Emo-influenced pop band Jimmy Eat World [ tickets ] toured the globe, sold 1.3 million copies of its 2001 self-titled album and scored two hit singles, "The Middle" and "Sweetness."

But instead of looking for inspiration in its success and travels, it indulged in its home state of Arizona for its latest album, "Futures."

"It's a grounding force for us, living here," singer Jim Adkins said in a statement. "The music scene consists of people who care about satisfying themselves through their creative ambitions, and not trying to be anything more than that. We wanted to get back to that idea, where you just forget about everything except writing songs."

The band, which hails from the Phoenix suburb Mesa, recorded "Futures" piecemeal in California and Arizona, according to guitarist/vocalist Tom Linton. The band even utilized its rehearsal space in Tempe, AZ, to wrap up recording.

Linton and Adkins are joined in the band by bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind.

Linton talked with liveDaily about the writing and recording process, the folding of its now-former label DreamWorks into Interscope Records, and working with producer Gil Norton.

liveDaily: Describe the writing process for "Futures." Did one person write most of the lyrics and music, or is it more of a collaborative effort?

Jim comes up with most of the lyrics and most of the music. We just kind of get together as a band and work out different parts--the arrangement of the songs, where we should put back up vocals, adding in different instruments, or if we should strip it down.

Did you record "Futures" any differently from your previous album?

Yeah, what we did was we got Gil Norton, who produced the Pixies' and the Foo Fighters' records. I think that's basically the biggest change recording-wise that we made on this record. It definitely sounds a lot better. It sounds different, too.

Why do you think it definitely sounds better?

We're just really happy with everything--the guitar sounds, the vocal sounds, just how everything turned out.

What did Gil Norton suggest to you that maybe you wouldn't have thought to try before?

There was a song that he thought the verse was too long, so we tried cutting it down. He helped us with the structure for the songs and came up with ideas for what the best instrument for each part would be, how we would make it better, etc.

Did you write most of the album in the studio?

No, we did most of it at our practice place here in Tempe. After that, we went to Los Angeles and recorded the drums at a place called Cello Studios. Then we packed up our [gear] and did guitar, bass and vocals at a studio in Tucson. Then we went back to our practice place and finished up the remaining stuff. It was kind of cool seeing that our practice place could be used for recording. Maybe one of these days, we could record the whole record there.

Was it tough to record in so many different spots?

No, not really. It was pretty easy. For the drums, we had a truck company that came and picked up all the stuff. It was hard for us, because we drove [from Arizona to California]. We've had the same van for [a long time]. I think we got our van in 1996. We have over 200,000 miles on it.

It sounds like it was quite the process. Did it take a longer or shorter amount of time to record "Futures" than other albums?

[Pauses] Longer. I think it was because we were working with Gil for the first time. We also had a different engineer, a guy named Dave Shiffman. Also, I think another thing was because we had a record label change. We just wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

How has your record label change affected you?

Not really too bad. What happened was, the guy who signed us, he was one of the few who made it over from DreamWorks to Interscope. We got kind of lucky, because a lot of bands and people lost their jobs. It was sad watching all these people that helped us on the last record and got us where we were all lose their jobs. It was sad.