In May 2013, Man Overboard released Heart Attack through Rise. Between March and May 2014, Man Overboard supported All Time Low on their A Love Like Tour in the US. Shortly afterwards, Man Overboard went on the Heart Attack tour in North America throughout May and June. It was the band's first headlining tour in a while, following a break – their longest in five years. During this break, some of the band members' relatives had died and a few of the members had gotten married.

The group released Passing Ends, an acoustic EP, in October 2014. The EP was "the biggest reflection" of the group's activities at the time and was the first time the group recorded material since their previous albumHeart Attack (2013). In an October interview with Alternative Press, vocalist/guitarist Zac Eisenstein revealed the band were writing and demoing. While working out where to take their new material, Man Overboard was unsure how to "do justice to the emotions we were feeling", Collier revealed. In March and April 2015, the group supported Bayside on their headlining US tour.

For the band's previous releases, they would write material on tour, then demo it after the tour had finished and then take the songs into the studio. For this new album, Bill Stevenson had the band play the songs live in the studio, instead of having them multitrack and listening to the finished result.

In early 2015Heavy Love was recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was the first time the band traveled far away from home to record. The album was produced by Stevenson and Jason Livermore, the former of which was a member of the Descendents. Members of Man Overboard grew up listening to the Descendents and were big fans. Guitarist Justin Collier called it "surreal" working with Stevenson. Stevenson gave the band creative control and helped keep the recording process in motion. Collier mentioned that the group were "figur[ing] out how to transition back into being a rock band".

...
Wikipedia