 Having officially formed a band under the name Late of the Pier in 2004 , childhood friends Sam Eastgate , Andrew Faley , Sam Potter , and Ross Dawson initially developed the sound of their first album by listening to the alternative dance music of British ensemble The Prodigy and the grunge music of American band Nirvana . They soon branched out into listening to diverse genres from the last 40 years of music , including Motown and soul . Potter has treated their conception of Fantasy Black Channel as a reaction to " mediocre , complacent indie @-@ <unk> bands who find a sound and stick to it ; whose songs sound exactly the same " , while lead writer and composer Eastgate has pointed out that they wanted to " take people past their own limits " . The nascent recording stages took place in Eastgate 's bedroom , where unconventional time signatures and experimental chords were performed because , at the time , no band member could play an instrument properly . 
