Grammy-nominated alternative-Christian rockers Red [ tickets ] have one rule when it comes to writing songs: There are no rules. The band members can write whatever they want.

"Obviously, there's going to be a lot coming out of the writing sessions that we wouldn't use, but it may spark another idea," said guitarist/songwriter Jasen Rauch via telephone from his Nashville-area home. "We can also pull a riff from those ideas or pull a chorus."

For its sophomore effort, "Innocence & Instinct," Red wrote more than 50 songs, most while on the road. The plan worked; the new disc recently entered the The Billboard 200 chart at No. 15 and the Independent Chart at No. 1, selling almost 40,000 copies in its first week, according to its publicist.

"We had six weeks off over the last three years," Rauch explained. "We used it to record drums and strings and capture the things we couldn't do on the road. Unfortunately, the rest of the record we had to do knowing that we were going to be touring full time. We were recording guitars in the back of the bus. We made the back lounge of the bus a studio. We recorded vocals in different hotel rooms we [stayed in].

"It was a challenging process but an interesting process nonetheless. Going into that, we were definitely well prepared. We had 50-some pretty solid ideas and another 40 or 50 fragments of songs that had been thrown around in the last two years."

One of those ideas was the hit "Death of Me," a song that combines a soulful urgency with crunchy guitars, cascading strings and a powerhouse chorus. It debuted on the R&R Active Rock chart at No. 39.

"It's going really well," Rauch said of the song. "It's the first single on the active rock side of things and alternative formats. There's some stations out there that kind of knew of us and saw a lot of shows and a lot of festivals over the summer, during the past two years from the last album. When it came time for the new album cycle and the new single, to have it embraced and received how it's been, it's very exciting. For it to be doing so well, it's the best we could ask for."

The album, the follow-up to Red's Grammy-nominated 2006 debut "End of Silence," was produced by Rauch's longtime friend Rob Graves, mixed by Ben Grosse (Sevendust, Disturbed, Depeche Mode) and includes a song co-written by Benjamin Burnley of Breaking Benjamin. Red also includes vocalist Michael Barnes, guitarist Anthony Armstrong and bassist Randy Armstrong.

"We have an interesting relationship with our producer," Rauch said. "I've personally known him for six, seven, eight years. I worked in recording studios before I was in Red. My relationship with him stems from that.

"We have this really unique method of writing and creating things[that] allows us to be on the road touring full time and doing our things, and simultaneously writing full time on the side. We can use him as a pretty valuable tool and asset, sending files back and forth while he's at home and demoing things and getting advice while we're on the road. So, [if] it doesn't come time for us to have three months off and write and record and turn around a new record, we can be a little bit more prepared and put a little bit more forethought into it."

The title "Innocence & Instinct," comes from the concept behind the album--an idea passed on from Graves. But don't call it a "concept album," per se.

"He said, 'Let's explore the dichotomy of the human experience, where we're kind of at war with ourselves, and we all have a good side and a bad side, and how those things come together. How they conflict inside of each of us.' 'Innocence and instinct' is how he described these two sides, and the phrase kind of stuck.

"That was kind of a theme that we really wanted to use and a pallet from where we wanted to draw from when we were looking for inspiration for lyrics and content and what we wanted the record as a whole to be and sound like and feel like. But when I think of a true 'concept album,' I think of something from start to finish that's one congruent idea. Each part contributes to the whole story, but, without one of those parts, sometimes they don't make sense by themselves. That was something we did not want to happen with this record. ... We wanted each song to have strong enough context to stand on its own."