Our collaboration with the Galliard String Quartet began in 2022, when we started to adapt our favorite full orchestra Exotica hits—like those from Les Baxter and Henry Mancini—to work in a pared-down setting. Of course, it helps greatly that our very own W7 violinist, Helen, is also leader of GSQ!

A shout-out to our friends at Commuter Industries, a full-service creative firm who helps us to realize our visual and aesthetic dreams in living Exoticolor!

When people hear WAITIKI’s expert musicians perform live, something magical happens—they listen, they learn, and they imagine.

Brother Cleve was a friend, mentor, and our guide through mid century pop culture. Quite the incredible musician, DJ, record producer, mixologist, historian of the unusual, and otherworldly!

Harold Chang—“Uncle Harold”—is the elder statesman and last living original member of the Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman bands. Originally from Hilo on Hawaii Island, Harold is a phenomenal jazz drummer and percussionist, whose reputation and legacy precedes him.

We initially met and performed with Bob Drasnin at The Hukilau festival (Fort Lauderdale) in 2005. It was Bob’s first live concert of music from his 1959 Voodoo! album, which was a studio project he undertook the same year he received his Master’s from UCLA. (Dave Pell, head of Tops Records, approached Bob about producing an Exotica album to follow onto the success that Martin Denny had found.)