Teenage pop-punk band Anarbor formed in 2004, when the bandmembers were attending junior high school in their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Lead singer Slade Echeverria, guitarists Adam Juwig and Mike Kitlas, bassist Jess Myers, and drummer Greg Garrity quickly became veterans of the Arizona all-ages scene. The band's debut EP, Hearing Colours, Seeing Sounds, was recorded in 2006 and released as a digital download the following year. On the basis of the EP and the band's growing live reputation, cemented by an appearance at South by Southwest in the spring of 2008, Anarbor signed with the punk indie Hopeless Records (Avenged Sevenfold, Against All Authority, etc.) as soon as they graduated from high school that summer. The full-length Free Your Mind followed in 2009. In 2010, Anarbor released the more emo-rock-leaning The Words You Don't Swallow. Several EPs filled the space between that record and 2013's proper follow-up, Burnout.