In the time since OUR BLOOD was released and after a few long tours, Richard Buckner attempted to work on writing short stories but found himself drawn back into the music room. The evidence of his time in the writer's chair is clear in the dense, lovely prose of SURROUNDED. The album's liner notes include text-embedded lyrics, a technique Buckner employed on his earlier albums SINCE and IMPASSE, but this marks the first time he used the songs' extended story to construct the album's overall view and track sequence.