Martin Colclough and Pat Fogarty wrote songs together in their final year at university, and Gemma Evans joined on bass shortly afterwards.

[1] The Answering Machine released their first single, "Oklahoma" on 16 October 2006 through High Voltage Sounds.

In April 2009, the band toured in the USA playing at the Viper Room and the Mercury Lounge in New York.

[5] In October 2009, the band visited the US again to perform at CMJ Music Marathon and a month's residency at CoCo66 in Greenpoint, NY.

The band also had two songs featured on the BBC TV show Gavin & Stacey during the second episode of the third series.