The duo formed a group with friends (with Law Santiago and Michael Salvador) from their province of Bulacan and went through several names such before eventually settling on Orange and Lemons.
[citation needed] Brothers Ace and JM del Mundo were in a band called Colossal Youth when they met Castro and Fundales in a local bar in Bulacan in 1999.
[citation needed] Castro and Fundales with two other friends were handled by Roldan "Bong" Baluyot of No Seat Affair (a local management, booking and production outfit) when they recorded a two-track demo ("She's Leaving Home", "Isang Gabi") in 1999 as Orange and Lemons.
[citation needed]They started arranging and rehearsing original songs that would eventually end up in their debut album, Love in the Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice Cream.
[citation needed] Castro and Fundales contacted Bong Baluyot to once again handle the band and ten songs were recorded in three days due to a limited financial budget.
[citation needed] It was in one of those gigs that ONL met Toti Dalmacion, formerly of Groove Nation, a local music store famous for rare and hard-to-find vinyl records.
The label would showcase unsigned and talented Filipino artists with a unique sound and style that could (hopefully) pass international standards.
[citation needed] ONL's 10-track debut album, Love in the Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice Cream was independently released and launched in December 2003.
[citation needed] The album's single "(Just Like) A Splendid Love Song" got radio airplay on NU107.5 FM and reached the station's number 1 spot in their weekly countdown.
[citation needed] The release of the tribute album of the Apo Hiking Society, Kami nAPO Muna in 2006, where the band contributed one track, gave Orange and Lemons the spotlight again.
[citation needed] As a follow-up to "Abot Kamay", the band completed a song from Unilever Philippines called "Let Me" and was used for another shampoo advertisement.