The founding members of Lift to Experience were bass player Josh "Bear" Browning, guitarist Josh "Buck" Pearson, and an unnamed mutual friend handling drums. The three came together in Denton, Texas, near Dallas, at a time when Browning was enrolled at a nearby college. Roughly twelve months after the band’s inception, they put out a four-track self-titled EP. Their original drummer soon departed to play guitar in the Texas outfit Mandarin, prompting Browning and Pearson to enlist Andy “The Boy” Young as his replacement. Young earned the nickname because he was still underage and therefore unable to enter the bars and clubs frequented by his bandmates. The only member not from Texas, Young grew up in New Orleans as the child of a preacher and a piano player. After relocating to Denton to switch from jazz studies to an English major, he encountered Browning and Pearson about a month after his arrival. Pearson likewise is the son of a preacher; he first picked up the guitar during his teenage years, learning U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” as his initial song. His parents separated once his father’s religious convictions intensified to the point that he ceased working, convinced that faith alone would sustain the family. Pearson’s mother thereafter raised the children alone, often juggling multiple jobs in the absence of child support. In 2001 the trio released its debut full-length album, The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, on the British label Bella Union.
