Montana Floss are Yacine Aouissi (23) on bass, Declan McKerr (18) on guitar, Laura McGrath (28) on alto-sax, Rory Judge (18) on tenor-sax and James Anderson (18) on drums.

The band have been going for four years with Yacine as the only surviving member of the original line-up when the band were primarily a drum ‘n’ base outfit.

Now the band are dancing to the beat of jazz, funk, blues and soul.

“We’ve been right up to a 12 piece and down again,” said Yacine.

“We’ve five members and six or seven people who jump on and off stage when we play live.

“We all take a turn at vocals. A lot of our music is improvised, but we do have a structure within the improvisation.

He said: “We’ve been doing a lot of rehearsing lately and we’re geared up for some live shows.”

The name Montana Floss comes from Frank Zappa song ‘Montana’ in which Zappa sings of moving there and setting up a dental floss business.

“Zappa is a big influence on the show side of things,” said Yacine, who also listed James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone as inspirations.

Montana Floss with feature at Belfast’s Big Band Blues and Jazz Festival. On Saturday, August 23 they’ll be taking part in an all-day funk session in Lavery’s and in the same menu on Sunday, August 24 they’ll be supporting Charlie Wood.

Closer to the now, this Friday night’s show in the Ceili House is not your traditional gig set up. There will be an art exhibition and a poetry reading by Frank Hughes. Visuals will be provided by Dermot McBrilliant. Please note - there will be a cheese giveaway.

Doors are at 9pm and admission is £5. Support comes from Mantic and Shimbo.

For more information on Montana Floss check out www.myspace.com/montanafloss