Mahuia: My Nana gave me a violin for my 7th birthday cos I saw a film called “From Mao to Mozart” and it got me pumped about that screechy instrument.

Katie: When my sister & I were kids, our parents took us to their jazz gigs which was most Sundays at a smokey jazz bar in small town Gisborne. My sister and I ate hot chips whilst watching the musicians perform & it felt very natural to be a part of that scene & I just expected that I would follow their path I guess. I loved to sing from an early age but at primary school and high school I certainly wasn’t the best at it and it threw me that even the boys sounded beautiful singing high, they were so much nicer to listen to than I was…and I became very self-conscious of my lack of vocal ability in comparison to others so I backed off it. When I went to drama school, we were taught loads of wonderfully weird vocal exercises and from there I discovered that the vocal qualities I had thought were strange to listen too or were my weaknesses where actually what added to my sound being unique. This gave me a little more confidence to explore music again & so I re-discovered a love for singing and started to explore song writing.