Dale Grundle started The Sleeping Years by releasing a trilogy of home recorded EPs, You and Me Against the World, Setting Fire to Sleepy Towns and Clocks and Clones throughout 2007.
Upon their release the EPs garnered critical acclaim, featuring on BBC Radio 1’s Introducing, the Guardian’s writer’s play list and on the cover mount of Rolling Stone and The Word.
(Drowned in Sound)[citation needed] In 2007, Grundle collaborated with Mark Beazley from Rothko on a track entitled "While December Turns" for the Arctic Circle Xmas album That Fuzzy Feeling.
In 2008, he worked with songwriter Ted Barnes on a song called "This Old World Grown Quiet" for the Arctic Circle's That Fuzzy Feeling EP.
The Sleeping Years have toured across Europe, including dates supporting Bowerbirds, Damien Jurado, Scout Niblett, Edwyn Collins, The Notwist and Okkervil River.