around 15, I convinced my parents to get me another guitar—
not without much teasing from them about the previous guitar.
Soon after, I learned four chords from a friend and wrote my
first song. Aaron and I quickly started playing together, messing
around with little jams and scraps of songs.
Who came up with an idea to form the band?
Ryan: I guess it wasn’t any one of us per se, but we had been
playing more and more music and taking the songwriting
seriously. Bryson’s progression as a bass player/musician at 17
really made recording and playing shows an obvious choice.
Breaking up a full-length album to three parts is a
unique decision. Who came up with the idea to do
that and why?
Aaron: There are a lot of reasons why. We’d put out four
records and wanted to approach recording and releasing a
little differently than we had in the past. The schedule for the
past couple of records felt very rigid, and we didn’t want to
do that again. We would spend months—years, even—working
on songs, then spend months holed up in a studio, then plan a
release for a couple of months, and then tour. We like the idea
that we can work on every aspect all the time. Also, as a band,
we constantly feel pressure to be touring or releasing, and it
makes sense to record, release, and tour at a rat