The band started under the name Lynx when its members were elementary school students at Kettleby Public School in King Township, Ontario. School friends, drummer Grant Taylor and guitarist Dave Ziemba, started the group and soon added bassist Chuck Dailey to become a trio. Their early shows included local fairs and their elementary school graduation. After high school, the band moved to Toronto with Darren Dumas joining as lead singer in 1997 as his original band was teetering on a breakup. Libydo, a breakdancer who originally performed as part of dance group Back to Basics, was added later through connections with Dumas. His role was effectively a hypeman at concerts, though he described his role as "an instrument" through which a "physical representation of the high energy" would be represented. In 2003, The Salads released their first album
Fold A to B. It won several awards: a 2003
CASBY, a Canadian Radio Music Award, and Favourite Band at the Canadian Indie Awards. The band began writing more songs and performing them, getting ready for the next round of recording. They played at EdgeFest in 2004,(including EdgeFest), and they spent two weeks playing Australia in late 2005 with
The Presidents of the United States of America. On their return, they began pre-production with
Dan Brodbeck, and in January, a new record of 10 songs,
The Big Picture, was completed. It included "Growing Up" (about life's changes as you get older), "Individual" (memories of 1980s thrash metal), "Circles" (watching the most intelligent person you know battle Alzheimer's), and "A Better Way" (trying for positive social change). The title "The Big Picture" was a reference to the complications of the music industry. After two years of touring
The Big Picture on the
Warped tour, campus shows, and festivals, the members of The Salads decided to sever ties from their label and management. In August 2012, The Salads released a self-produced album entitled
Music Every Day which features guest appearances by
Angelo Moore (from the legendary
Fishbone), Canadian musicians
David Wilcox,
Brian Byrne (from
I Mother Earth), and Ryan Long (from
The Johnstones). In 2013, the band performed at the KOI Music Fest. ==Band members==