 Realizing he wanted to start a band from scratch, Santos placed an ad for a drummer on the social networking website MySpace. After receiving a large number of e-mails, Santos received an e-mail from Chris Mora with a video of him drumming. Santos thought "You can ’ t be for real, dude" and asked Mora to come down for the first audition. 10 minutes into the audition Mora was hired as the drummer. Santos auditioned for an Australian band that moved to America called Cryogenic. Although he thought the band was not for him, he met the band's bassist Henno. As Cryogenic and Mudrock, who were working together, had both lost their vocalists, Henno contacted Santos and asked him to join the band, to which Santos accepted. Ryan Ready, who Santos had known since high-school, was recruited as the second guitarist. The band's original name was announced as Silent Civilians, which originates from the world's climate change by that people have opinions on life and politics and they do not voice their beliefs, living in a nation full of' silent civilians'.
