We've known each other since primary school. Nathan, Ben, and Scott started the Vanilla Skulls a few years back, and Aaron hung around as roadie. But we got bored and felt we needed a change, so Ben asked Aaron to sing. That's how we got here. We intend on letting our music evolve as we evolve. We have definitely all changed quite a bit just since recording this album. We also really try to make the live experience much different than just listening to a CD. We definitely work toput on a good show visually and sonically. If you see us live you will notice some differences in the songs. We like to improvise live. We've been playing together so long it is almost like we can read each other's minds sometimes, as cliche as that sounds. We actually have a hard time writing; there can be lots of creative tensions in the band. Scott is influenced by mostly metal bands like Opeth, Kalmah, Children of Bodom, obscure foreign bands, and early nineties grunge. Aaron is heavily into bands like Animal Collective, Xiu Xiu, Hand Fed Babies, mewithoutYou, etc. Ben is into reallllllly strange stuff, but also likes Radiohead, Fugazi, mewithoutYou, etc, which is most of his influence for the drums. He also really enjoys piano music and classical music (he's currently in Italy studying classical piano). Nathan is mostly influenced by politically charged music like Refused, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Sex Pistols, Q and Not U, and also stranger indie music like Hand Fed Babies, Ris Paul Ric, Rahim, and a few post hardcore bands like The Chariot and Spitfire. The creative tensions help to make more off the wall music sometimes. We all agree on some main bands though: Coldplay, Q and Not U, Refused, Black Eyes, mewithoutYou, The Chariot, Fugazi, and Animal Collective.