Box Set Authentic is a loosely-knit group of eight friends and longtime musical collaborators who really like one another’s songwriting. We record whenever enough of us get together in the same place. When we can’t, we record at home and share our work digitally. Our roots are in Chicago, but we have branches that span from Los Angeles to London.

Most of us played in and around Chicago in the bands Shovel Choir, Tart, and the Velmas. By 1999, all three had split and their members had relocated across the U.S. We got sick of wishing we could be in a band together every time we heard one of the others’ new songs. Guy Crundwell announced that going forward, we were together in a band, geography be damned. New Yorker Rick Karr and Chicagoan Steve Zimmers stepped forward to produce a session at Chicago’s late Stroppy Studio. Joy Gregory flew in from Los Angeles, Rick and Guy flew in from the East Coast, and Mark Venn came from London. They linked up with the Chicagoans — Zimmers, John deMoulpied and Michael Sankowski — to start recording material for Peace in the Middle West. Matthew Neill Sharp joined from California, contributed his beat-editing, remixing, and songwriting skills. Subsequent sessions took place in Chicago, the Bay Area, and New York. The collective is currently at work on its second release, tentatively titled Mixtape.