leans more towards the latter genre with elements of the former. They borrowed the catchy melodies from pop punk and combined them with the gang vocals, slow breakdowns and faster tempo of hardcore punk. Additionally, the vocals are akin to those sung by New Found Glory, and the chord progressions sound very similar to those performed by Lifetime on their album Jersey's Best Dancers (1997). For the writing process, Brown would write guitar riffs, which he would then show to Ambrose, who would arrange them and add drum parts. Wilson and Brown would then propose a relatable theme, before showing it to the rest of the band. The pair would write free-form essays and select lines to use as lyrics. Avoiding typical themes of heartbreak, Mutiny! tackles the themes of taking risks, forced influence and credibility. Discussing the album's title, Brown explained how they were a "young, impressionable band", being told to alter their songs, and its "like a coming of age [story] and being like, 'Hey, we’re old enough to make an impression now, let’s takeover.'"