We were young,?;didn't know?;all the rules at the time, and ended up breaking some of them as a result.

We never really realized how big we were and we kind of knew it wouldn't last. We went from playing bars to playing arenas and when you do that, you don't think about it ending. We made a lot of money and we spent a lot of money, and now we're looking forward, not backward.

We've been beaten up pretty bad by the record business. We've learned a lot of hard lessons. We were just kids in our early 20s when we had all this success. We weren't around long enough to know how to handle it, we just wanted to go out and play music.

Taking a five-year hiatus allowed us to get our lives back together, our heads back on straight, and gave us a new appreciation for each other as a band. It took trying?;new things outside of the band, although they were great opportunities, for us to realize the?;chemistry and fun we originally had as Little Texas.

Our first consideration for writing or choosing songs is audience appeal and participation. It's important that our music not only?;pertain to us, as individuals, to make it real, but?;be something that the audience can grasp hold of and believe in as well.

Being on our own and hitting the road as hard as we did was a music education in itself. We didn't have a lot of bills, so we were able to just focus on the music, build a fan base and make friends within the music industry.?;That, and our?;reputation as being incredibly easy to work with, is what eventually earned us a major-label recording contract.