the band were first noticed after lead singer okereke went to a franz ferdinand concert in 2003. he gave a cd of "she's hearing voices" to both lead singer alex kapranos and radio one dj steve lamacq. afterwards, lamacq played the song on his radio show. he called the track "genius", and he invited them to record a live session for the show. the success of the track led to the release of another single, "banquet", which was released by moshi moshi records. they went on to sign with independent label wichita recordings in april 2004.