After news broke that Austin Winkler left the band in November 2013 Hinder was extremely inactive on social media and their website.

The group stayed silent until July 8, 2014 when they posted a video on Facebook apologizing for their inactivity and announced that they had been writing songs for a new album while they searched for a new lead singer.

The band played a string of shows throughout the late summer of 2014 with Nolan Neal as vocalist.

The other members of Hinder said that Nolan Neal's voice was "too country" for the band's rock image.

On December 9, 2014 the band announced that When the Smoke Clears had been chosen as the album's title, which would be released in the spring of 2015.