The Von Bondies [ tickets ] frontman/guitarist Jason Stollsteimer heard horror stories about record labels hanging onto bands just for the sake of holding them back. So when he longed to part ways with record label Sire Records, he "hit a wall." The three-year process was so trying for Stollsteimer he temporarily quit playing guitar.

"Some bands that might have had one or two good records, and all of a sudden [you] never hear from them again," Stollsteimer said during an interview with LiveDaily. "The label owned their name and didn't want to release them. So the band eventually had to break up and start over just because of the label. But it gives us more of a drive--not to prove them wrong, but to prove us right, I guess."

Stollsteimer subscribes to the "better late than never" school of thinking. And that applies to his Detroit band's latest album "Love, Hate and Then There’s You," which was three years in the making before its Feb. 3 release. Once The Von Bondies waded through the red tape, the band was free to do as it wished and eventually inked a deal with Majordomo Records (an imprint of Shout! Factory). Stollsteimer said it was a relief to finally finish the long-awaited record.

"It's funny how the budget goes from major-label prices to what you can afford," Stollsteimer said. "It's been eight years since we've gone out and recorded our own record without any label help. When we started recording without the label, we realized the money that the label spends is ridiculous. For the same amount of quality or effort or equipment or whatever, it's like probably 5% of what they would spend. I don't know why. I don't know if all bands are tax write-offs for them? I have no idea. It was just crazy.

"Being from the Midwest, if you're going to buy a car, you just want to make sure it'll drive in the snow. There's no reason to get a convertible in Michigan. Get what I mean?"

To aid with the project, Stollsteimer hired singer-songwriter/producer Butch Walker to turn the knobs. Walker and Stollsteimer immediately struck up a friendship.

"He's made my Christmas list of friends," Stollsteimer said with a laugh. "I think, jokingly, we're on each other's MySpace friends. He was the first full-fledged producer I've ever worked with in 10 years. Out of everybody I worked with, there's been a lot of guys who are good engineers and kind of good liaisons for the go-to guy, but he was an all-around producer. I didn't realize I hadn't really worked with one until I met him."

Stollsteimer and Walker put together the entire project with music-writing help from Von Bondies drummer Don Blum, who is joined in the band by bassist Leann Banks and guitarist Christy Hunt. Rick Parker (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) also helped fine-tune the recordings.

"Normally, when I go in the studio, it's just me and my drummer," Stollsteimer said. "But it was just me and Butch this time. We never have the whole band go in the studio. I had three to four songs that had verses and choruses and intro and guitar parts but no bridge.

"I was at a point where we had been off Sire Records for a month or two. I was just kind of lost. We didn't start recording at first. He said, 'Play me the songs.' He said, 'I don't know what you're worried about. These songs are great. We just have to work on the bridge.' I never had anybody be that straightforward and not try to put their own twist on what the songs should sound like. He was basically trying to fix me. I was not confident when I went in that time. I had three years of trying to get off a major label, which is expensive and tiring. He was very positive, let's just put it that way."

A first-time songwriter, Blum penned the music for "Earthquake” and "Blame Game," thanks to Stollsteimer's perseverance.

"I pushed everyone to try to write at least a song," Stollsteimer said. "I go, 'Listen. If you write a song, no matter what, it will be at least a b-side if not on the album. We'll all vote on it.' I think by me doing that, that changed members in the band because some people wrote songs and nobody voted for that song and it hurt their feelings.

"In the last 10 years, I was the only one writing anything--bass parts, guitar parts--except for drums. Don and I were the only ones on the same page with what we wanted the band to sound like. That kind of [fleshed] out who fit in the band and who didn't, hence we got new touring members when we started touring together."

The band's former members wished to write "electrodance" tracks, something that doesn't fit in well with The Von Bondies' catalog, Stollsteimer explained.

"That's not exactly what we were about. We didn't know that until we gave them the opportunity to write a song. I was like, 'Wait, really? This is what fits?' It wasn't like an anger thing. Nobody was upset. It was kind of like when [Talking Heads'] David Byrne told Tina [Weymouth] and Chris [Frantz] to do the Tom Tom Club. It was basically the same thing. The Talking Heads was David Byrne's idea, they wrote a bunch of songs and they said, 'This will not work in this band.' I wish all the ex-members the best of luck."