Matt Pelham, Roger Dabbs, Don Sergio, and Parrish Yaw attended middle school together in the small rural town of Sparta, Tennessee.

Pelham, Dabbs, and Sergio started a band when they were in the eighth grade out of boredom, playing covers of acts like Camper Van Beethoven, Neil Young, and Guns N' Roses.

The Features graduated to playing various bars and clubs around Murfreesboro and Nashville, eventually dropping out of college to focus on the band.

Within a few years they had become a Murfreesboro fixture and signed a deal with Spongebath Records, a local independent label that featured several of the biggest rock acts in the Nashville area, such as Self, The Katies, and Fluid Ounces.

Due to creative differences between the band and Universal, their contract was dissolved shortly before the scheduled recording sessions for their second album, leaving The Features without a label.

On June 17, 2009, Bug Music CEO John Rudolph announced that his company and Kings of Leon would be entering into a joint venture to establish a new record label imprint (later named "Serpents & Snakes").

In a review of the soundtrack for Allmusic, Heather Phares called attention to the song, saying that it "turns that happiness [of finding a soulmate] into energetic pop.

A track from that album, "How It Starts," was featured in a 2012 commercial for the 2013 Ford Mustang and in the video game Saints Row IV the following year.