With "Hard Living", the band spent 15 months on pre-production, studio work and packaging for the album. They recorded at Bias Studios under the production guidance of talented local musician Steuart Smith. The band also tried to deliver the type of pop cover image that Varrick preferred.

The band took an August break and was prepared to tour to support the album. At that time, Varrick came back and said they wanted a harder edged image for the band—the opposite of what they had wanted for the previous album—and wanted to reshoot the cover. Because there wasn’t time before the band went on the road, the two week missed opportunity to reshoot the cover ultimately delayed the release of the album from October to the following March.

The band went ahead with their extensive tour from September 1985-March 1986, all of which was supposed to be in support of the release of the album. But with Varrick retooling things, the band was showcasing material from an album that wouldn’t be made available to fans until March. It was a very strong album of original material with excellent production work—it should have been a hit. But the late release and confusing marketing approach seemed to undermine its potential for success.