brief stages over a period of 18 months. Writing began over Skype between January and February 2013. Then, the band met at Neal's house in Nashville for three days; later, the band met at Mike Portnoy's house for four days. Jerry Guidroz returned to record the band at both locations. At this point, the songs were written, and final drums were recorded. Individual recording, overdubs, and arrangement continued over the internet. To help foster a collaborative process, Evans set up a Google Drive repository for the latest parts, and re-mixed the album each time new parts were submitted. Twelve versions of the album exist from these mixes. Everyone was enthusiastic about the collaboration with Peter Collins on the first album. The band elected to self-produce Second Nature, though, because they wanted to explore working on their own. Mike Portnoy undertook the role of organizing the parts and structure of the songs, sometimes using a whiteboard. The songs on Second Nature are generally less constrained, longer, and more free-flowing than those of Flying Colors. Unlike the first album, the band did not record parts that were unused. Another difference from the first album is that McPherson played much more rhythm guitar. Flying Colors expanded their instrumental palette on this release. On four songs, they employed violins, violas, and cellos performed by Chris Carmichael and Shane Borth. On another song, "One Love Forever", Eric Darken performed 14 different hand percussion instruments. On "Peaceful Harbor" and "Cosmic Symphony", Neal Morse recorded a gospel choir (The McCrary Sisters). Renowned cover artist Hugh Syme, who had previously collaborated with Portnoy in Dream Theater, was brought on to create the cover and interior artwork. Several covers were designed, until the final one was accepted; the other covers became part of the CD booklet and vinyl artwork. Engineer Rich Mouser mixed the album. Rich was known by Portnoy, Neal and Evans from having mixed every Neal Morse, Spock's Beard and Transatlantic albums. Second Nature was released in September 2014, debuting in multiple Top-10 charts, worldwide. In addition to numerous other accolades, the album received two Prog Award nominations: Album of the Year, and Band of the Year. 2014 Tour Due to severe scheduling issues, the band could only tour for two weeks. The hole only opened up shortly before the window, itself, so there was not time to prepare properly for the tour. One of the results was that many of the venues the band would have played were already booked. This was also the reason why the band played a show in Pennsylvania instead of New York City. On both Flying Colors tours, there was only one day of full rehearsals before the tour began. Given the complexity of music, and the other members' large body of existing material from other bands, both tours were challenging. Additionally, on this tour there were more vocal harmonies, especially for Portnoy; and more guitar work for McPherson. As with the first tour, Portnoy chose the set, selecting a few songs from the first album, and all but one from the second. McPherson, once again, played a solo song from his own repertoire; this time, it was by design. On the evening of the eighth show, the band recorded their show at the Z7 venue in Switzerland. Bernhard Baran, with his crew, recorded the show. The band also filmed their final show of the tour, also with Berran, in Paris. Second Flight: Live at the Z7 The music of Second Nature was still new to Flying Colors when they recorded their eighth show at the Z7 on October 12, 2014.