Confirmed working on third album

In June 2011, the band confirmed that they were working on their third studio album. The group performed a new track from the album, “Don’t Give Up on “Us”” while on tour with Augustana and Austin Gibbs . The band recorded the album at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, Texas with producer Colby Wedgeworth . The album’s lead single “Don’t Give Up on “Us”” was made available for streaming on November 1, 2011. On that same day, the album’s track listing and artwork were revealed. The album’s second single “Some Day” was released on November 15, 2011. On December 2, Pioneer was made available for streaming along with the song “Misery”. The album was officially released on December 6, 2011. The album was released independently via Action Theory despite being with Warner at the time. O’Callaghan revealed that the group fought to release the album before Warner agreed under the condition that the band would self-release the record. Pioneer peaked at number 90 on the Billboard 200 and in its first week, sold 12,000 copies.