However, the album was rejected by John Kalodner and the executives at Geffen Records for being too heavy and dark.

It was speaking against the sort of lucidity that we all seem to get hypnotized into by relying on the media to make up our tastes and our flavors of the minute for us so much.

The album comments on society's dependence on technology and media to make decisions, and how people should take control of their lives and their choices.

[1] He also referred to the process as a "creative catharsis" saying that they felt they were under attack and they were "exorcising our demons, and we brought it into Geffen".

When the band presented Imaginator to John Kalodner and the executives at Geffen, they weren't pleased with it.

[2] The executives at Geffen gave the band the choice to either record another album, more according to what they were expecting, or they would be released from their contract.

[2] Although the band was frustrated by the reaction at Geffen, they decided to return to the studio to record another album.

After parting ways with Geffen, Nelson established their own label called Stone Canyon Records.