The band are currently composed of lead singer/guitarist Alasdair MacLean, drummer Mark Keen and bassist James Hornsey.
The band formed in 1991, with Innes Phillips sharing singing and songwriting duties with MacLean; their original name was The Butterfly Collectors.
Innes left the band (and would go on to found The Relict); the rest of the group re-formed in 1997, after which they moved to London and released a number of singles that were eventually collected on Suburban Light (2000).
Strange Geometry was quickly followed by a collection of recordings from 1991 to 1996, featuring Innes Phillips, called It's Art, Dad.
After a U.S. tour in August 2006, The Clientele became a four-piece again, adding Mel Draisey (on violin, keys and percussion), who became their first female member.
MacLean subsequently spent time on a project called Amor de Días, a collaboration with Spanish vocalist and instrumentalist Lupe Núñez-Fernández (of the indie pop duo Pipas).
Their lyrics take a strong inspiration from surrealist literature and art from the early 20th century; "We Could Walk Together" quotes a line ("like a silver ring thrown into the flood of my heart") from a 1928 poem by French surrealist Joë Bousquet; in its final two verses, the song "What Goes Up" quotes the poem "Stupidity Street" by Ralph Hodgson in its entirety.