I Am the World Trade Center is an electronic pop duo from Athens, Georgia (USA), consisting of artist on vocals and artist (co-founder of Kindercore Records) on various instruments and additional vocals. Dykes and Geller were already a couple before working together musically, and in 1999, after she provided vocals for an instrumental track he had written, they started to seriously consider the idea of becoming a band. Their first release was a split single with Japancakes, released by Kindercore in March 2000; Ryan Lewis (the other co-founder of the label) persuaded the couple to play at the South by Southwest music conference that same month to promote the single, even though they had never played live and only had two songs written at the time.
The first IATWTC album, 199386, was released in mid-2001, but in the wake of the events of September 11, the band received some unexpected attention, due not only to the WTC reference in their name, but also because track 11 on their album was coincidentally named "September". The duo announced that they would be shortening their name to I Am The..., and then released a 2002 single in the UK under the name I Am the World, but eventually returned to their full name for the release of their second album, 621811.
The two ended their romantic relationship in 2003, but decided to continue the band, and it was during this time that their third album was recorded. In early 2004, after the album was completed but before its release, Dykes and Geller became a couple again, and embarked on a tour, during which Dykes fell ill and was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The album, 276020, was released in June 2004, but the duo was mostly unavailable to promote it, due to Dykes' chemotherapy and recovery regimen. With her cancer in remission, they attempted another tour in 2005, but were forced to end it early when Dykes again had to be hospitalized, this time after contracting pneumonia. The band was further sidelined when Kindercore became involved in a lawsuit which tied up the label (and Geller) through mid-late 2007. Although they had planned to record a fourth album, The Cover Up was ultimately the band's final release.