Dan Michaelson & the Coastguards are a side project for Dan Michaelson, lead singer for the U.K. band Absentee. After the release of Schmotime in 2006, Michaelson wrote a number of songs that didn't fit Absentee's sound and decided to use the pieces for a side project instead. After recording the pieces in September 2007, he recruited fellow Absentee member Laurie Earle, Henry Fields, Arnulf Lindner, and Henry Clark and Tom Gorbutt of the Rumble Strips to form Dan Michaelson & the Coastguards. The group began work on an album later that year.