Hailing from South London, kinetic indie rockers The Maccabees formed in 2004 around vocalist Orlando Weeks, guitarists Hugo and Felix White, bassist Rupert Jarvis and drummer Robert Dylan Thomas. The group's first single, X-Ray, was released on Promise Records in November of 2005, and thanks to a strong XFM-Radio showing, the Maccabees were able to garner opening spots on an Arctic Monkeys tour. Fierce Panda picked up the second single, Latchmere, issuing it in the spring of 2006. The band's full-length debut, Colour It In, came out on Fiction Records a year later. Thomas left the band in 2008 and Sam Doyle was recruited to step in behind the kit. For their second album, 2009's Wall of Arms, the band worked with producer Markus Dravs, who also collaborated with the Arcade Fire. Main stage slots at the Reading and Leeds Festivals would follow, then the band took two years off to write and record. The results, the album Given to the Wild and its lead single, "Pelican," arrived in early 2012, and received a Mercury Award nomination for album of the year.