Meet Rabbit Ambush: NYC’s Groove Obsessed Instrumental Trio

Some bands sound rehearsed. Rabbit Ambush sound connected. The NYC-based trio, made up of musicians from Peru, Thailand and Japan, blend deep funk grooves with hypnotic textures, psychedelic moments and flashes of Asian musical traditions into something that feels strangely familiar and completely their own at the same time.

What started as three musicians playing together in a church worship band slowly turned into one of the freshest instrumental projects we’ve heard in a while. Their single “Funky Rabbit” instantly found its way into our playlists and after hearing the chemistry between bassist Tong Cherd, guitarist Eduardo Kirschbaum and drummer Yuki Nakao, we had to know more.

With rabbit masks, locked-in grooves and another wave of releases already waiting in the chamber, Rabbit Ambush are clearly not here by accident. We spoke with the band about how the project came together, their love for Herbie Hancock and city pop, writing music through friendship, and why sometimes the best grooves happen when nobody overthinks a thing.

You guys are coming in strong with four singles already. What’s the bigger plan here… are we building towards an EP, album, or just dropping heat whenever it feels right?

We wrote those first 4 songs and decided to record them in one session. After that, we actually wrote 4 more that are already recorded, mixed and mastered and will be coming out each month starting the end of June. We are thinking about releasing the next 4 songs as singles but may end up putting all 8 into an album. We’ll see.

“Funky Rabbit” landed straight in our playlists. What’s the story behind that track and how did it come together in the room?

The idea for "Funky Rabbit" was actually one of the first few ideas we had from our first few writing sessions together. At that point we kind of had an idea of what "An Astronaut's Dream" and "Incense" would sound like and wanted to write a more funky song to go with them. If I remember correctly, it started with the bass line, thinking something funky in A minor. The guitar then just came naturally filling in the spaces between the bass line.

You’ve got roots in Peru, Thailand and Japan but you’re based in NYC. How did the three of you actually meet and decide “yeah… this is the band”?

We actually met at a church a couple years back.  We were playing as the worship band and we just started connecting seeing each other every sunday.  We’ve stopped playing at that church for a while now but kept in touch.  From there, Ed (guitar) had the idea for us to make some funky music together and here we are.

Your sound feels tight but also kind of hypnotic, like it pulls you in slowly. How did that specific Rabbit Ambush sound develop?

It honestly just came together naturally by mixing our sounds. Tong (Bass) & Yuki (Drums) have been playing for over a decade and the three of us played together in church so we developed an understanding between each other and developed that “groove”. We then just had to decide the type of music we wanted to make and go for it.

You mention Asian musical traditions mixed with funk. Can you point to a few specific artists or styles that really shaped your sound?

For me (Ed), I knew we would need to make funk music because the songs that felt the best at church were the funkier ones, and the three of us love funk. We all agreed on our shared love of Herbie Hancock. I also had a vision of implementing some of the influences from travels I did to Vietnam & Thailand in October of 2024 - where I purchased some of the instruments used in recording & producing our tracks. From there we’ve sort of tried to do our own thing without going in necessarily one specific direction, some tracks are more Herbie, some are more Japanese citypop, some more abstract.

The interplay between you three is super locked. Are you jamming a lot and building from that, or are the tracks more composed beforehand?

A lot of the songs started off with an idea.  Usually Ed would have a riff or a progression either for the A and/or B melody and we’d all work together from there to finish the song.  A couple songs too though, just came from us randomly jamming on something and it just wrote itself.  

Let’s talk about the outfits… what’s going on there? The masks, the vibe… is there a story behind it or is it more about creating a certain energy?

Yuki was the one who came up with the name Rabbit Ambush and we decided that since we had that name it could be cool if we wore rabbit masks. Then it sort of became a way to get into a performance mindset and we also wanted to have a strong visual aspect since the music is instrumental. We are still figuring this out but stay committed to the masks.

Being in NYC, you’re surrounded by killers. Have you already shared stages or collaborated with artists people should know about?

We are actually in the works collaborating with a few amazing artists in and out of NYC.  We are in the process of writing for the collaborations!

As a bass player, Tong, your role feels very central in the groove. How do you approach locking in with the drums while still keeping things melodic?

It's actually a pretty process for me (Tong).  Some songs I'd try to come up with a line first after hearing the melody, without thinking too much about locking into both drums and melody.  Being the amazing artists they are though, Yuki (drums) and Ed (guitar) would alter some things that they play to fit exactly with what I was doing.  It really is as they say when you work with amazing people who have a lot of chemistry together, things just work out perfectly without trying.

If someone’s hearing Rabbit Ambush for the first time… what do you want them to feel when the groove hits?

We honestly just want them to enjoy the music, we are making music coming from a place of love, fun & friendship and hope that that message gets through to the listener. At the same time, we want our music to be relaxing and good to listen to while you are going about your day.

If Rabbit Ambush are not on your radar yet, now’s probably a pretty good time to change that. And if you’re into discovering more fresh, independent and seriously funky music from around the world, make sure to dive into our playlists over at The New Funky. We update them constantly with new grooves, hidden gems and artists we genuinely believe deserve to be heard. While you’re there, check out our online record store too for handpicked vinyl, funk essentials and more musical goodness.

And there's more. The New Funky has recently launched its very own online record store, featuring a growing selection of funk, soul, jazz-funk, and rare groove vinyl. Many of the records available in the shop can also be heard throughout our playlists, making it easier than ever to take your favourite discoveries from streaming to your turntable. As a special offer for our readers, use the promo code TNF26 at checkout to receive 10% off your order.