in 1998 friends from thurston community college, greg mcdonald, nick morley, tom weller and ben jennings formed a band, the hip down. the band played a small festival as their debut performance and later recorded a ten track demo at meadowside studios in wisbech. shortly into 1999 weller departed to university, leaving the band without a permanent bassist. in late 1999, singer-songwriter seymour glass briefly joined on bass before leaving to front another local band, miss black america.