People Under the Stairs recorded most of the album in Los Angeles at their home studios in between tour dates in late 2013 and early 2014.

On January 28, 2014, Thes One announced on social media that People Under the Stairs' ninth full-length album would be titled 12 Step Program.

[5] Some of the final mixing work was performed in March while the group played festivals in Texas, including the Paste Untapped Indie Music & Beer Festival in Fort Worth[6] and SXSW in Austin.

[7] Recognizing the current dominance of digital music and the growing trend away from physical media, only a limited number of LP records, cassette tapes and compact discs were produced for 12 Step Program.

A week before the album's release on May 6, 2014, pre-orders for the physical copies were announced on the band's official website, and over the next 24 hours, the website's server crashed 4 times due to eager fans attempts to obtain the album.