Hope all of your summers are going swimmingly. I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve been on tour, and an even longer time since I’ve posted anything, so I thought I’d give a brief update on what we’ve been up to since we got off of tour in June…

Actually, I’ll start by saying thanks to everyone who came out to the non stop shows we played for 5 straight months. That was pretty intense, and so worth it because of you guys. I’ve never toured that extremely and I have to say that I came back a better person with even more appreciation for what we get to do.

After that whole thing, plus the one show we did in Chicago last week, I couldn’t be more psyched for the headlining tour! Seriously, is that going to be awesome, or what? I get so giddy about it. It’s been almost a year since our last headlining tour, and I get a huge grin every time I think about how special this upcoming one is.

The way it looks right now, that will most likely be our last before we head into the studio to start working on the follow up to “aim and ignite.” I’ve been writing like mad the last month, and I don’t plan on stopping until we step into the studio. I wish I could give you some details, but Id rather keep everything under wrap till it’s all done, or at least until some of these weird babies of ideas start to become more fully realized. I do hope we have a new song or two for the next tour.

Speaking of the new record, I’d like to take a second and touch on the worst kept secret in the history of secrets….

We are uber excited to announce we are taking our talents to “fueled by ramen” records. Where they should help put us in a pretty sweet position to continue to try and grow.

This has been in the works for almost 9 months, when the head of the label (someone who’s reached out to me since even before I was in the format) did his bi-annual “check-in just to have the door slammed in his face”. Except the difference is, this time we took the time to listen to what he had to say….

I haven’t been involved with a label in almost 6 years. And to be honest, I never had any intention to go back. But it really means something when you’ve been able to watch a label grow over the years, and just continue to grow, with massive commercial success, while maintaining some of the ethics and understanding of what it means to be an independent artist…

When the people who work for fueled by ramen buy their own tickets to our shows and talk about us with the passion you’d generally reserve for an artist you’re working with, that really means something.

So after lengthy discussions, we figured, why not? This is the perfect time for us to give it a try. And I wouldn’t worry about us “selling out” or changing for the wrong reasons. When the format first started, it was tough because we didn’t know who we were yet. We were signed with the belief that we would appease the label and be a commercial success. As we grew, we realized that those weren’t our goals, and since then, from a personal writing standpoint, I’ve always been a little bit “different”, and I think that’s a big reason they wanted to start working with us. They’re here to help put us in a position that would allow more people to hear us.

And that’s what we’d like. So that’s that.

Argggg. All of this talk about labels is making me thirsty. I’m gonna go grab a lemonade. Once again, thank you for all of the support. Can’t wait to see you guys in a few months!

Oh, and if you haven’t purchased the new steel train yet, you’re crazy. I’m a competitive person, so for me to say that it’s the best record of the year, prolly means that it’s my favorite record of the last 5 years. Truly inspiring. Run, don’t walk over to their website.

<3