Martin had decided to live independently by the age of 18. His first job was selling ice-cream. The big break he needed came when John Nymann, guitarist for the band "Mile Hi", gave him a call and asked if he would want to form a new band together. The two had known each other from the past, since their former bands (Mile Hi and Kid Courage) had played together at the Mabuhay Gardens on Broadway in San Francisco. In agreement, John Nymann and Eric Martin got together people from both their previous bands and formed a new group named 415 – which was the telephone area code for the San Francisco Bay Area, since every person in the band was from there.