Frente! were formed in Melbourne, as "Frente" in 1989 by Simon Austin on guitar and backing vocals, Angie Hart on lead vocals, Tim O'Connor on bass guitar and Mark Picton on drums and recorder. The group were named after the Spanish word for 'forehead' and 'front', according to "Inpress" magazine "t rhymes with 'heaven-sent-eh!'". The band spent two years performing in Melbourne's inner-city venues before, in August 1991, issuing their self-funded debut extended play, "Whirled", on the Thumb Print label. It was produced and engineered by Owen Bolwell at Whirled Records in Richmond. Hart explained that the exclamation mark was added for the CD's cover art " don't write our name like that, but we thought we would on the CD covers because it looks good". One of "Whirled"s eight tracks, "Labour of Love", was voted by Triple J listeners to No. 69 on their Hottest 100 for 1991. "Labour of Love" was co-written by Austin and Hart.