Page 11 - ION Indie Magazine SeptOct 2023

Sammy Rae explained that while cycling through the audition process to fill spots in her band, she was
always looking for specific instrument players, and it was always a happy accident to discover how
instrumentally versatile her band really was.

“The saxophone players, Kellon Reese and Max Zooi, were hired for saxophone, even though they play
a million different things, Will Leet, our guitarist, was also playing keys before Debbie Tjong joined us,
and Debbie plays much more than just the keys, we’d say she’s more auxiliary percussion,” Rae
explained “it just goes on and on. Over the course of working with each other, we learn to play multiple
instruments, we've progressed in our arrangement process, coming together as individuals who listen
to each other and are inspired by different sorts of music.”

The seven-piece ensemble is made of Sammy Rae, frontwoman ukulele and banjo player, as well as
occasionally keys; Will Leet is backing vocals and guitarist, Debbie Tjong on keys and auxiliary
percussion, C-Bass Chiriboga on percussion, James Quinlan is the bass player; Kellon Reese spans
alto saxophone, flute and clarinet, and Max Zooi plays tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and the
synthesizer.

“This project is hugely based on making space for everybody's individual musical talents and flexibility
for folks to grow and be influenced and inspired by new things.” Rae said sternly. “This project is rooted
in collaboration, and we all come from different studies of music and different walks of life, and as time
goes on, we've become more comfortable playing with each other and getting to know each other's
musical sensibilities.”