They originally consisted of Robbie Stern, Max Bloom, Daniel Blumberg, Will Vignoles, and Vicky Freund.
The band came into being when guitarist Robbie Stern invited Daniel Blumberg (vocals), Max Bloom (bass guitar), William Vignoles (drums) and Vicky Freund (keys) to start playing together, originally to participate in their school 'battle of the bands' in 2005 at University College School, in the same year as Bombay Bicycle Club.
In their first few band practices, the 15-year-olds began working on their first four songs, "The Next Untouchable", "Colourful Life", "Amylase" and "Buttercups", which were recorded as demos and submitted to their Myspace site shortly after.
Way Out West was well known for putting on many up and coming bands such as Jamie T, Late of the Pier, Video Nasties, The More Assured and Laura Marling.
Since the end of the band, Stern has become a barrister at Matrix Chambers,[3] Vignoles works as a manager for the English Touring Orchestra,[4] Freund remains involved in music production and sound engineering, and Blumberg is an artist and musician.