Daniel Geller had co-founded Kindercore Records with Ryan Lewis in 1996. The label was originally headquartered in Athens, Georgia, but it was later moved to New York City, where Geller met Dykes. They began dating in 1997. When Geller asked Dykes to provide the vocals for an instrumental track he had written, they began considering starting a band. With encouragement from Ryan Lewis, they played a live performance in Austin, Texas at the 2000 South by Southwest Festival. From that point on, they became a real band.

Geller and Dykes had decided on the name in 1999 while living in New York City. The band's debut album, Out of the Loop, was released in 2001 under the Kindercore label and according to a 2002 interview with The Stanford Daily, the band's name represented the dynamic of the duo's relationship: "The two towers, equal and independent, together made up one entity and came to represent the relationship that Geller and Dykes forged professionally and personally." The Tight Connection, IATWTC's second album was also released on Kindercore in 2002 but their third, The Cover Up, was not due to the labels closure. Instead, The Cover Up was released on Gammon Records despite the romantic separation of Amy Dykes and Daniel Geller. The two still continue to collaborate professionally.

I Am The World Trade Center