Late Night Alumni

Late Night Alumni
Late Night Alumni at Nextdoor in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 10, 2014. (l-r: John Hancock, Becky Jean Williams)
Background information
Origin	Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Genres	House downtempo chill-out
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Hed Kandi Ultra Records Arkade
Website	www.latenightalumni.com
Members	Ryan Raddon Finn Bjarnson John Hancock Becky Jean Williams

Late Night Alumni is an American house group composed of Becky Jean Williams, John Hancock, Finn Bjarnson and Ryan Raddon (Kaskade). They are primarily known for mixing dance music with strings and soft trance-like vocals.

Finn Bjarnson stumbled upon Becky Jean Williams (sister to R. John Williams, the lead singer of Faded Paper Figures) in the summer of 2003. “I had just been given a local Christmas CD that I had produced a couple tracks for,” Finn recalls, “and as I was listening through the tracks, there she was! Her beautiful voice and style immediately struck me.” A couple of phone calls later and they were in the studio together for the first time. “I had worked up this song called ‘Empty Streets’ and wanted to try her voice out on it...” Finn continues, “and it took off from there!”

Finn had already been working in the studio with Ryan Raddon (aka Kaskade), and soon Finn, Ryan, and Becky formed Late Night Alumni. In 2004, Hed Kandi made an offer to license and release a full length Late Night Alumni album. “At that point,” Finn says, “I knew the band was not ready. We were missing an element.” That missing element turned out to be John Hancock, a talented local producer with whom Finn had been trying to “find an excuse” to work for years. The band was complete and hard at work at the debut Late Night Alumni album; mixing electronic and organic elements for a unique brand of chill that is easily distinguishable in today’s down tempo house music scene.

Empty Streets was released in September, 2005. Around the same time, Hed Kandi was bought out by Ministry of Sound and the album got shelved. However, despite lack of support from the group's record label, it soon grew into an underground classic.

The single of the same name received massive support in both clubs and on radio, getting Top Ten Radio Play in the UK and EU, and reaching #1 in Spain. “Empty Streets” has also been licensed to commercials including a spot for the Toyota IQ. In addition, more than a dozen dance compilations have licensed the track, and it remains the most popular and downloaded song on Tiesto’s “In Search Of Sunrise” compilation.

Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Etc., the follow-up album to Empty Streets, was released as a digital download on November 3, 2009, with the physical CD released on February 2, 2010 on Ultra Records. On September 1, 2009, the group released "You Can Be The One," their first single from the album, which was available on Beatport & iTunes. This single was followed up with a remix by Sultan & Ned Shepard, which was released on September 22, 2009.