Met at Pomona College

Keith Murray and Chris Cain met in 1997 whilst attending Pomona College in Claremont, California . Keith had just transferred to Pomona and Chris was holding a Dawson’s Creek viewing party and quickly bonded over a mutual love of stand-up comedy, film and television. In late 1999, after graduating and moving to Berkeley, California , they hatched the idea for the band. Murray and Cain, along with their roommate, Scott Lamb, a fellow alum from Pomona College, cofounded the group. Lamb originally played guitar and provided vocals, whilst Cain played bass and Murray played drums as well as handling vocals. The three of them chose the name We Are Scientists, after renting a truck from U-Haul. When they returned it, the inspector, after looking them up and down and assessing their wardrobe, asked if they were scientists. Some publications later claimed their band name to be a reference to a Cap’n Jazz song of the same name, whilst others believing it to be a homage to the Guided by Voices track “I Am a Scientist”, both of which the band have unequivocally denied. Touching on the subject in their Dumpster Dive podcast, Cain jested “I can say that pretty unequivocally that if we had known of Cap’n Jazz at the time of naming our band, we would not have named it We Are Scientists.” When it came to songwriting, Keith, Scott and Chris’ were particularly influenced by films, comic books, with many of their earliest songs about fighting monsters.