Forming shortly after Jackson's return to Oakdale from Humboldt State University in 1996, the band began playing local dives, dumps and police bars as a three-piece outfit.
They attracted the attention of a larger indie label, Future Farmer, who released album number two, Autumnland, and re-released Hopalong, both in 2005.
Also in 2005, the band provided the score for Scott Coffey's film Ellie Parker and spent a good deal of the summer touring the U.S.
In 2011 Built Like Alaska released their 3rd album In Troubled Times... on now defunct Future Farmer (re-released 2019 on Way Grimace Records).
After 20 years in the making and many failed attempts at completing the record, it seems that the 11 song album will tell the stories of the residents of a ramshackle apartment complex in which Jackson used to work at as an on site "fix it man".