The members of Trails and Ways met while attending UC Berkeley, and the band was formed in early 2012, after members had lived abroad in Brazil and Spain. Their songs have included Spanish and Portuguese, and their lyrics have been described as "decidedly political". For example, their song "Skeletons" is about dancing at a club, then being "fast-forwarded a thousand years to what was left of the club on an ecologically collapsed earth". In 2015, they signed on with Barsuk Records. The band has not made any new music, but their 2010 hits remain a popular source of Bossa Nova music for all. They headed to live as far afield as Ceará in Brazil and Galicia in Spain before reuniting in Oakland to start the DIY bedroom recording project that became Trails and Ways.
