The Weiss brothers, Aaron and Michael, together with guitarist Christopher Kleinberg, were playing together in another band, called the Operation, with bassist Greg Jehanian.

The band released their first EP, I Never Said That I Was Brave, in 2001 and shortly thereafter signed to Tooth & Nail Records after a show at Cornerstone Festival the same year.

In December 2004, Pishock had made the decision to retire bass duties in order to pursue a career in teaching and explore other musical ventures, and former Operation frontman, Greg Jehanian, was selected to replace him.

Pete Syoum filled in on guitar in the fall of 2007, but later, Kleinberg returned to play with the band on their 2008 summer tour.

Similarly, the band scaled back their edgier post-hardcore sound, at times trading riffs for chords and guitars for pianos and harp; a classical composer was called into their Fishtown, Philadelphia studio for various arrangements on several tracks.

[10][11] In 2011, they added Brandon Beaver of Buried Beds to play second guitar, as stated on their blog by Rickie Mazzotta.

[citation needed] In August 2011, Mazzotta stated in an interview that the band had parted ways with Tooth & Nail Records, due to perceived restrictions placed on them by the label.

[citation needed] In February 2011, Alternative Press announced that the band's fifth album, due in early 2012, would be produced by Daniel Smith.

[citation needed] Thirteen songs were recorded in the studio sessions, eleven planned for the album, and two b-sides.

[19] On August 11, 2017, the band announced an [A→B] Life 15th-anniversary tour with Pianos Become the Teeth, Strawberry Girls, and Slow Mass and also reissued the album on vinyl and cassette.

[26] In the song "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt", from their album [A→B] Life, Aaron' lyrics are based on a poem from the metaphysical poet John Donne, called "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning".

Donne wrote the poem to his wife to explain that there is no need for dreading their physical separation or distance because their spiritual love will always keep them together.

He adds, "If you really want to just try to follow a path to God, I don't believe you need anything beyond [Jesus Christ], but it's just the idea that you're fixed on the only way and that everybody else is just completely misguided [...] that is a sort of obtuse attitude that can hurt your own spirit".