Donald Fagen met Walter Becker in a coffee house at Bard College in 1967. They began to form Steely Dan in the summer of 1970, after a Village Voice ad for a bassist and keyboard player with jazz chops was placed by guitarist Denny Dias, which was answered by Fagen and Becker. Dias was immediately impressed by the pair's abilities, and particularly by the fact that they already had a whole stack of original material. The group's first lineup was assembled in December 1971 in Los Angeles, where Becker and Fagen had relocated to work as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill. Becker and Fagen formed the core of the band and wrote all the songs, with Becker on bass, and later lead guitar, and Fagen on keyboards and vocals.