This highly touted UK indie rock band was formed at the start of 2005 by Danny Blumberg (vocals), Robbie Stern (guitar), Max Bloom (bass/vocals), Vicky Freund (keyboards/vocals), and Will Vignoles (drums). All talented musicians in their own right, and coming from affluent families, the quintet met on the burgeoning underage gig/club scene exploding in London, although some were already family friends. Stern and Blumberg hit if off immediately, as they shared a love of music from Portishead through to the Rolling Stones. Stern had already written a number of songs, but it was the relationship with Blumberg that produced the catalyst to creating Cajun Dance Party and their uniquely British sound. They practised every hour they could, in between school and sixth-form college, the songs flowing quickly and seamlessly. Because of the natural and organic way Blumberg and Stern created music they were quickly labelled as the new Johnny Marr and Morrissey (although neither of them were born when the Smiths split-up in 1987).
In late 2006, after the band's fourth gig at the hugely successful all-ages event "Way Out West", held underneath a west London football ground, an A&R scrum eschewed. The band released their debut single, "The Next Untouchable", in March 2007, to rapturous reviews from UK music magazine NME, who called them "a sensation". The appeal of a young band, singing angst-ridden scenarios over jangly indie rock, attracted the attention of XL Recordings who signed Cajun Dance Party in the summer. The single, "Amylase", followed in August.
