In 2008, the two started a band, enlisting Melbourne scenesters Evan Tweedie on bass and vocals and Luke Vollins on drums, augmenting Preiss' keyboard and vocal duties and Gawenda's vocals and guitars. Taking the name Husky, the band was born. The group drew on Preiss and Gawenda's shared love of literate classic rock staples when developing its sound, melding artful songwriting inspired by the likes of Leonard Cohen and the Doors with Gawenda's poetic lyrics. The bandmembers worked tirelessly on songwriting and live performance, eventually setting up a makeshift home studio to record the basic tracks for their debut album. After working for months on the basic tracks, Husky handed over their raw materials to producer Noah Georgeson (famed for his work with artists like the Strokes and Joanna Newsom) to handle the final mixing process. The end result was their hauntingly folky debut album, Forever So, released in late 2011 on Liberation Music. In 2011 the group also won the Pushover talent competition hosted by Australian radio institution Triple J. This opened many doors for Husky, and the band quickly gained new fans as well as landing support slots for established artists such as Gotye, Devendra Banhart, and Noah and the Whale. Husky began negotiating a deal with U.S. indie mainstay Sub Pop, which planned a global re-release of Forever So for 2012. Husky was the first Australian band to be signed to Sub Pop. Their 2014 follow up album Rucker's Hill was also released through Liberation Music down under and Sub Pop in the US. ~ Fred Thomas