Augie March went into the studio in March 2000 to begin work on their first full-length album. Rob Dawson, a long-time friend of Richards, joined the band on keyboard and piano. The band worked in nine studios with six different engineers over the course of six months. In July 2000, prior to the album's completion, they released their first single, "Hole in Your Roof". In October 2000, Augie March released "Sunset Studies". Album launches in Sydney and Melbourne were attempted, but were unsuccessful as both cities were very crowded with musicians at the time; Donovan said "it seemed like every band in the country was doing a tour then and we couldn't get any venues". Thus, they played a small tour along Australia's east coast. The album did not chart well; it spent one week on the ARIA Albums Chart at number 35.