New Found Glory [ tickets ]'s new album, "Not Without a Fight," was leaked six weeks before its March 10 release--but lead guitarist Chad Gilbert doesn't necessarily see that as a bad thing, considering the album debuted at No. 12.

"I really, really, really think it helped," Gilbert said in a recent interview with LiveDaily. "Since [2006's] 'Coming Home' was so different, I think some people were skeptical in what direction our new record was going to come.

"With all the kids who leaked it and took it, all were psyched and all said good things. Everyone was spreading the word. It kind of became this hype on the Internet. The kids already had it and kids already loved it. The people who were skeptical or on the fence about whether or not to get it, already went and got it. With a band like us, I really feel like the leak helped."

It could have very easily been a part of the struggles the pop band had to endure in between deals with Geffen Records and Epitaph Records. New Found Glory--which also includes vocalist Jordan Pundik, rhythm guitarist Steve Klein, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki--pays homage to the changes in the title of its album.

"If you want something bad enough in life, you have to fight for it," Gilbert said. "With certain personal decisions we've been making in our lives, with relationships, all of us have been going through struggles over the past three years. In the end, it turned out better than we expected. I think that's the whole attitude of this record. It's to inspire people to go through struggles and go through hard times to kind of get where you have to be in life.

"Me and our singer, Jordan, went through some crazy break-ups and relationship changes, and also with the band, from label change to management change, there's tons of different things," Gilbert said. "From the past three years since Geffen, we've been self-funding our band. We've been fighting to keep going as a band. Not fighting in a sense of struggling; we weren't struggling. It felt like we needed to take the right steps to get it where we wanted to get it."

"Not Without a Fight," New Found Glory's first album for Epitaph, was produced by Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, a partnership that thrills Gilbert.

"Making this record, we didn't want to go with some big Hollywood producer," Gilbert said. "We thought it would be cool to have a friend or fellow musician that we respect, so we hit up Mark. Him and Travis [Barker, also of Blink-182] own a studio. They let us record there and Mark produced it. It was fun. He has a lot of experience in the studio. He's a great songwriter. His outside opinion of our songs, we respected. It was really, really fun. It was a really good experience."

It was on Hoppus' advice that the band kept the song "Truck Stop Blues" on the album. Gilbert, who writes the majority of the music for the band, said he was on the fence about the track.

"I was kind of torn on it," Gilbert said. "I was like, 'I don't know if I like this song on the record. I don't feel like it breaks any new ground.' Mark was like, 'No. That's what's cool about it. There's so many different sides of the band now. This song's awesome because it feels classic. Kids are going to love it because it feels, like, classic and familiar.' I was like, 'OK. I trust you.' Now it's my favorite song on the record. We respect his opinion not only as a producer, but someone who knows what New Found Glory is about."