Halloween, Alaska is a four-man cartel specializing in moody, ambient pop songcraft that combines organic and electronic elements into a mesmerizing whole. Rising from within the formidable rock underground of Minneapolis, USA, the band features James Diers (voice, guitars), Ev (keys, programming), Matt Friesen (electric bass) and David King (acoustic and electronic drums), each drawing on a distinctively mixed set of musical pedigrees. The resultant tunes and textures have drawn comparison to the likes of Everything But The Girl, The Postal Service, TV On The Radio, American Music Club and Peter Gabriel, among others. No matter who gets name-checked along the way, HALLOWEEN, ALASKA delivers an artfully seductive brand of modern pop that's equally hypnotic on stage and on your stereo. 

The group's formation is credited to King, a powerfully versatile drummer known to jazz audiences as a member of The Bad Plus and Happy Apple. Having collaborated previously with Ev, Diers and Friesen in other rock outfits, he arranged a casual series of songwriting sit-downs that soon yielded a full set of original music. HALLOWEEN, ALASKA made its proper club debut in late 2002, quickly picked by Twin Cities scenesters as a unique new attraction. Over the subsequent year, the foursome squeezed scattershot recording sessions into their busy creative lives, quietly releasing a self-titled disc via the local Princess Records imprint in early 2004. Featuring seven original songs plus an eerily tweaked cover of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper", the disc rode a surprising wave of word-of-mouth and college radio buzz to become a chart favorite at CMJ and on non-commercial and Internet radio stations across the country. The band and the album enjoyed an extra boost when its songs were featured in the first two seasons of the smash Fox television series "The O.C."