Steven Page (of Barenaked Ladies) and Stephen Duffy (of Lilac Time) formed The Vanity Project as a side project. "We started recording casually in my basement," Page said. The group's first album, Vanity Project was released in June of 2005. "The benchmark for it was the first McCartney solo record, and the early Harry Nilsson records, as well as the Smiths and R.E.M.."[1]

 

The Vanity Project is an album released as a side project by Steven Page, then of the band Barenaked Ladies (BNL). It is also the artist name under which the album was released. Its first two singles, "That's All, That's All" (in the US) and "Wilted Rose" (in Canada), were released in early May 2005; only the latter song had a music video, which was animated. The album features songs written mostly with longtime collaborator Stephen Duffy (one track—"So. Cal"—was written solo). Some of the songs are older holdovers ("That's All, That's All" was a song cut from the 2000 BNL album Maroon). Other songs were written later specifically for the project. The album was released on June 21, 2005. The lead vocals on the album were all provided by Page. Page also provided much of the album's instrumentation both through playing of instruments, and through programming computer-generated instruments. Duffy also played instruments on the record, as did several other guest performers.