Ten years ago, a distraught freelance writer locked himself in a room and furiously scribbled his way out of a cataclysmic week.

Though Mikel Jollett entered his hovel intent on penning the great American novel, when he emerged a year later, it was not with the fictional book he had in mind, but a book of songs fueled by all too real tragedy. Those songs required a band, and that band would be The Airborne Toxic Event.

This unlikely group, a collection of five players from wildly diverse musical backgrounds, became an even unlikelier success story. Defying all established conventions about how success was supposed to be achieved in the early 21st century music business, they forged their reputation on the back of a surprising smash single, expanded it through relentless touring, and solidified it with a singular body of work that blends punk, folk, pop, symphony, literature, poetry and - above all - naked honesty.