This was a guitar riff that Lincoln had written while we were still touring on the last record. It was a really cool chord progression, but we felt that it needed a little more movement. Lincoln and I got to the writing space a little early one day, and we were sitting on a porch swing, just conversing about what to do. We decided to double-time the guitar; it would be 16th notes.

We went to where the band was practicing, and everybody kind of fell into it. The vocal melody happened over time, though. I really got into Christmas music for some strange reason. I just think that the chord arrangements and vocal melodies in Christmas music are pure genius. So that’s where I went with the vocal melody for ‘Halo’ – it’s inspired by listening to Christmas music.

I wanted to write about something that you struggle with and battle to get away from, but I wanted to make it sound like it’s about a relationship, even though it’s not. It’s about these vices that plague us. In the chorus, it says, ‘I lost my halo’ – I was thinking about that point in life where you feel you’re innocent… I don’t even know if you recognize it as innocent – you just don’t see your shortcomings. And then you fall on your face in a big way, and you realize that you look foolish.

There have been some things that I’ve done in the past couple of years that I’m not proud of at all. The song is about those things that continuously come back to haunt you.

Matt Shultz via MusicRadar (September 2013)