Love and Theft are entering a new phase of their music career thanks to a recently signed record deal with Curb Records.

“We are honored to be signed to Curb Records,” Love and Theft's Stephen Barker Liles says in a press release. “Mike Curb and [Curb Records CEO] Jim Ed Norman are both legends who share our passion for music and independence, so to be a part of a team who understands and believes in who we are and the music we are making is inspiring.”

Their new arrangement offers the duo, which also includes Eric Gunderson, more security and support than they had while releasing their most recent album independently. Previously signed to RCA Nashville, Love and Theft released Whiskey on My Breath, their third album, in early 2015, on their own label, Hate & Purchase Music.

“We realized we had a chance to give fans a record that best represented us as artists when we decided to release the new album independently,” Gunderson explains. “By signing with Curb, who are an independent company themselves, we have an amazing opportunity to work with them while keeping our integrity as artists.”

Whiskey on My Breath was the first new album from Love and Theft since the release of their self-titled project in 2012. During that three-year gap, Gunderson and Barker Liles' lives changed plenty, outside of music: both welcomed new children into their families, and Barker Liles got married in August of 2014.

"Over time, as your life changes and your career changes, and you go through having a family and buying a house and all of that, I think … songwriting, all that stuff, changes," Barker Liles tells The Boot. "The songs on [Whiskey on My Breath], some of them I wrote before having a child, so, you know, there’s some party songs on the album, and there’s also some very serious songs. So, we’ve got a little mixture, and I think the production definitely leans toward a more mature sound for us, something that we wanted to do on other records, but we just didn’t have the creative control that we have now with this album."

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