Around Easter 1986, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, former Minor Threat members, went to London and recorded a few experimental, post-hardcore songs for John Loder of Southern Studios. The trio decided to release a single under the festive name Egg Hunt with Dischord Records, the label MacKaye and Nelson founded and owned. Since MacKaye's band Embrace had broken up, he and Nelson decided to try turn the project into a bona fide band. After returning to D.C., the two recruited former Gray Matter members Geoff Turner and Steve Niles, but the band went nowhere. Nelson, Turner, and Niles then joined ex-Gray Matter guitarist Mark Haggerty to form Three, while MacKaye brought the emocore sound he had been mining in Embrace and Egg Hunt to Fugazi.