For Those Who Have Heart

After releasing their first album, And Their Name Was Treason (2005), A Day to Remember went on a tour of the U.S. in summer 2005.[2][3] As rhythm guitarist Neil Westfall said, Indianola "didn't have money to support a band growing [...] so we wanted to find someone who could support us and willing to do video, like recording budget, working with a producer, studio we wanted to work with, whatever. Like Indianola couldn't do that."[4]

Drummer Bobby Scruggs told the band he wasn't going to continue with the band,[5] and on January 27, 2006 it was posted online that the band were looking for a new drummer, for the start of a tour in mid-February.[6] Eventually, bassist Joshua Woodard and Westfall recruited drummer Alex Shelnutt[5] only three days before going on tour.[7] Upon being asked, Shelnutt's response was "Ask my mom", as he was 15 at the time.[5] Upon Shelnutt joining, Westfall said the group "started sounding like a real professional band. He gave us something we never had before."[8]

Woodard was put in touch with a representative from record label Victory Records.[9] Victory auditioned the band in June, and following a week-long worth of phone calls, the group were told of Victory's interest in signing them up.[8]

The band was reported to have signed a deal with Victory in July.[10] An announcement of Victory signing the band was released on August 11, 2006.[11] Demos were recorded by Matt Finch at 318 Studios,[12] with pre-production at The Wade Studios in Ocala by Andrew Wade.[12] Recording began in October at Zing Studios, Westfield with producer Eric Arena.[11][12] Arena also mixed the tracks.[12] Alan Douches mastered the record at West West Side Music, New Windsor.[12]

Prior to the release of the album, a few tracks were made available for streaming via the band's Myspace: "The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle",[13] "Fast Forward to 2012",[14] "The Danger in Starting a Fire", "A Shot in the Dark" and "Show 'Em the Ropes". Cover art was unveiled on November 30, 2006.[15] A commercial to promote the album was released on January 4, 2007.[16] Pre-orders were taken starting January 16.[17] The album was released in the US on January 22,[nb 1][19] while the UK release occurred a week later, on January 29.[20] On March 8, the band released the music video for "The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle",[21] which featured Ron Jeremy.[22] The video was filmed in Los Angeles.[8] After being asked how they got Jeremy to appear, McKinnon said "It was pretty much some that we were kicking around. We were kicking around different people and I think, Tony threw that out there, out of nowhere and we were like 'That'd be cool, that'd be funny, people will be into that.'".[4]

A few days later, the band appeared at Victory's showcase event at SXSW, on March 14.[23] In May, the band toured alongside Drop Dead, Gorgeous on their US west coast tour.[24] In July and August, the band supported The Sleeping on their U.S. tour.[25] In September, it was announced that the album had sold 20,000 copies.[26] In early-to-mid October, the group supported Silverstein on their headlining tour of the U.S.[27] From late October to early December, the group went on the 2007 edition of the Victory Tour.[28] A live video of "Monument" appeared exclusively on Punkrockvids on December 5.[29]

On February 4, 2008 a re-recording of "You Should've Killed Me When You Had the Chance" was posted on the band's Myspace.[30] The album was reissued on February 19.[nb 2][30] The reissue has different cover artwork, as well as four bonus tracks – the track listing of which was revealed on February 1.[32] The bonus tracks are: a new song recorded especially for the reissue,[33] titled "Why Walk on Water When We've Got Boats", two re-recorded songs that were originally featured on their debut album, And Their Name Was Treason – "Heartless"[34] and the aforementioned "You Should've Killed Me When You Had the Chance"[30] – and a cover of the Kelly Clarkson song, "Since U Been Gone".[35] The new tracks were recorded at The Wade Studio.[12][33] In addition to these bonus tracks, is a bonus DVD with footage of A Day to Remember's performance in Ocala, two music videos, as well as behind the scenes footage of recording and commentary on the re-release. The re-release came about after Victory asked the band whether or not if they were going to do a new album.[33] Commenting about Victory's inquiry about a new album, Woodard "We weren't ready to do it [a new album], so they asked if, you know, we were interested in doing a re-release with new artwork and adding some new songs."[33]

About the re-recording of the old songs, Westfall said "We've made a lot of changes to these songs that we play live [...] and now we're getting a chance to record it, so the people that don't get to see us live can hear it and appreciate it for what it is."[33] On the new tracks, producer Andrew Wade said "I think this new stuff that we're recording is really gonna blow a lot of kids away. [...] [The re-recordings] just sound amazing, they all sound like completely different songs, and the new song is serious."[33] About the new song, "Why Walk on Water When We've Got Boats", the band wanted to do a fast-paced song.[33] McKinnon admitted the band "kinda just winged it. But we had some little ideas from being on tour and messing around."[33] Woodard said about inspiration for the tempo of the song: "We've all been listening to a lot of faster stuff like Comeback Kid and stuff like that and I don't know and just sitting here one day 'let's write a fast song'."[33] "Since U Been Gone" had appeared on the band's Myspace account, on September 21, 2007,[36][37] as free for download.[38] "Since U Been Gone" had overdubs added to it especially for the release on the For Those Who Have Heart reissue.[33]

The band chose "Since U Been Gone" because, as McKinnon stated, "we thought would embody what we are as a band by taking like, the poppiest thing ever and still making it hard enough to where kids fight at our shows over it."[33] The performance included on the DVD was filmed at the Capitol, a building that used to be a bank, in Ocala,[33] on January 5, 2008.[39] The performance was filmed by Dan Dobi,[39] with audio recorded by Wade.[33] In February and March 2008, the band went on a US tour alongside Silverstein, the Devil Wears Prada, Protest the Hero and Four Letter Lie.[40] The music video for "The Danger in Starting a Fire" was posted online on February 29, 2008.[41] In early April, the band appeared at the Bamboozle Left festival.[42] On April 16, 2008, it was announced that the band would be filming a music video for "Since U Been Gone" on April 29 and 30.[43] Five days later, it was mentioned online that the video's director was Don Tyler.[44] In June and July, the band performed on the 2008 edition of Warped Tour.[45] The music video for "Since U Been Gone" appeared on YouTube on July 23.[46][47] In September and October, the band went on a US tour with New Found Glory.[48] The re-recorded version of "Heartless" appeared on the band's MySpace profile in October 2008.[34]

"The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle" was included on Victory's Victory Records Label Sampler, from 2009.[49] "The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle" was available as downloadable content in the video game Rock Band 3 via the Rock Band Network.[50] The band played an acoustic version of "Monument" and two tracks from Homesick (2009) for KROQ on August 3, 2010.[51][52] The album, along with Homesick and Attack of the Killer B-Sides (2010), had a reissue on vinyl,[53] in 2011.[54] Another vinyl reissue was released, in 3 different colors, in 2013.[nb 3]