[2] The band's mission, chartered by executive producer Bill Evans, is to combine complex music with accessible songwriting.

[6][7][8][9] In 2008, Evans wrote a proposal for a band that combined sophisticated music (complex composition and virtuoso performances) with accessible, mainstream songwriting.

[15] Kerry Livgren, with whom both Neal and Steve had worked in the past, was also approached, but was eventually ruled out as a consequence of the stroke he suffered in 2009.

[16] Portnoy suggested Casey McPherson,[17] who at the time was signed to Disney's Hollywood Records (Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Jesse McCartney) label.

McPherson's band, Alpha Rev, had recently released the album New Morning, which spent 17 weeks in the Billboard Top-10 chart.

[18] Unlike most of the other artists on Hollywood Records, McPherson wrote all his own material, and played multiple instruments on his albums.

[10] Prior to the primary writing/recording sessions, Neal (who had never worked under a producer before[10]) and Steve Morse met to write, and explore their potential musical chemistry.

The band, Evans, and Collins met for nine days at Neal Morse's house and connected studio in January 2011.

[20] Portnoy remained at Morse's studio after the rest of the band left, to record final drums for the album.

Then, Collins chose the final parts that would comprise each of the songs, working with Guidroz to create many of the album's sounds.

[21] Portnoy, Evans, and Guidroz then travelled to Electric Lady Studios to mix the album with Michael Brauer.

Evans insisted on a dolly camera, which was traditionally only used in much larger venues; several rows of audience seats needed to be removed.

[25] Live in Europe had two other bonus tracks, mixed by Evans, both taken from the band's first European show in Hamburg, Germany.

On "Peaceful Harbor" and "Cosmic Symphony", Neal Morse recorded a gospel choir (The McCrary Sisters).

[29] This venue was a departure for Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy, who had recorded many of their previous shows at the 013 in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

The final feature was a new audio engineering technique, Harmonic Phrase Analysis,[31] which "…reduces the unwanted processing normally associated with contemporary live recordings, imparting a more organic feel to the sound field.

Evans worked with Cinnafilm, who mastered the footage[35] by re-texturizing[36] each frame, enhancing the visual dynamic range, and simulating 70mm film stock.

A 4K version was not released due to a lack of consumer distribution format, though several songs from the show were uploaded to YouTube at 4K.

On August 12, 2019, Neal Morse revealed the title and album art for the band's third studio record entitled, Third Degree.