[1][3] They started as a songwriting project for Gillies, aside from his work with Silverchair, and Carr, who issued a solo folk rock extended play, Rhythm to Fly, in November.
[3][4] In 2005 Gillies remembered "Wes and I wrote a couple of tracks that first day to test the water ... Next thing you know we went into overdrive – it wasn't long before we had 30 or 40 songs".
[3] In 2004 Tambalane began performing as a band, Carr and Gillies were soon joined by Greg Royal on bass guitar and Gerard Masters on keyboards.
[5][9] Gillies told The Dwarf website that he looked forward to "[p]laying with Tambalane in small venues and really getting back to my grass roots is extremely fun".
[5] Faster Louder's Yasmin Wilding reviewed their mid-September gig at The Yallah Roadhouse, "[Carr]'s got one of the best live rock voices I've heard in a long time ... Gillies ... is an exceptional drummer ... [able] to keep ... the crowd bopping ...
[12] In May 2011 Silverchair announced an "indefinite hibernation", in the following month Gillies was working on a new album but denied that any new project would be similar to Tambalane.