The group was formed in Andover, MA in the final months of 2005, when vocalist Martin Johnson, formerly of the Boston act Fake ID/The Drive, wrote a handful of songs he wanted to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, with whom he had recorded a brief demo, to complete the line-up. Some months later the two later learned that they were distant cousins. The group later changed their name to Boys Like Girls. The quartet soon opened a PureVolume account to showcase their music, and uploaded a rough demo of "The Great Escape" and an acoustic rendition of "Thunder". By the end of the year, the group had landed the #1 spot on the website's Top Unsigned Artists chart and within a few months had completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights and Butch Walker. Eventually in 2006 the buzz around the band was overheard by booking agent Matt Galle and record producer Matt Squire, who contacted the band about a future collaboration. With their full support, Boys Like Girls embarked on their first nationwide tour with A Thorn for Every Heart, Hit the Lights and Keating in late February 2006. Following the month-long venture, the group immediately entered the recording studio with Squire to record their debut album for Columbia Records/Red Ink. During their time in the studio Squire introduced the band to another of his alumni, Cute Is What We Aim For, who offered Boys Like Girls an opening slot on their upcoming headlining tour. Once the album was recorded, Boys Like Girls played back-to-back tours, including the Cute Is What We Aim For tour in June, as well as a two week stint with Butch Walker in late July.[8] In between tours the band filmed their first music video for their album's lead single, "Hero/Heroine", directed by Mark Serao and Chris Vaglio of Grey Sky Films. The first ever Boys Like Girls show was at All About Records Fest at Club Deniro in Taunton, Massachusetts, on February 17, 2006 and there were only about 25 people that came to their show. On August 22, 2006, the eponymous Boys Like Girls hit record store shelves. As of August 2008, the album has sold over 580,000 copies within the United States. While, as the title might suggest, songs about boys liking girls clearly prevail on the album, Johnson threw in the occasional escape from the pre-, mid-, or post-relationship formula, and touched upon themes such as his mother's battle with cancer, leaving home and promiscuous adolescents. Concerning the latter, he discussed the motivation behind the song "Dance Hall Drug" The year 2007 began with a short headlining run with Self Against City, after which the group joined Cobra Starship supporting a two-month Cartel tour in February. In between releasing their album's second single, "The Great Escape" (reaching #9 on the Pop 100), performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 22, 2007, and eventually charting the Billboard 200 for the first time in April 2007, Boys Like Girls played their first international concerts during the Canadian leg of a North American tour with Hellogoodbye and the UK festival Give It A Name 2007. Stylistically, the band lists its musical influences as a variety of contemporary, pop, punk, and alternative rock bands, such as Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Story of the Year, Relient K, The Academy Is..., Kelena, and Dashboard Confessional. While these tendencies are clearly audible in guitarwork and drumming, punk rock influences are far less obvious as far as vocal patterns and lyricism are concerned. Given Johnson's characteristic tenor vocal melodies—which are, due to sporadically placed falsettos, at times reminiscent of Tyson Ritter's (of The All-American Rejects fame)—the band's all-around sound is geared to late '90s alternative radio rock, along the lines of Vertical Horizon, Goo Goo Dolls, and Eve 6. While the online community precipitately crowned Boys Like Girls 2006's "Fall Out Boy" (in reference to the pop punk band's commercial success with 2005's From Under the Cork Tree), album sales were less convincing. Despite promotional front page features (such as Spin's "Artist of the Day" or the highly influential Absolutepunk.net's "Featured Band" and "Absolute Exclusive: Album Leak"), Boys Like Girls scanned a mere 1,472 units within its first week of sales, thus failing to chart the Billboard 200. However, continuous touring and promoting helped gaining the record a #179 entry into the chart in April 2007. It continued to gain popularity as the single, "The Great Escape", climbed the charts and eventually peaked at #55 in August 2007. After nearly falling off the Billboard 200, the re-release of the single "Hero/Heroine" jumped the album back up to #61 and was certified Gold shortly after.