Dot Square began as the side project of Jason DiBartolo, who started recording under that name after finding that many of the songs he wrote as a member of his first band did not fit the group's style. His home recording experiments resulted in two full-length albums [Infinite Planetarium (2006), Dot Square (2008)] and one EP [People Living in Caves (2010)] over a four year span. As DiBartolo’s self-produced bedroom recordings became increasingly ambitious, it was clear that finding musicians to form a supporting band was the next step in the evolution of Dot Square.
DiBartolo turned to long-time friend Steve Sachs for help with the project. The two had learned to play guitar together as teenagers and had collaborated on recordings as far back as 2005, when Sachs lent DiBartolo a 4-track recording device. DiBartolo’s college roommate Josh Mayer was added on percussion, and after a hectic search for a dedicated bass player, the group was introduced to guitarist-turned-bassist Tim Fitzpatrick. In the fall of 2010, DiBartolo, Sachs, Mayer, and Fitzpatrick began rehearsing with the intention of performing DiBartolo’s "People Living in Caves EP" in its entirety, but quickly found themselves eager to do more. They elected to set out in a new direction, working collaboratively on new songs that would expand the sound and scope of DiBartolo’s earlier work.
Dot Square rehearsed relentlessly for the next three months before playing their first show to a packed house at the Mill Hill Basement in Trenton, NJ. Three months later, a mere six months after their formation, Dot Square’s Hightstown, NJ rehearsal space was flooded, forcing them to relocate to DiBartolo’s home in Lambertville, NJ. A small home studio was set up so the band could produce demo recordings of the new songs they had written together. The demos from these sessions caught the attention of audio engineer Peter Gary (Music Mix Mobile), and in the fall of 2011 the band enlisted Gary's help in recording a professional demo.
As Gary and DiBartolo began mixing the as yet untitled demo, Dot Square released The Love [B_Sides], a compilation of love songs left over from DiBartolo's solo era that featured a demo of "Jupiter" performed by the band. Following it's Valentine's Day 2012 release, the band shifted focus back to live performance. By the end of the summer of 2012 Dot Square had made appearances at various venues throughout Philadelphia, including the Trocadero Theatre and WXPN's World Cafe Live, and had also been featured on 104.5FM's - Live at 5.
As winter approached, the demo, now titled Tesseract, was readied for it's Jan 1, 2013 release. Engineered by Peter Gary and mastered by Andy VanDette (Chief Engineer - Masterdisk), Tesseract was the culmination of two years of work as a group and marked Dot Square’s first official release as a full band. Following it's release, Dot Square headed back to their home studio in Lambertville to record material for an anticipated 2014 release.