snarky puppy is sometimes referred to as a "collective." the band's current roster boasts about 25 members, and well over 40 musicians have performed with the group over the years and through the group's 13 albums. michael league explains that, in the early days of the original 10-piece band, if someone got an opportunity to earn more money than for the band's gig, "...we'd get a substitute and if the substitute played well, then it felt like, 'well, they learned the music and played great, what a waste for them to learn all that that for one gig...' so we would kind of just keep them in the rolodex, so to speak, and rotate them in and out. then it became a thing where we started touring so much that guys couldn't do all the dates, or didn't want to, or whatever." when people came in, the differences in their playing would influence all those on the date. "that would change the way that they played the music. and then even when that new person left, that memory of that new relationship with the music would remain. so really we just kept building on the personalities of the new people that would come in, brick by brick. ...in general, the guys understand what the band is– a rotating cast... but i don't really think of snarky puppy as a collective. it's just a large band and sometimes people aren't there. it doesn't feel like a revolving door, it doesn't feel anonymous at all. the guys who have played gigs with us the least have still played several hundred gigs. that's more than most people play with their own bands. so it's very much a tight, familial unit. everyone feels very, very close and very essential, also."