The Jessica Stuart Few: Cool look. Cooler sound.

With her long, chestnut-coloured dreadlocks and one-of-a-kind, bohemian outfits, Jessica Stuart is the kind of woman who gets second glances.

The Vancouver native is also an ear-catcher who covers vocals, guitar and the koto (a traditional Japanese instrument) in The Jessica Stuart Few, her band with bassist Dan Fortin and drummer Nico Dann.

“We met through the music scene,” said Stuart of her collaborators. “I came to Toronto six months before I started playing with these guys…and met them through the jazz scene.”

Despite the unconventional zaniness of their self-described “jazz-influenced art pop” the three are serious musicians. Fortin is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Jazz Performance Program, Dann is pursuing a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance at the City University of New York and Stuart has had years of choral training and private lessons.

Released last year, their full-length debut Kid Dream is a magical, 11-song collection of enchanting compositions. The album’s title track, which features the koto, is a catchy, fanciful tune that’s also a YouTube draw thanks to its clever, animated music video showing the band roaming around the countryside.

As a kid, Stuart’s favourite record from her parents' collection was a Balkan album she loved to dance to. “I think my parents were probably like, ‘We’ve got Beatles records here, why isn’t she dancing to them?’” she recalled with a laugh. Later, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson and Bjork would rank among her influences. And during her family’s stints in Japan, where her educator parents spent their sabbaticals teaching English, Stuart studied the koto, a 13-string instrument similar to the harp in sound and appearance.

“I learned it before learning the guitar,” she said. “My voice on the koto within The Jessica Stuart Few is definitely a jazzy sound. The instrument has been really inspiring and has given me a different approach to writing music.”

Stuart’s not so sure her unique, eccentric style meshes with the nation’s music landscape.

“With the internet, everything’s so accessible to everyone, you can’t help but be slightly influenced by the things you hear obviously, but there’s definitely a Canadian sound,” she said. “I feel that there is some sort of a quiet revolution going on with music, which my stuff doesn’t necessarily fit into. But it’s a very subtle, subdued writing coming out in folky, rocky, jazzy sorts of ways.”

The trio’s recent East coast dates yielded a warm, spirited reception and varied crowds, Stuart said. “We played on our Eastern Canada Tour at a restaurant in a small town where there was an audience of 30 people. The average age of the audience was 75, no joke.

“I bring in a lot of music for this group. There are certain songs that can be construed as more jazzy, and others as more folky, or rock- oriented. When we did the show with an average age of 75, we might have done a rock tune, or two, but we interpreted it in a way that we felt was appropriate in that environment - maybe not blowing their eardrums or hearing aids out.

“It’s a benefit and a drawback to this group. We can fit into a lot of different environments but sometimes festivals look at us and don’t see that we so clearly fit into their genre. I’ve gotten responses from folk festivals saying that we’re not really playing folk music.”

While the group plans to stick with their unique musical vision, Stuart’s considering a personal change. “It’s been a long time that I’ve had this hairstyle and it’s very heavy. I have been starting to think about giving my neck a break and I’m considering cutting it off in the near future. I had this idea for a music video where my hair is actually the character - we’ll be following around my hair, it‘ll be busy dragging us along and it gets into all sorts of trouble. And then the video ends with it being cut off and running away.”

The Jessica Stuart Few performs a free show at Shops at Don Mills during the TD Toronto Jazz Festival on June 26 at 12:30 p.m.