Southern California's Alien Ant Farm was formed in Riverside, California, in 1996 by singer/songwriter Dryden Mitchell, guitarist Terry Corso, bassist Tye Zamora, and drummer Mike Cosgrove. All were bored with their day jobs and sought something else to break them from corporate norms. Music allowed them to express themselves freely, and a friendship was born. Alien Ant Farm employs a freewheeling blend of nu-metal, post-grunge, and punk-pop that landed them mainstream success when their quirky, souped-up rendition of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" topped the Billboard Alternative Songs charts in 2001. The band continued to maintain a steady radio presence throughout the aughts, delivering a string of efforts like Anthology, truANT, and Up In The Attic, that owed more to alt-metal outliers than the work of many of their peers did. Side projects, personnel issues, and major-label chicanery prompted a long studio hiatus that ended with 2015's Always And Forever. Fans endured another long wait before the group served up their sixth long-player, 2024's ~mAntras~. In March 2026, Alien Ant Farm released their first original song under Judge & Jury Records, titled "Reasons".