began writing the band’s third record

Mercer began writing the band’s third record in late 2005, employing ideas and riff fragments collected over the band’s various tours. Suffering from insomnia, he would often wake up in the middle of the night and piece together songs in his home studio until dawn. For their third album, the group for the first time turned to an outside producer: Joe Chiccarelli , who produced Frank Zappa . Inspired primarily by a painful breakup and the group’s newfound success, the album was initially set to be released in the summer of 2006. It was later pushed back to fall, and finally released in January 2007. Wincing the Night Away represented a major jump for the Shins in terms of commercial success: the album peaked at number two (in comparison to its predecessors’ peak of number 86), setting a record for Sub Pop. It moved over 100,000 copies in its opening week, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album. Following the success of the album, The Shins left their longtime label, Sub Pop , for Mercer’s own label, Aural Apothecary.