released two EPs: Three Days Broken in 1998 and Truth in Separation in 1999. Following high school graduation, the members were able to focus on the band. Shortly afterwards, Taylor and West left the group resulting in Marsala shifting from drums to vocals. Wills and Russell joined the group on drums and bass, respectively. Since Means Well, Wills had been a close friend of Marsala and Phillips, following Bigbluemonkey on road trips and acting as their drum technician. Prior to joining, Russell was originally a guitarist and had no experience on bass. In February 2002, they recruited guitarist Greg Haupt, formerly of Disturbing the Peace, and released the Story of the Year EP. In May, the band performed at a local radio festival, Pointfest. The group sneaked into Goldfinger's tour bus while the band was playing and left copies of a home video that featured pranks akin to Jackass and a live show. In June, the group moved to Orange County, California, and built their own practice space. Two weeks later, they were contacted by Goldfinger's manager John Reese, who informed them the band wanted to take them on tour. Partway through the tour, Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann said that he wanted to produce their demos to try to attract a record deal. They did pre-production acoustically, and tracked demos of "Until the Day I Die" and "Anthem of Our Dying Day" in the process. Following the tour's conclusion, Feldmann showed the home video to major label Maverick Records, for whom he acted as a talent scout. In September, the group changed their name to Story of the Year to avoid confusion with another band called Big Blues Monkey, and at the urging of Feldmann, who disliked the name. In October, the band signed to Maverick Records following a showcase. In the process, Reese became their manager. Writing and recording Prior to signing with Maverick, the group wanted to improve their song writing. As Marsala explains: "[W]e had songs, but we knew we wanted new stuff and we wanted to like really get serious." After signing, the band began working on material for their debut album, writing for roughly a month at Feldmann's house. Feldmann helped the group structure their songs better. Recording took place at Feldmann's home studio, Foxy Studios in Marina del Rey, California. The studio space consisted of one bedroom, which featured drums. Feldmann had stapled egg