Katie White started her music career as a school-time hobby in a punk trio called TKO—short for Technical Knock Out—with two friends from Lowton School, Marion Grethe Seaman and Emma Lally.

[10] The pair, along with friend Simon Templeman, went on to form the Portishead-influenced trio Dear Eskiimo, who signed to Mercury Records.

Having created three songs, the band's first gig was a free-beer invite all at the Mill in their rented dwelling called "the Engine House".

[12] Their first double-A single "That's Not My Name/Great DJ" was jointly released by the band and a local label, Switchflicker Records[failed verification].

"Fruit Machine" was released as a limited-edition, 500-only, seven-inch single on Legendre Starkie Records (the band's own label), which was only offered at their three live shows.

[13] They had a notable performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007, and after an October 2007 tour of universities in the UK with Reverend and the Makers, they signed to Columbia Records.

In January 2008, they were voted third in the annual BBC 6 Music poll of industry experts Sound of 2008, for acts to emerge in the coming year.

[15] In February 2008, they were the opening slot act on the 2008 Shockwaves NME Awards Tour, performing with The Cribs, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, and Does It Offend You, Yeah?.

The first single released on Columbia was "Great DJ", which received considerable airplay on BBC Radio 1 and XFM in the UK and praise from magazines such as NME.

In May 2008, the band performed a live set on the in New Music We Trust stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Maidstone, Kent, which was made available by the BBC's online video player application iPlayer.

[18] In the United States, the single "Shut Up and Let Me Go" appeared in an Apple iPod commercial in late April 2008, helping the song peak at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[20] The original incarnation of the album was recorded over a period of eight months in the basement of a former jazz club in the Friedrichshain area of Berlin, Germany.

De Martino added that they were angry the single "Hands" was promoted on BBC Radio 1, but had been intended by the band as "an underground, white label-only release".

The band relocated to Spain, where they found influence in the music of the Beastie Boys, Spice Girls and TLC.

The band went to Ibiza in September 2012 to begin writing and recording material for their third studio album, which they worked on through in April 2013.

In October 2013, the band stated they had nearly finished mixing their third album and were planning to record numerous music videos.

[42] On 24 May the band released "Down" as the first official preview from their new album, potentially titled Meadow, inspired by soft-rock acts like Fleetwood Mac, Toto, Steely Dan and Christopher Cross.

[44] The first single from the album, "Down" b/w "Danced on the Wire", was announced as a limited edition 7" vinyl with release in early October.