[4] While attending middle school in Sequim, Washington, Drew Chadwick and Wesley Stromberg began doing sessions together as American Scholars.
[5] They released an album, Bite Your Lip and Take It under the name The American Scholars, which they produced in their basement.
In 2012, Emblem3 auditioned in San Francisco for the second season of The X Factor, singing an original song called "Sunset Blvd", written by Chadwick.
On the second live show on November 7, the group performed their version of "My Girl" by the Temptations and "California Gurls" by Katy Perry with "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction as the background track.
On the third live show, they performed "No One" by Alicia Keys and were ranked fourth by the fan votes moving on to week five.
On the fourth live show on November 21, 2012, they performed "Secrets" by OneRepublic and were ranked again 4th by the American public.
[11] Emblem3 later performed as the opening act for Selena Gomez on her Stars Dance Tour that began in August 2013.
[13] Keaton and Wesley Stromberg released their first EP as a duo titled Forever Together on October 27, 2014.
Drew and Wesley released a hip-hop inspired EP, Pyro, under the name Emblem3 while Keaton was working with another band, The Social.