Influenced by bands like Jimmy Eat World, The Necessary wrote a wide range of songs released in 2004 on the album This Is Us, for Forsaken Records.
The line-up was completed by the rest of The Necessary, while, due to band-internal issues, Todd Turner was replaced by Phil Bell.
[4] After the release of their first album, recorded and produced by R. Walt Vincent in his Los Angeles studio, they were named to Alternative Press's[5] list of "100 Bands You Need To Know".
Bell has had degenerative disc disease for years, and lately the members all realized that although he "has always pulled through, with talk of surgery and the possibility of paralysis, Phil is too young to continue long and strenuous drives in a van on tour and playing drums every night."
The band announced that they had finally severed ties with Drive-Thru Records and were planning to release their long-awaited second album in the spring or summer of 2011.