American Authors have released their second album, “What We Live For”. It’s the follow up to the highly successful “Oh, What a Life.” “We tried to really take what we did before and take it to the next level as far as everything goes – songwriting, instrumentation, harmonies, everything… just trying to take it to the next level,” said American Authors vocalist Zach Barnett talking with Alternative Addiction recently. Taking things to the next level is no small accomplishment for the band seeing what they were able to accomplish with their debut LP. After a hugely successful EP run it was STILL surprising to see the album do as well as it did. After listening through the album, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the second set from American Authors meet – and then exceed – the expectations that fans for it. “When we were writing the first album we weren’t expecting anything,” explained Barnett. “We were just having fun and trying new things in the studio. Then when it took off, it was exciting and special. This time around, because we are following up that success there’s some pressure and some expectations. But for us, we’re really excited because we did the best we could with the songs. We pushed ourselves as writers and musicians and came up with the best stuff that we could.” All the music industry clichés aside, American Authors operates at an unfair advantage compared to the bands they compete with for people’s attention. They’re all classically trained musicians that play their own instruments, play each other’s instruments, they all write music and they all write lyrics. It’s a complete effort from everybody in the band to make and produce the music. That’s one thing, but their work ethic matches their skillset, something you rarely see. “We’ll rework songs so many times,” began Barnett. “If there’s a tiny idea that we think is really special, we’ll keep going back to it. Some songs come easier than others and they’re done in a day, but then other songs take a lot of reworking and rewriting. “Go Big or Go Home” was one of the first songs that we did for this new album. That song was one that we had to keep reworking. We rewrote the chorus a bunch of times and we rewrote the verses probably a 100 times. We wrote another song called “Nothing Better” and we started that probably two years ago and we kept rewriting that song for the past two years,” he added. “We didn’t have keep at those songs, but for us, we want to make the songs the best that we possibly can. If the lyrics aren’t right, then we’ll keep going back and keep rewriting them. If it’s missing something in certain spots we’ll go back and add new melodies and new hooks. It’s about not being lazy and not just doing it to be done with it. It’s about being open to changing and adding and making the best song you possibly can.” We think they did it. American Authors second LP, “What We Live For” is out and available now.