They have released five acclaimed albums, Limbo, Panto in 2008, Two Dancers in 2009, Smother in 2011, Present Tense in 2014 and Boy King in 2016.

In 2002, Queen Katherine School students Hayden Thorpe and Ben Little, then both sixteen years of age, formed the duo Fauve, the French term for "wild beast", and began writing songs together.

All the bandmembers apart from Little studied at the local university, and played their first Leeds gig at Trash (formerly The Mixing Tin).

They recorded a live session of three tracks in November 2006 for Marc Riley's Brain Surgery on BBC Radio 6 Music.

[8] With Hayden's "enormous falsetto voice, which soars over chiming guitars",[8] the single was placed at number 17 in the UK indie chart.

[10] In May 2007, music magazine NME listed Wild Beasts as one of ten bands "tipped for the top".