Dashboard Confessional is an acoustic rock group started in 2000, by Chris Carrabba in Boca Raton, Florida, as a side project from his band Further Seems Forever. Chris recorded his first album, The Swiss Army Romance, in 2000. The following year, he recorded Further Seems Forever's debut album The Moon Is Down. However, he left the band soon after the album's release, instead recording and releasing his sophomore album The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, as well as a follow-up EP titled So Impossible. By 2002, three other musicians had joined the band, including former Further Seems Forever band mate Jerry Castellanos and started the process of recording the band's next album.