Young The Giant's song "Cough Syrup" was performed on Glee at a key emotional moment in a recent episode where homophobic bullying leads a character to attempt suicide.

"I don't think we ever had the intent of the song... in such a serious scene," YTG frontman Sameer Gadhia tells Billboard.com. "It's very, very intense, very, very impactful, and we most definitely empathized with that. All of us have been victims of bullying -- and been bullies at some point in time. It's something that hits everyone."

Gadhia says the California quintet did have to think a bit about whether to grant permission for the series to use "Cough Syrup," however. "Obviously there is that initial feeling of, 'Oh yeah, it's Glee,' and none of us watch 'Glee' and there are some problems with that," he explains. "But at the end of the day I think we're happier people are watching something that's music-based. There's so much bulls*** on television. I mean, there's 'Jersey Shore,' y'know? With 'Glee,' there are a lot of people that it really strikes a chord with and they feel emotional about it and it appeals to them enough to watch it every week. There's nothing we can say about that. We're open for all applications for the music...and just excited and gracious and happy that people want to use our stuff."

And as far as new material...

"We have three or four actual songs completely done and 10-12 ideas," Gadhia reports. "Plus there's a couple of songs from the previous record that never made B-sides or the full record that we want to re-introduce into the process. So we're in a good place. I think we're ahead of schedule." Nevertheless, YTG plans to limit its touring after coming off the road in late April, with a few  spring and summer festival appearances from May-July.

"We really want to spend a lot of time recording, so I think our schedule for the rest of the year will reflect that," says Gadhia, who hopes YTG will hit the studio in September for an early 2013 release. "We'll try to say no to things we'd love to do but don't make sense and just do things that are absolutely necessary so we can focus on (recording)." He expects the band will produce its sophomore set itself, explaining that, "For the most part we all write together, so there's already five minds that are checking and balancing each other. We have a little bit more trust in ourselves, so we're ready to go in that direction."