Mikey Heppner attended Vanier College in Montreal to major in music and find other Frank Zappa fans like himself to start a band with.
[1] He found no one suitable for the job; he described the people he met there as "all elevator jazz geeks"[1] and became discouraged about being able to form an experimental band.
[2][3] Heppner discarded his experimental rock goals entirely after being inspired to form a punk rock band instead;[2][3] a friend he met at Vanier named Olivier Corbeil took him to see a punk band in concert, which enthralled him so much he formed The Dropouts with Corbeil, Tim Fletcher and Dave Hamelin to partake of the same high energy he saw at that performance.
[4] Heppner wrote "really simple Ramones-type of songs" for the group while the other three members achieved gradual fame in their side project, the Stills.
[1] Heppner had no lasting ambitions for The Dropouts,[5] who only recorded a demo,[6] but performed dozens of live shows around Montreal until June 2002.
[5] Heppner changed his musical goals and decided to reform The Dropouts later in 2002,[6][7] this time hoping for a more serious project in the vein of Tricky Woo (and their resemblance to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath).
[1] Future guitarist Dan Watchorn, who also moved to Montreal to attend college,[2] was inactive musically when Heppner asked him to join the group.
[8] Mike Dyball auditioned for the band as bassist and quickly invited his friend, drummer Jonny Knowles (who was later replaced in 2003).
[13] Priestess debuted live only eleven days after their last show as The Dropouts, performing at Main Hall in Montreal on October 11, 2004.
[7] Hour magazine specifically pointed-out that the comparisons to Priestess' spiritual ancestors actually proved the band were trying to pay respect to their musical roots instead of claiming a unique style.
[23] Heppner was somewhat taken aback to learn of the impression critics were under; he noted that the album sounded "pretty modern" to him and the group did not consider the record to be a metal one at any point during its creation.
[10] RCA Records noticed the group and signed them in January 2006, becoming their label for all territories outside of Canada, remastering Hello Master and releasing it internationally, beginning with the United States on June 13.
[30] The single "Lay Down" was included in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which elevated the band's profile drastically.
[33] As their busy touring schedule left them little time to write new material,[34][35][36] Priestess only began work on a follow-up album in the summer of 2007.
[37] Heppner began writing things that were inspired by listening to progressive rock in his youth, which he felt made the work he created too esoteric for his bandmates to enjoy.
[1] When he did show them the material he was working on, they instead loved it,[1] and as a whole began adding minor progressive rock characteristics to their sound in an effort to challenge themselves.
[35][36] The production process itself was plagued with problems that prolonged it, as any producer hired before David Schiffman quit the project[38][40][41] and after recording had begun in Los Angeles, the police forced them to change studios to avoid noise violation penalties.
[52] Following its release, the group performed with such acts as Early Man,[53] High on Fire[54][55] and new labelmates Naam in North America,[56] and Bigelf in Europe and the UK.
[62] Vince Nudo became the drummer for Kurt Vile's backing band, the Violators,[63] and has also formed Frères Lumières, a film-scoring group, with bandmate Dan Watchorn.
[1][38] Their debut album also features twin harmonized guitar solos, something long considered to have gone out of style in rock music.
[8] Bassist Mike Dyball is known to enjoy Bruce Springsteen and the Cult, and Nudo admires John Bonham, David Bowie, and Thin Lizzy.