The January May trio began as a duo in the town of Union, Missouri. Matthew Campbell and Kg Lillian started January May with high hopes and higher expectations; dreaming outside of the limitations a small town challenged them with. As they prepared to release a demo album, Campbell and Lillian played open mic nights at the only venue locally available to them. With the support of their families, Matthew and Kg kept pursuing opportunities to play out and write, releasing the "Back to Back EP" in the summer of 2012.

It was this EP that they set off to the races with. The band discovered an online music sharing competition called ArtistSignal and quickly uploaded the EP for users to hear. As the duo began to play out to schools to gain support in the contest, Adam Zimmer, a bassist that had played beside Campbell in two separate groups, joined January May to fill their sound. After two months with little to no sleep and eyes glued to the voting button, January May won the first place prize of $10,000 on ArtistSignal with the help of their growing fan base. 

A move to Austin, Texas lead the band to a hopeful new territory rumored to be the live music capitol of the nation. The only way to confirm this was to throw themselves into the scene and witness the life of the city for themselves. Their first show transpired at live lounge Strange Brew, with a stage-owning performance following at Austin's Trail of Lights. Since then the band has had the pleasure of opening for friends Remedy Drive, Moon Taxi, Andrew Belle and playing at SXSW. As 2015 began, January May was given the opportunity to audition for Orlando's Full Sail University partnership and after anticipating the results, found out they had been selected.