Vocalist Esthero was born Jen-Bea Englishman on December 23, 1978, in Ontario, Canada. She moved to Toronto in 1996, and quickly became a fixture at the city's open mikes. There she met Doc (real name: Martin McKinney), an engineer and producer, and the two began working on a demo featuring his programming and her vocals. Sony eventually took interest, and suddenly Esthero went from a fledgling idea to a duo with Esthero's name as their own and a record, Breath from Another, issued in spring 1998 on the label's Work imprint. Breath's mix of beats, lush vocals, and fractured bits of programmed samples caught on perfectly with the trip-hop trend of the time, and Esthero had success with singles like Heaven Sent and the hip-hop-flavored title track.