 Ex's With Benefits formed in 2012 after Vincent had written music for possible future recordings by Green River that never materialized.Not wanting the music to go to waste, he held on to it hoping to hear what it sounded like with vocals.He reconnected with an old high school friend, Dmitra Smith (who was fronting the San Francisco-based band Static People), sending her some of the songs to see if she'd be able to record on top of them.