Saints Apollo came from humble beginnings – Jona than Koo and Autumn Brand were the only members in the simplistic folk duo. However, after the unusual choice to recruit other local musicians off of Craigslist, the band has grown into a popular Raleigh quintet known for their rich melodies and beautiful har monies.

Saints Apollo began in early 2011 with Koo on acoustic guitar and Brand on violin, but the desire to flesh out their sound came quickly. “We needed a bit more to make it interesting,” Koo said.

So the band began to scour the Internet in search of new members and found Rachel Broadbent, who plays piano, and Kaitlin Grady, who plays the cello. “Technology has been really…instrumental in getting us together,” Koo said. “We ended up finding Rachel and Caitlin entirely through Craigslist.”

Broadbent and Grady fit in perfectly, and it wasn’t long before the quartet pro duced their first self-titled EP. Saints Apollo featured bouncy folk tunes like “Ain’t Lyin,” a track driven by ro bust piano rhythms and a catchy chorus.

Saints Apollo’s contempo rary approach to folk music follows in the footsteps of acts like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers – it doesn’t need complicated song struc tures or exhaustingly dense lyricism, because its strength lies in its dynamic melodies and passionate approach. “For me it’s simplistic, it’s just pop,” Koo said. “Not Top 40 pop, but we add some in teresting instruments to the mix. The messages are simple to understand.”

But even as a quartet, the band felt there was room to grow, which led to the addition of drummer An drew Fetch. Fetch joined the band after, as Koo put it, “persistently [showed] up to a lot of shows and [asked] to play with us.”

While the group had auditioned percussion ists before, none had stuck. Fetch, on the oth er hand, clicked with the group and became the permanent drummer for Saints Apollo. The band has begun work on its de but full-length album at K-House studios. “We’re about half-way through this 9-track album,” Koo said. The tracking is set to end in mid-May.

Whi le the group is undecided on whether or not it’ll be adding a sixth member to take over on bass, their cur rent quintet continues to f lourish in our local community. The local scene features a deep and diverse talent pool, but Saints Apollo seems to know how to stand out among a lineup.

“We’ve played with a lot of hard-rock and al ternative bands,” Koo said. “We’ve certainly had some oddly matched shows. Our music isn’t always quite in the same niche, but this is an inter esting market with op portunities everywhere.”

At their show at Kings on March 16, the band will open for Dark Water Rising, a soulful group that blends R&B and rock music, a stark contrast to Saints Apollo.

“We look out for more of the interesting gigs,” Koo said. “None of us are career musicians per se. This is like our alter-ego.”