Hideout. For a thief or a deposed dictator, it’s a place to lay low till the heat is off. For the rest of us, it’s whatever we might use to retreat when the “real” world is too much to deal with—relationships, drugs, music, or some other form of distraction.

And for Film School, it’s also about finding new inspiration after some tumultuous times that could have come straight from a movie: following years of hard work, the band was signed to Beggars Banquet, and their 2006 self-titled debut for the label earned accolades across the country and across the pond. The band scored coveted opening slots for The National and the Rogers Sisters all over Europe before headlining their own tour of the States. But in the middle of that tour, frontman Greg Bertens got jumped outside a club in Columbus, Ohio; then in Philadelphia, somebody stole the tour van, plowing straight through the security gate of the motel parking lot, with all the band’s equipment inside. Once back home, the stress of a demanding show schedule, the ups and downs of a trying year, and emerging creative differences among bandmates ended with the decision to move forward with a change in personnel, and Film School looking to a fresh beginning with a new album.