Lucas, Gustavo, Leandro and Pedro met in high school and were part of the student council. After a meeting in late 1999 they had the idea to start a band so they could have fun doing punk versions of pop hits of the time. Lucas and Gustavo played the guitar, Pedro had a drum kit and Leandro would be the singer. In December 4 of that year the band gathered for the first rehearsal session at Pedro's house, in Porto Alegre. That day is regarded as " ... See more [+] date of birth" of the band that would later call itself "Democratas" and ultimately "Fresno". In June 2000 there was the annual band festival for that school. About a month before that, the boys invited their friend Bruno to play bass in the band and help them do well at the festival, with a setlist comprising cover songs only. It worked out well and Bruno stayed in the band. Soon after that Lucas started songwriting and the band incorporated their own compositions into the next few gigs. As early as 2001 the band was playing its own songs only - songs that would spread across the internet in the shape of rough recordings made at home by Lucas. That's when they changed their name to Fresno.
