By 13, she was singing and playing guitar in the Psychotic Sensations, soon after forming the Red Lights with drummer and longtime friend Alisa Dymarets. By late 2002 their partnership began splintering, with Chin Up Chin Up bassist Chris Saathoff often taking Dymarets' place on drums under the alias Chris Playboy. At the same time, White teamed with Ponys guitarist Jared Gummere and Baseball Furies drummer Matt Williams to form the Hot Machines, on top of everything else beginning her collegiate career at DePaul University. In mid-2003 Dymarets suffered a fatal asthma attack, but White and Saathoff forged on, founding their own Mission X label to release Miss Alex White & Chris Playboy's debut single, "Young Monsters," in January 2004. But when Saathoff himself was killed by a hit-and-run driver weeks later, White nearly abandoned music for good. Unaware of Saathoff's death, In the Red label founder Larry Hardy proposed releasing a follow-up White/Playboy single, prompting White to resume playing live and forming a new backing unit, the Red Orchestra, with drummer Williams and former Clone Defects guitarist Wes Kerstens and drummer Eddie Altesleben. Their debut LP, Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra, appeared on In the Red in mid-2005. ~ Jason Ankeny