Photos Provided to China Daily

"Sometimes we are looking for music to fill a role higher than that," says Riley. "Chinese music has many different facets. It's not just the difference of a rhythm, genre, and instrumentation. It can be the difference of aesthetics, motive, purpose, and history even. There can be so many different ways to pluck one string on a pipa and it can make you rethink even the most fundamental aspects of music."

"The East is truly unique from the West in so many ways, and by using the sounds and appearance of the instruments, we hope our audience is able to feel for a moment something like what a foreigner visiting China might feel on their first, or even fiftieth time there," says Riley.

Now, the band is enjoying playing the kind of music they want, and the response to their EP and first album The Morning Market has been surprisingly positive.

"It pushes us to keep producing a new sound that can reach people who maybe haven't been grabbed by pop music or what is already out there. This group will likely always be a minority, but we are really very happy and comfortable with that," says Riley.

Their music videos can be downloaded at dropbox.com and their EP The Sichuan Project can be downloaded at matteo.bandcamp.com.