Did you miss them? After their single "Closing Time" took over the airwaves and their album Feeling Strangely Fine took off in Europe, Semisonic returned to the U.S. to record their third disc, All About Chemistry, all by their lonesomes. Here they talk to VH1.com about efficient work practices, accidental love songs, and the "Achy Breaky Heart" syndrome.

It's good to see you guys back. It's been three years since your album Feeling Strangely Fine. What's taken you so long?

Dan Wilson: One reason it took us so long to make this album is that [Feeling Strangely Fine's] "Secret Smile" became a big hit in the U.K., long after the U.S. touring was over. We ended up going over there and we didn't get back to Minneapolis till a year later than we thought we would.

So when did you first start recording All About Chemistry?

Jake Slichter: January of 2000. Dan Wilson: And a quick 10 months later we were done! It took us a while.

Did you think you were done at some points and then go back and change something?

John Munson: We produced the record ourselves. That means tacking on endless amounts of time to do important work that also sometimes feels like busy work. We had a bit of a learning curve in terms of how to manage all the information we were producing - all the music. It took a long time to learn how to do it.

Did you wonder why you didn't do this before?

Dan Wilson: It took a lot from me to convince the label that we should do it without a producer. They were adamant that it was a bad idea. I fought for it and when they heard a couple of things we did, they were surprised by how right it sounded. That was when we got the freedom to do whatever we wanted to.

I understand that the state of your studio gave you the idea for the album title.

Dan Wilson: It looks like one of those joke chemistry sets in a movie. It's just a jumble of cables and all of our half-broken gear. It's not the most organized place. We used different basements and even used a Minneapolis warehouse hallway for a drum sound. So we had to bring recording gear into places that are not really proper studios at all.

What would a normal day in the studio be like for you? What time would you get started?

Dan Wilson: We'd show up at 11 a.m. and order lunch, discuss things. Everybody gets distracted calling various people for various reasons. By the time it's 3 o'clock somebody starts cracking the whip and we start getting to work on something. A lot of the time there was this element of "What reel is 'I Wish' on? Is it on reel 32? Did anyone write it down?" "No, there's no reel 32. We chopped that into pieces to make reels 33 through 36. Remember?" "Okay. Then where is 'I Wish'?"

John Munson: "I don't remember talking about that at all."

Jake Slichter: "That's why I asked you to write it down earlier."

Dan Wilson: Now it's 6 o'clock and we've finally found the tape. We're hungry and grouchy so we all order dinner. Now it's 9 o'clock. We've all had dinner and watched a little bit of the ball game. Finally everything is all set up and then we go out and play until midnight. Then we go home. That's the most action-packed day, actually. I found that the more expensive the hourly rate, the more time we waste doing stupid stuff. When you're working in someone's house, like a friend's house, you just set up in some corner. If it costs no money, for some reason you're incredibly efficient and get a million things done.

So what is the first single, "Chemistry," all about?

Dan Wilson: I wrote the song partly because of a conversation I had with a video director we worked with, Sophie Muller. I said, "How do you decide who to collaborate with?" She said, "I know within five minutes. It's all about chemistry." I thought, "I love that philosophy." Then I started thinking, "Well, that's a good song title, too: 'It's all about chemistry.''' At that point I had what I considered a really great piano riff. When I put them together, it just kind of happened from there.

Now, you actually got Liz Friedlander to direct the video for "Chemistry." What is it about?

Dan Wilson: The idea is that underneath the reality of life is a crazy Rube Goldberg contraption of mechanics that makes things happen to people. All the things that seem to happen by chance in life are actually happening because this crazed, invisible machine is forcing it to happen.

You wrote "One True Love" with Carole King. How did that happen?

Dan Wilson: I had told a bunch of friends that I wanted to co-write a song with somebody outside of the whole modern-rock genre. When a colleague of mine asked me, "What about Carole King?" I was blown away. I was not putting out the call, "Wanted: Living Legend to co-write song with." But I said, "Yeah. That would be awesome." The best part is that we not only got along great and she's a very respectful and witty and totally sharp human. And the song turned out great, too. That seems like a lucky break to me.

On "I Wish" you really seem to be getting into playing at the end of it. It's like, "Is this 2001?"

Dan Wilson: I had it planned that some long jam was going to end the song. I just didn't really know what it was. When we played the song in the studio, I asked John to hook up his Bass Octaver to create a really high sound, and then asked him if he would just play a really, really long solo. He must have thought, "Do I really have to play that long?" By the end we had 12 minutes. It seemed just a little too undisciplined, so we brought it down to eight minutes. It's very retro in a way, but that was the right mood.

John Munson: Dan is a really good guitarist, which not enough people know. Now, on this record, and especially on "I Wish," he got a chance to really stretch out and show what he can do as a soulful soloist. I'm glad that we finally got on record this thing that people who came to the shows knew about us, but I don't think the broader public really did. Which is that Dan rocks ass.

What about "Follow"? How did that come about?

Dan Wilson: When I first wrote most of it, I was horrified by how pop it was. It means exactly what it says and there's no other story going on. That was kind of scary to me. Because I think everything that we had done had more angles. This is the first thing that I think actually could just be called a love song. I was kind of weirded out by that. I've always wanted everything to be twisted.

Did you feel any pressure to follow up on your multi-platinum success?

Jake Slichter: There was pressure. But there had been pressure before, when [The Great Divide] had been a critically acclaimed commercial flop. It was a great record that the critics loved and not many people ever heard.

Dan Wilson: We were under pressure just to even exist at that time. This time it was different. The decision that we made, collectively, was do something different. Not make part two. That frees you up. You're not following something up; you're just doing your next work of art.

How does it feel to have created in "Closing Time" a timeless song that will never go away?

Dan Wilson: I feel really proud of it. It's damn lucky that it's a really good song and not some silly crappy thing that we threw together at the last minute that became the hit. A lot of bands have this thing where the thing they knocked off really quickly and they don't like that much becomes their "Achy Breaky Heart" or whatever. Then you hear it forever and it's forever linked with you.