Selfish Machines is the second album by American rock band Pierce the Veil, released by Equal Vision Records on June 22, 2010.

A Day to Remember frontman Jeremy McKinnon was featured on the track "Caraphernelia", which had a music video released on September 28, 2010.

[1] In an interview with AbsolutePunk in early 2009, guitarist and vocalist Vic Fuentes revealed that Pierce the Veil's next album would be influenced by their fans.

[4] Selfish Machines, and the band's next album Collide with the Sky (2012), was written in a cabin that belonged to Fearless Records' president Bob Becker.

[5] Like their previous record, A Flair for the Dramatic (2007), singer-songwriter Curtis Peoples joined Pierce the Veil to help write songs.

[6] The album was recorded during December 2009 and January 2010 in Los Angeles with producer Mike Green, with a planned release later that year.

[7] Green was selected as the producer because, according to Fuentes, albums he had previously worked on "sounded amazing", and he was "a very down to earth and passionate person".

[8] It was revealed on December 27, 2009, that Mike Fuentes had recorded all the drum tracks in one day,[9] at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California.

[13] Fuentes later said he was not going to be recording in Los Angeles again, as being so close to their hometown of San Diego provided "a lot of distractions that we didn't need".

[19] Prior to the album's release, Fuentes said fans should "expect a lot of songs to sing along to" and that their live performances would be "super fun".

[20] The music for "Besitos" showcases the band's Latin influence, and the lyrics describe Fuentes' relationship with a girl, from her point of view, who he "couldn't stop hurting over and over again".

[15] "The Boy Who Could Fly" was originally six minutes long, but the intro was split off as a separate track, "Southern Constellations", because of its length.

[15] As soon as he started writing the music for the chorus, Fuentes knew he wanted A Day to Remember's vocalist Jeremy McKinnon to appear on the song, and asked him to sing several weeks later.

The song came about because the band wanted to "make it as different as possible from the rest" of the material, placing it in "the middle of the album as a sort of a breath of fresh air".

[15] Most of the lyrics for "I Don't Care If You're Contagious" were inspired by a female fan telling Fuentes that her boyfriend was involved in a fatal car crash.

[15] His father worked as a painting contractor throughout his life, barely earning enough money to keep the family going, and being forced to sell his home.

[nb 2][25] "She Makes Dirty Words Sound Pretty", a bonus track included with iTunes versions of the album,[26] is a Vic Fuentes and Jonny Craig song recorded in 2007.

[42] Reviews of Selfish Machines were overall favorable, seeing it as a step in the right direction from their debut record, but the general consensus was that the band still needed to properly refine their sound and musical style, with certain elements coming in for criticism.

[43] AbsolutePunk's Drew Beringer noted that, despite the opening four tracks that "hit you in the mouth", the band "lose their focus and get a bit indulgent".