Frontman Jack Underkofler, guitarist Jack Collins, bassist Dylan Brenner, and drummer Will Goodroad formed the hard rock band Dead Poet Society while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Launched in 2013, the bandmates took a unique approach to their heavy, hard-hitting rock & roll sound, sourcing inspiration from diverse artists like Coldplay, Led Zeppelin, St. Vincent, and adventurous hip-hop icon Tyler, the Creator. A self-released album, Sound and Silence, arrived in 2015 and increased the band's popularity around campus, while subsequent EPs like 2015's AXIOM and 2016's Dempsey helped earn Dead Poet Society an international following. Championed by an influential blog in Mexico, Dead Poet Society began touring south of the border, initially as the opening act for Sputnik and, years later, as a headliner in their own rite. Meanwhile, singles like "Lo Air," "American Blood," and ".CoDA." were released in 2020, with ".CoDA." hitting Number 19 on the American Mainstream Rock Songs chart the following year. This success helped build the band's audience back home and readied the public for Dead Poet Society's official debut album, which was released in 2021 under the title -!- (pronounced "The Exclamation Album"). The album featured many of the group's previously-released singles, as well as new hits like ".intoodeep.," which became the band's second Top 40 single on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart in early 2022. "Running in Circles / HURT" reached number 24 on the same chart one year later, doubling as the first single from the band's 2024 album, Fission.