On Rhythm Guitar and Vocals: 

In Chicago, Alaina recorded and performed on vocals and guitar with garage/punk band Barbie Army, and sang in city bars and churches with the Hyde Park UC  Jazz Ensemble.  

In Moscow, she recorded originals with the jazz ensemble Con Alma, singing standards with them every Friday in residence  at the Arbat Blues Club, and in the city of Perm,  she performed and recorded with the folk-rock group Dom.  

Alaina started singing radio ads in the car, on the road from Tampa up  ... then Nebraska Public schools! No kid went a day without hours of:  jazz swing choir, classical concert choir, musical theater, madrigals . . . Later, she learned with jazz and rock vocal coaches and teachers all over, in Chicago, Moscow, Nashville, Ann Arbor.   

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On Bass: 

As  a teen, Denise was drawn to the 1980s underground music scene in her hometown of Phoenix, AZ.  Fascinated by bass, she tried to play along with her favorite cassette tapes but didn’t play seriously.  

Much later (like, decades) Denise crossed paths with Alaina, and her ears perked up when Alaina said she was seeking a bass player for So Say We All.  So Denise picked up a bass and got serious!  

Today she is psyched about playing any songs where she can bring in interesting and distinctive bass lines.  

On Lead Guitar and Vocals: 

Paul saw hippies play guitar on trains and the streets of San Francisco as a little boy in the 60s. A little girl sold him an acoustic for $13.50. He taught himself to play off the Beatles records he'd grown up knowing by heart. Flash forward to The Specials, Iggy Pop, U2, Joan Jett, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Billy Idol, and the Psychedelic Furs, just some of the groups that came through a nightclub still talked about even though it closed in 1983: Merlyn's, in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Merlyn's acts Paul caught in his Madison student days were Black Flag, Bow Wow Wow, Jack DeJohnette, Stanley Jordan, Stray Cats, Thompson Twins, Violent Femmes, and X. He's played and sung with bands in Madison, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., before coming to Ann Arbor to cofound So Say We All!