The two were introduced to each other while in London in pursuit of their respective musical projects: Virgo was in the midst of a break in session work, while de Maré had been planning to set up a personal recording studio in Paris. Despite different musical influences (de Maré by R&B and soul, Virgo by 1960s pop standards, and classical music from sources such as France and the Second Viennese School), their collaborative songwriting efforts apparently meshed easily. Virgo describes the demos recorded at this time as comprising ideas such as "Parliament breaks under bits of Serge Gainsbourg". After some demo tapes were distributed among music industry executives, the band received a number of contract offers from record labels. The pressure of this drove them to form a group, even with de Maré having gone on vacation in Los Angeles at this point. Originally planning to use the name "Tremelux", they chose instead "Mono", derived from the title of the Phil Spector release "Back to Mono".