After the demise of the Verve in 1999, founding bassist Simon Jones resorted to hiding out in his London flat. Ex-Stone Roses guitar man John Squire botched that in 2000 when he called on Jones to create some new material. Squire was also reeling from the breakup of the Seahorses and had an itch to make music. He, Jones, and fellow Verve guitarist Simon Tong joined forces with drummer Mark Heaney and vocalist Duncan Baxter and tagged themselves the Shining after the Stephen King novel and the ultramodern Stanley Kubrick film. The association with Squire didn't exactly form as planned, so he and Jones amicably split early on. Guitarist Dan MacBean was added to the group and the Shining developed a rough-edge pop sound. Debut singles "Quicksilver" and "Wonder How" emerged in early 2002 as well as an American deal with Epic. The band's studio full-length, entitled True Skies, was scheduled for an early 2003 release.