In 1996, the pair reportedly enlisted the four five musicians they came across at a local café, settling on a line-up of Murdoch, David, guitarist Stevie Jackson, drummer Richard Colburn, keyboardist Chris Geddes, and cellist Isobel Campbell.

Concurrently, Colburn, who shared a flat with David at the time, attended a music business course at Stow, run by Alan Rankine of the Associates.

Colburn provided a demo tape Murdoch and David had recorded titled Rhode Island (later released as the Dog on Wheels EP).

"[3] Author Dave Thompson, in his book Alternative Rock (2000), called it as a "gentle masterpiece, utterly in debt to Nick Drake (and a bit of Donovan too)".

He said "The State I Am In", the album's opening track, "buoys the occasional sag; that and the slickly loose instrumentation, harmonies which haunt the fringe of fear, and a wealth of emotionally crippled reflection.

Tigermilk was well-received upon its initial release, and earned a glowing review from Scottish culture magazine The List, who gave the band their first national press.

[20] An eBay charity auction of the stuffed animal in the cover art of the Tigermilk album in 2019 [21] was won by Lisa Carr of Washington, DC.