Working as studio musicians for the television show Celebrity Justice, driving around in the iffy "Death Van," and embarking on the "make it or break it" move from San Francisco to Hollywood is how the punky popsters High Speed Scene made their ramshackle play for fame, but when the Neptunes fall in love with your sound, things can move quickly. Singer/guitarist/ songwriter Max Hart, drummer Adam Aaronson, and bassist Domen Vajevec came together in late 2001 and toured, toured, toured their Weezer meets Jawbreaker meets Cheap Trick style up and down the California coast. Nationwide touring followed, and by early 2003 they had a self-released/self-titled EP available.

Keeping themselves financially afloat with session work for other artists led to influential people passing their demo around. When it landed in the hands of Pharrell Williams, the ultra-hot producer and Neptunes member didn't even let 24 hours pass before calling the High Speed Scene. He was looking to sign the band to the Neptunes' new Star Trak label, and while the bandmembers didn't believe it at first, they did when lawyers arrived with paperwork a couple days later. In August of 2003 the band appeared on The Neptunes Present... Clones showcase album, but with the Neptunes moving their Star Trak label from Arista to the Universal family of labels, things finally slowed down. With the "Death Van" officially dead, the High Speed Scene holed up in the studio and finished their debut. The self-titled full-length was released by Interscope in March of 2005.