Roommate began as a solo project of Kent Lambert in 2000. He had just moved from Iowa City to Brooklyn and started recording music in his apartment. In 2001, he relocated to Chicago and self-released the Celebs EP. In 2004, Roommate re-emerged as a live band. Work on the full-length Songs the Animals Taught Us began soon thereafter, and the album was self-released in the summer of 2005. A wide release on the Plug Research label followed in the spring of 2006 and was supported with a European tour and a few shows around the United States. Production on the New Steam EP began in late 2006 and the band recorded steadily through the completion of its second full-length album. We Were Enchanted was released in April 2008 on Plug Research and Shrug Records and supported with shows in the Netherlands and the American Midwest.


For several years members of the live band changed based on availability, playing instruments such as musical saw, banjo, violin, theremin, Buchla Music Box, and bassoon, as well as hand percussion and traditional rock instruments. In recent months, however, the band has stabilized into a quartet of Lambert, Gillian Lisée (Fruit Bats, Califone), Luther Rochester (Low Skies), and Seth Vanek (Love Raid). 

The band's third album Guilty Rainbow was released in March 2011.