Papa Roach released The Connection in the United States on October 2, 2012, through Eleven Seven Music. Their seventh studio album took shape around a change in working conditions: the band could record in its own Sacramento studio, with time to experiment and familiar people around them. For vocalist Jacoby Shaddix, those sessions also overlapped with a separation and getting sober.
Lead single “Still Swingin’” presented the defiant side of that experience. Shaddix described it as a statement about surviving personal setbacks and the obstacles Papa Roach had faced together. Its directness made it the introduction he wanted, though he considered its lyrics lighter than much of the album that followed.
The band had invested in making its studio, The Red House, somewhere it could finish records. Bassist Tobin Esperance told Stereoboard in December 2012 that they had gutted and remodeled a building previously used as a studio, bought equipment and constructed sleeping quarters. They could stay overnight, keep working when an idea developed and spend time with friends from their earlier Sacramento scene. After sessions elsewhere with tighter schedules, having that freedom changed the everyday experience of making an album.
Producer James Michael agreed to work in their space. Shaddix told Loudwire in August 2012 that recording close to home recalled the period when Papa Roach made demos before Infest. He had already established a songwriting relationship with Michael and pushed for him to produce the record. Michael understood the different sides of the band and was willing to enter its working environment. John Feldmann also contributed production to the album.
Some of the material had started far from Sacramento. In an interview with PopCultureMadness, Esperance explained that he developed musical ideas while traveling with a laptop and mini keyboard. Those tools helped account for the electronics in the finished songs: elements from the early sketches remained in place as the recordings developed. Other ideas were dismantled and rebuilt, while some tracks emerged from spontaneous studio playing. The arrangements did not all follow the same path, and the lyrics often came together toward the end.
Shaddix’s circumstances gave those lyrics their subject matter. Discussing “Before I Die” with Loudwire in October 2012, he explained that he and his wife had separated during the album’s creation. Writing gave him somewhere to express the pain and reconsider how he had treated the people closest to him. He described the record as a snapshot of a particularly vulnerable period. In a separate interview with Metal Hammer from that era, he recalled initially resisting writing about what was happening; his bandmates and producer encouraged him to maintain the honesty that had always been part of his work.
Finishing the record did not end the difficulties surrounding its release. In August 2012, a vocal-cord problem forced Papa Roach off the Uproar Festival so Shaddix could undergo surgery. The recovery initially required him to stop speaking. By September, he told Loudwire that his follow-up appointments were encouraging and that he had been cleared to begin warming up his voice.
Papa Roach returned to touring, including a North American co-headlining run with Stone Sour in early 2013. Speaking to Loudwire during its New York stop, Shaddix credited the album’s creation with helping save his life. “There were these moments where I was spun out but music was there,” he said.
