Romans went to work for a record company in Nashville. Jeff Dorenfeld, former manager of the band Boston, saw Guese and Mentzer performing in May 2003 and referred them to Sharp. Sharp liked their playing, but he had a low regard for their songs and their appearance. The first words Sharp ever said to them were "This isn't going to work unless you listen to me". The four soon took in Eric Dill, a high-school friend of Zehr from when they both lived in Indianapolis. Zehr has said that they began playing seriously because "[w]hen we started the band our senior year, it was basically our last-ditch effort, because we all knew we were about to be done with school and have to enter the real world". They were all in their very early-20s. According to Zehr, the group would play several shows a week that were booked under different band names to get around local clubs' rules preventing artists from playing that close to each other. Their playing then got the attention of Mike Denneen, Boston-based producer of Fountains of Wayne, who agreed to help them produce a 2-song demo record. Denneen also introduced them to Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley, who was strongly supportive. The Click Five made their demos at Imrie House itself, finishing in March 2004. Denneen believed that the group "sucked live" and pushed them to rehearse further. The program director at Kiss 108, the big Boston Top 40 station, liked it enough to book the group for the station's "Concert on the Charles" in mid-2004. The released their first EP, "Angel to You (Devil to Me)", around this time. Principal songwriter Ben Romans collaborated with Paul Stanley in creating the song, and guitarist Elliot Easton, best known for his work in The Cars, played in it. The group hired a lawyer and shopped around some of the major labels. A college scout from Epic Records who witnessed one of their shows convinced Epic to fly the group to Los Angeles to play. Lava Records, which was later folded into Atlantic Records, ended up signing the band in late 2004. They started with the label a mere month after their EP. According to The Boston Globe, "Click Five was launched into the pop-music stratosphere with the full force of the industry's muscle behind it." The band opened for Ashlee Simpson for the first time, a position