The origins of the Blakes are rooted somewhere in the backwoods of central Maine, where in the latter half of the nineties Garnet Keim and his younger brother Snow acted upon a shared ambition to deviate from their seemingly inevitable fates as lifelong paper mill employees (or something of that nature), and try their hands at music. In fact, they had been raised in a fairly musical environment by a family best categorized as true swamp Yankees, and were taught how to harmonize with the Everlys at sing-a-longs from childhood onwards. At some point during adolescence they taught themselves how to write simple little garage rock songs on guitar and bass, and they eventually gigged around bars in Maine with a drummer. In an early display of the Keims’ notable brotherly symbiosis, Snow – upon graduation from high school – convinced Garnet to drop out of University of Maine Farmington a year from his degree and follow him to Kansas City, where they hoped to expand upon their (grossly naïve) musical ambitions in a larger market. Unfortunately, they never got off the ground in KC, although they did manage to further hone their songwriting skills in between tokes of ditch weed and stints as human guinea pigs for experimental pharmaceuticals.
Getting nowhere in the Midwest, the brothers accepted an offer from Phil Collins’ son Simon – who was dating their cousin Elvira – to record with him at his home studio in British Columbia. Much partying and a few recordings of a pop-electronic variety ensued, but the Keims were eventually forced to leave Canada when they proved unable to obtain work visas.