Sister Hazel has just graced the world with their new album, Chasing Daylight, their first since their two-year hiatus. The groundbreaking band that has been together for more than 10 years is still mixing it up and trying new things. Chasing Daylight, their fourth album, marks the independent comeback of America’s favorite innovative, voice-blending, insightful group of guys.

Chasing Daylight came together through four separate one-week recording sessions, but the whole album was essentially written over several lunch sessions. The band would get together and talk about any issues they could think of.

“We started going to lunch together,” recalls bassist Jeff Beres, “where we’d sit down and talk about everything from life, relationships, politics, sociology, language, religion, anything. We’d just talk until something exciting came up, then we’d make that the topic of the day and run with it, go back to the house and get together with our instruments and flesh out the ideas.”

Known for their happy sounding tunes, the band insists that there is more to them than just five happy-go-lucky guys from Florida. They are talented musicians who are serious in their commitment to making good music.

“Our stance from the beginning has always been that we were going to write about true things we experience, ways we feel, which, despite some surface appearances, have not always been sunny,” Beres says.

Lead vocalist Ken Block agreed. “Life often has you going in and out of darkness, but instead of looking and lurking in darkness, we try to chase daylight, chase hopeful situations around. Our music is like therapy for us, but a lot of what we’ve gone through other people can relate to. We spend many, many hours laboring over lyrics, making sure we’re understood but leaving enough ambiguity for people to plug in their own situation. We want Chasing Daylight to be something that can mean different things to people at different times.”

Guitarist Ryan Newell added, “Yeah, all of us have our own little idea of what it means to us. For me it means trying to find the good in the world, like chasing optimism. Instead of focusing on the negative things in life, try to chase the optimism. I think everyone pretty much thinks its like, seize the day. Carpe diem, and with that is trying to squeeze in as much as you can of your life into the day.”