2003 at Full Kilt Studio and Third Stone Recording in North Hollywood, California with Gavin MacKillop producing the proceedings. From May to September, the group went on a number of tours across Japan and Europe, with mixing and further recording sessions sprinkled in between. John Nooney, Mauro Rubbi and Trent Slatton, the latter of whom also did programming, served as the Pro-Tools engineers during the sessions. Wes Sideman acted as assistant engineer at Third Stone Recording. Additional production was then done by Pagnotta. Several friends contributed instrumentation or vocals: Tim Cullen of Summercamp (additional backing vocals), Alain Johannes (additional guitar), Nooney and Ariel Rechtshaid of the Hippos (keyboards). Mixing was split across a few people at different studios: Tom Lord-Alge at South Beach Studio ("She's the Blade", "Crying", "Memory", "Back to California" and "Over"), Mark Trombino at Chalice Recording Studios ("Worst December" and "Champagne") with assistance from Alan Mason, Mackillop ("Destination Anywhere", "What You Say", "Head Up" and "Counting Stars"), and Evan Frankfort ("Sign Off"). Brian Gardner mastered the recordings at Bernie Grudman Mastering in Hollywood, California. Composition Musically, the sound Palm Trees and Power Lines has been described as pop punk and power pop, drawing comparisons to Blink-182. The title for the album was the result of DeSantis standing in the studio's back alley, look up at the skyline, where all he could see was palm trees and electrical lines, a view that Pagnotta saw as a combination of "beauty and harsh reality co-existing." It is named after the scenery in California where the band members live. Retaining the format of Start Static, Palm Trees and Power Lines consists of several uptempo rock songs with ballads placed throughout. All of the lyrics were written by Pagnotta, while all of the music was credited to Pagnotta and the band. He would show a rough sketch of a song to the rest of the group, at which point they'd flesh it out. The tracks talk about the preceding two and half years of Pagnotta's life as a touring musician, touching on the theme of being a traveller, determination to return home provoked by a relationship, with psychological and social struggles. All of the material that ended up on the album was written over a six-week period. DeSantis referred to the album as a "document of the end of our innocence; we had toured for over 2 years non-stop and kind of