Based in Perth, Western Australia, Umpire was formed in 2006 as a studio songwriting and recording project, where Simon Struthers, Geoff Symons and Michael Lake had the opportunity to utilise the studio as an instrument, developing their songs without the pressures of playing as live band. The band released their first self-titled EP in 2009, which featured the standout track ‘Streamers’. ‘Streamers’ received rave reviews and achieved widespread high rotation airplay on both Triple J and community radio, as well as taking out the grand prize in the WAM Song of the Year in 2009.

The founding members of Umpire (Geoff Symons, Simon Struthers and Michael Lake) have a long history in the Perth music scene, playing in many seminal progressive indie-rock bands, including Adam Said Galore, O and Mukaizake, so it was a natural progression for the band to develop their live show by adding drummer, Josh Watkins. Performing the songs live has allowed the band to tour Australia and play with many of their musical heroes, including Stephen Malkmus, Built to Spill, Paul Dempsey, The Jezebels, Sugar Army, Jebediah, Love Of Diagrams, Dan Kelly, Bob Log III and Tame Impala.