By mid-2013, the band started a month-long session of writing, demoing, and pre-production work for the album. While prior albums had been recorded in Britain and Thailand, for this album, work on Ones and Zeros began in Manhattan, New York. The opportunity had opened up due to the band signing to a new record label, Virgin EMI Records, though it had prevented the band from starting recording sessions sooner, and forced them to start over from scratch with their material. Still, the band took it; as it allowed for a lot of access to the studio, which lead to improved efficiency, with less rough "home-recorded" demos, and more higher quality ones in a faster amount of time. The band's first choice had been to work with pop music producer Ariel Rechtshaid, though plans feel through upon learning of the two-year waiting list for his services, in addition to stylistic concerns, with wanting to ultimately still create a rock record. Instead, the band elected to work with Dan the Automator, who had produced the work of alternative rock and hip hop band Gorillaz. While Wood referred to the early sessions as a "great experience", the band ultimately decided to part ways with the producer after the early recording sessions, deeming that it "wasn't quite what Young Guns were looking for." While they had welcomed the challenge of working with a non-rock producer, ultimately, Wood stated that the band and the producer had very different approaches in creating music, and irreconcilably different ideas and end goals for the album's sound. Despite the issues with producers, the band was still able to amass a "pretty great amount of material", including the initial incarnation of the album's first single, "I Want Out", and their third single "Daylight".
