The band formed in August 2009 with Rob, Steve, James and Tim having worked on various other musical projects together previously and Matt fitting perfectly in to place to form Rapids! They gained their first gig in a small bar in Bournemouth in October 2009 with no recorded music and only the promise to the promoter that they would be good…

Rapids! released their first 3 track, self titled EP in November 2009 limited to just 200 copies and containing their earliest songs; Maps, Void and The Elitist. Following further time in the studio, they released a 6 track EP in March 2010, building on their first three tracks with the songs Fuses, Economics and Inland Empire. Between October 2009 and spring 2010 Rapids! played a large number of shows across the south coast gaining favourable reviews in many high ranking music blogs and magazines such as Artrocker and Rocksound as well as gaining airplay on John Kennedy’s XFM show.

The band signed to London label Heist Or Hit (The Answering Machine, Pomegranates, The Crookes, Love Like Fire) in July 2010 and their first 7” on Heist ‘Fuses’ is due to be released in October. 

In summer 2010, a year after forming, Rapids! built on the earlier XFM radio play with the track Fuses being played by Tom Robinson.  Steve Lamacq invited the band on to his show for a live interview and radio play.

In September 2010 Rapids! played a live session for BBC Introducing/BBC 6Music at BBC Broadcasting House.

The band recorded their next EP 'Fragments' in mid 2011 and this was produced by Dave Eringa. The EP was released on 15th August 2011.