THE MATCHES haben folgendes Update veröffentlicht:

"I was prompted by Epitaph for a quote about our new record for some press kind of thing, but ended up with a bit of an essay. Thought you guys might be interested, since it'll probably be whittled down to a zingy one-liner by the time it makes it onto wikipedia.

This record, "A Band In Hope" (which I prompt you to say aloud to embrace it's full contradiction) was originally conceptualized as the sister record to 2006's Decomposer, naively thinking that Decomposer was the end of some journey toward self-realization. Only a year later, I can imagine the stilted conversation that would occur if I met that former self, who flew to New York City on that record's release, delusional that his plane had merely to elevate and stay airborne for the world to rush toward him. When the charts failed to part for our single to cross to the top, I deflated inside. I'd thought that by denying to myself that the world was mine, and being as humble and realistic as possible, that some karma-like force would smile on us and then grant us the world we had deserved by admitting we did not deserve it. (and that's only the complex tip of the convolution.)

I didn't want to again squeeze every last drop of myself into writing and recording another album for it to fall through the sieve of the system. I really thought that Decomposer was the best thing I would ever make. It was a completely perfect reflection of me and my bandmates, for all of our flaws and merits, which is all that we as musicians can strive to honestly create. So I gave up.

But I couldn't stop writing, as much as I didn't want to. These new emotions, they were writing their own songs now. I was possessed. A song every day. I'd given up for fucksake, and I'd never written so feverously in my life. I left my long lock of hair in a hotel sink. I didn't feel like a dumb kid anymore. I felt like a dumb man now, and my guitar and my voice, they got the memo.

The five songs we'd continued recording with our myriad of producers while Decomposer was being mixed, quickly found themselves in the company of twenty-one more full-band recordings vying for a spot on "A Band In Hope", which ousted the previously conceived name "Mad Silentist" for reasons of completely scary thesis-like accuracy in summing up our precariously balanced mental state.
Once again, we didn't think to settle our gypsy asses in a single studio, opting for producer hopping (this time with a slightly smaller list of Producers than the last), and recording the album between shows and tours, whenever we could possibly book studio time. The record is a new reflection of us. Recognizable, but changed again, as time permits no other way. The portrait is more honest, exposed and layered than we've ever been able to achieve: a pendulum sway between hope and despair."