Justin Webb, handling vocals and guitars, and his brother Christiaan Webb, on vocals and keyboards, trace their lineage to the renowned songwriter Jimmy Webb. Having begun their studies at Boston University, the pair later settled into a single-room workspace in Chicago, their chosen base, where they soon performed in neighborhood rock venues and smaller spots throughout the city. By the summer of 1998 they concluded that further local progress was unlikely, so they focused on composing and tracking a full set of demos inside their rehearsal area, hoping these would secure a record deal; longtime drummer Neil Ostrovsky appeared on the sessions. One thousand copies were manufactured and circulated among A&R executives, yet no domestic label expressed interest. Following a strong New Year’s Eve show in London, the Webb Brothers chose to relocate to England in January 1999 to pursue opportunities there.
Their initial opening arrived quickly when Wyndham Wallace, proprietor of City Sling Records, elected to release three of the recordings—“Cold Fingers,” “The Filth of It All,” and “I’m Over & I Know It”—through his Easy! Tiger imprint. The hand-stamped, hand-numbered, limited-edition 7-inch singles, collected under the title Excerpts from Beyond the Biosphere and adorned with artwork by Jon Jordan, sold out entirely within seven days, surprising everyone involved. Strong demand for the remaining demo material then prompted an invitation to play acoustically at the inaugural public event at London’s Water Rats, drawing the notice that had eluded them stateside. The same recordings, packaged as the unofficial debut Beyond the Biosphere, appeared in summer 1999 on Warners U.K., which signed the brothers and financed their own Mews 5 label. A worldwide agreement with Warner Bros. International followed, leading to a performance at the Reading Festival and the start of proper debut-album sessions, now supported by a substantially larger budget and overseen by producer Stephen Street (known for work with the Smiths and Blur). Atlantic Records released the widely praised Maroon in 2001.
