The French noise pop quartet Beat Mark formed and began writing songs together in 2009. Inspired by the fuzzy pop of groups like the Pastels and the Vaselines, and similar in style to contemporaries like Veronica Falls and Dum Dum Girls, Karin Schlageter (lead vocals/keys), Julien Perez (lead vocals/keys), Ga?tan Didelot (guitar/vocals), and Chloé Labaye (drums/vocals) recorded a batch of tracks that caught the ear of the California label Burger Records, who released a seven-song cassette in 2010. French label Final Taxi then asked the group to do an album and Howls of Joy was released in 2011. The band caught a break when Cornershop's Tjinder Singh was in a small record shop in Paris and the owner played him some Beat Mark tracks. He was duly blown away and decided to re-release Howls of Joy on his Ample Play label in early 2013.