Hailing from Chicago, longtime friends, musical collaborators, and all-around conspirators Jeff Austin (of Yonder Mountain String Band) and Brendan Bayliss (of Umphrey's McGee) have been writing music and playing together for years. In between their busy tour schedules with Yonder and Umphrey's, the two musicians had always wanted to start a band. They wrote some songs, played some shows (both on Jeff's turf in Colorado and back home in Chicago) and so 30db was born.