Sinners Never Sleep

In an effort to challenge themselves, the band did not wish to record their next album in the UK. Their label asked where they wanted to record at, before proposing they record in a secluded place in a forest. Franceschi said if they lived within a small area with no one around, they would "probably end up killing each other" as they were social people.[11] The group pondered about recording in Los Angeles, California, as they thought it "wouldn’t just be a different recording space and different recording experience, but also a life experience."[11] The group subsequently lived in apartments in Hollywood.[12] They did pre-production for the first time with producer Garth Richardson where they ran through the songs with him present. He told the band what he considered to be good and bad; the group and him bounced ideas back-and-forth on ways to improve select songs. According to Franceschi, only one track was changed substantially. Apart from this, Richardson suggested minor corrections, such as adding another chorus or an additional bar in a verse.[11]

Sessions mainly took place at Sunset Sound and The Sound Factory in Los Angeles,[13] starting in March 2011 and ending in May.[6][12] The group was due to support Parkway Drive in Australia in May,[14] but were forced to pull out as the album was not complete in time.[12] Richardson assumed the producer role with Ben Kaplan in charge of recording.[13] For all of the band's past work, they worked with John Mitchell. Franceschi said they were "a very hands-on" group, "so we’ve always kind of ... almost recorded [albums] ourselves."[11] Working with Richardson was "slightly different" as he brought in a team of people.[11] Before tracking drums, they had two–three different technicians setting up the kit and figuring out the right drum sounds.[11] Flint played on a Gretsch kit, which he was impressed by. He said that he had no need to trigger the drums since "it sounded phenomenal by itself."[15] The group's friends came out to visit them[16] where they partied every evening. Though Heyler grew wary with this after sometime,[17] Franceschi reasoned that if their friends didn't visit them, they'd hate the recording process, "it was that shit."[16]

During the third week of tracking,[12] Franceschi was on a conference call with the group's manager who told him that Richardson was unhappy with how the sessions were progressing. Their manager said they'd send all of the band members, minus Franceschi, home and leave him to track the rest of the parts. Franceschi responded that he would not be able to carry the weight of the rest of his bandmates and didn't need "this lead singer syndrome ego boost."[18] Later that day, Franceschi and O'Grady got in an argument with Richardson. After this, Franceschi received a call saying that recording was over and that the band were told to come home.[18] Following this, he tweeted that he saw Noel Gallagher in the same studio, unaware that he just leaked the news that a former Oasis member was recording a solo album.[19] He then received the news that the band's upcoming support slot for two tours with Blink-182 were pulled. All of these events in the span of a single day resulted in Franceschi having a panic attack, where he was then taken to hospital.[20] His attack ended up losing the band 12 days in the studio,[12] before he decided to check himself out of hospital.[20] His vocal parts were subsequently tracked over the following two–three weeks.[12]

Miller later recalled that they were unable to work easily with the production team. On occasion, he would go in to record his parts and still be waiting to record six hours later. Helyer expressed similar frustration after returning to their apartment, and saying "Fuck this! We’ve paid a lot of money to be here and record an album and I’m not getting to do my work."[21] Pro Tools editing was done by Kaplan, Nick Rowe and Richardson. Geoff Neale and Clint Welander acted as assistant engineers. Additional engineering was done by Matt O'Grady, Rowe, Richardson and Welanders. Strings and brass, which were arranged and conducted by Jeremy Rubolino, were recorded at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles. They were recorded by Jorge Velasco with assistant engineer Jeff Ellis. Kaplan performed keys and did programming, while Damian Taylor did programming on "When We Were Younger".[13] Oliver Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon features on "Bite My Tongue" and Winston McCall of Parkway Drive appears on "Time Is Money".[22] Franceschi said that they wanted to add "an extra layer of aggression" to both of these tracks, and brought in Skyes and McCall.[3] The album was originally mixed by Andy Wallace.[12] However, the final versions were mixed by Mitchell and O'Grady at the latter's home studio in Woking, Surrey, before they were mastered by Christian Wright at Abbey Road Studios.[13]

Sinners Never Sleep saw the band move away from the pop punk sound of their earlier material,[23][24][25][26] moving into heavier alternative rock[27] and pop rock territory,[28] and integrating elements of metal.[29] One member of the group would come up with an idea, be it a guitar riff or vocal melody, and the rest of the band would flesh it out at practice sessions. During this, one member might suggest changing the drum or guitar parts.[30] Franceschi said that with Hold Me Down they wanted to make a better produced version of Take Off Your Colours (2008). With Sinners Never Sleep, the group were more focused on showcasing a wide variety of sounds. The group incorporated new instrumentation into their sound such as strings, horns, pianos and samples.[12]

Franceschi mentioned that some of the songs could feature on a Coldplay album[12] and others that could have appeared on a Parkway Drive album.[6] They wrote songs that would appeal to both their existing fanbase and a potential new audience.[12] "Loverboy", "Bite My Tongue" and "When We Were Younger" were the first tracks the group worked on.[31][32] Franceschi didn't write any lyrics for the songs until they went to America. He focused and wrote words to the demo recordings while the rest of the members were tracking their instruments. This was new for Franceschi as he previously wrote lyrics and melodies while the band was writing the songs.[11]

The idea for "Loverboy" came from Barnes;[33] the glam rock track[23] was anchored around his bass parts.[32] The "da da da da" part came from Franceschi, who was inspired by sing-a-longs at football games.[34] "Jaws on the Floor" continues the tempo of the previous track,[25] and showcases the band's heavier sound.[35] Franceschi said "Bite My Tongue" was born out of "a place of frustration".[36] It was about his relationship with his bandmates and other people when they were making the album,[36] and detailed a time when the band almost broke-up.[25] The new wave-influenced "This Is the First Thing"[23] was one of the first tracks demoed for the album; Flint said it reminded him of casinos.[32] It was reminiscent of some of the songs on the second half of Hold Me Down.[25] Franceschi called "No Ones Does It Better" and "Crash" "pretty chilled-out" and were in similar style to that of Snow Patrol and Coldplay.[37] "Little Death" was inspired by the death of Flint's dad prior to the release of Hold Me Down. As the members were comforting Flint, Franceschi suggested writing a song about it.[31] The band had forgotten about the track until they rediscovered it late in the recording process. They were originally going to name the album after it until their label and management claimed it meant orgasm in French.[32] It follows the quiet verse/loud chorus structure;[23] Franceschi's vocals recalled Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.[28]

The soft rock track "Crash" features strings and was reminiscent of the Goo Goo Dolls[23] and Stars.[22] Franceschi wanted it to be the "Fireworks" of Sinners Never Sleep, referring to the closing track of Hold Me Down. "Reckless" was originally titled "Don't Hold Your Breathe", but was altered when the group realised Nicole Scherzinger had a track with that name. It was then changed to "The Best You've Never Had", until they realised the Swellers and Beyoncé had songs with similar names. At this point, it was finally named "Reckless". The main riff in the song bears a striking resemblance to "When You Were Young" by the Killers. Barnes said it had the most resemblance to material on Hold Me Down.[32] The riff to "Time Is Money", which had been compared to Pendulum,[23] was written while the back were recording Hold Me Down, but was left off at Franceschi's suggestion. While recording it for this album, the song lacked a chorus, which was quickly written while drums were being tracked.[32] The Jimmy Eat World-esque ballad "Little Bit of Truth"[23] is about the band's relationship with their fanbase.[31] "The Dilemma" takes its name from The Dilemma (2011),[32] and was compared to Panic! at the Disco.[23] "When We Were Young" is a slow-build track,[25] and is about Franceschi's relationship with his parents.[31] Barnes said it was their most experimental song.[32]