Formed in Staines, Hard-Fi are a 4 piece band, whose musical style is a mix of post-punk, indie and a Clash style of punk rock, with inspiration from other genres such as ska. Lyrically, the band are heavily influenced by Staines and the surrounding area.
Richard Archer is the group's frontman, lead singer, principal songwriter, and occasional guitar player. Ross Phillips contributes guitar and backing vocals - Phillips worked in a local hi-fi shop, in Staines, where Archer would come to play his demos on the latest systems. After telling Archer his music was rubbish, Phillips was recruited to play lead guitar for the group. Kai Stephens plays bass and also sings backing vocals, and Steve Kemp plays drums - Kemp is originally from Lancashire but moved down in his late teens due to a course and never left.

"Hard-Fi" is the name given to the sound produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry, a Grammy award-winning reggae and dub artist, at his Black Ark recording studio. Being admirers of Perry's work, the band decided to name themselves after his distinctive sound. Upon starting out, Hard-Fi often listened to music through the medium of radio and the internet, read magazines and watched music videos. As a band, they felt no up-and-coming bands really connected their lyrics to their own lives, and thus wanted to change this with their own style.