Telefon Tel Aviv is a Los Angeles-based group formed in 1999 by Josh Eustis and the late Charlie Cooper, originally based in New Orleans, and then Chicago before Cooper's death. The two met in high school, but did not begin working on music together until after university studies. Since 1999, Josh and Charlie had been working to cultivate their sound, based largely in electronic music, but that also showed flourishes of classical, vintage soul, ambient drone, and noise, among other things.