De Staat @ /FORM Space

In 2008, the band was the support act for the popular Belgian band dEUS. De Staat was signed by Excelsior Recordings later that year. They released their debut album Wait for Evolution in January 2009. All the songs on this album were written and produced by Florim. He wrote the album as a graduating project for a "Music Production" course. During this time, frontman Florim also produced the debut EP of Go Back To The Zoo, another band from Nijmegen.

Within a year De Staat's popularity rose and they were performing at festivals such as Dot to Dot, Glastonbury, Sziget, and Lowlands.