Minneapolis native Chan Poling was the keyboard player and vocalist with angular dance-pop group the Suburbs, whose music provided the missing link between the smart but snotty tone of the city's new wave/punk scene and the quirky but thoughtful funk of Prince and his associated artists. The Suburbs formed in 1977 and released their first EP a year later; their first full-length, In Combo, followed in 1980, and the band's ambitious 1981 double album, Credit in Heaven, spawned a nationwide club hit Music for Boys. After the EP Dream Hog charted another dance hit, Waiting, the Suburbs were signed to Mercury Records and released their first major-label album, Love Is the Law, in 1984. The album suffered from poor promotion and didn't fare well on the charts and the band was soon dropped by Mercury; a 1986 album for AM fared little better, and in 1987 the band broke up. The Suburbs reunited for a few shows in 1993, one of which was recorded for the live album Viva! Suburbs! (Live at First Avenue).

After the breakup of the Suburbs, Poling devoted himself to a career writing music for film and television. Poling has scored several independent films, including #Snow, #The Toilers, and #Bill's Gun Shop; his music for the broadcast documentary #Iron Range a People's History earned him an Emmy award. Poling's music has also been used on such television series as #Roseanne and #Melrose Place, the PBS documentary #The Revolutionary War, and the HBO special #Back to Back. Poling has also branched out into composing for musical theater; he wrote the score for the off-Broadway musical +Children of Paradise: Shooting a Dream, which was named Best New Play in 1993 by the American Theater Critics Association. Poling's score was released on CD that year, making it his first post-Suburbs solo release. In 2002, Poling released Calling All Stars, his first collection of pop songs since the Suburbs' swan song in 1986; he's also been working on a musical, called +Heaven, to be produced by Kevin McCollum, who also brought the hit musical +Rent to the stage. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi