Born and raised in Honolulu, Hi. Got my musical start on the piano at a young age but didn't stick with it for very long(had a vicious teacher who would hit me with her baton when I made a mistake). I played tuba in my highschool marching band...yup I was a band geek! I heard Brian May for the first time at age 13 then a friend turned me on to Van Halen and was I was hooked! I had to learn how to play the guitar. At age 15 I was told about a cool little guitar store called Hot Licks Guitars where many of the island's best guitarists and bassists hung out.
(For those of you Marty Friedman fans, he was a teacher there for awhile)For a kid who just got into Metal and discovered the cool guitars of that time(Charvel, Jackson, ESP, Kramer) it was heaven. Yes it was the early 80's!Though I missed the chance to take lessons from Marty, I was fortunate to have the local guitar hero Mark Kaleiwahea(lead vocalist and guitarist of the legendary Sacred Rite) as my teacher. What a mentor he was and still is to this day! Anybody who knows him knows what an amazing musician he is.
I studied with Mark until he left with Sacred Rite for their big tour of the U.S.
Then I studied with Brian Spalding of another local legend Aaronsrod until they too went on a tour.
After Brian a few months of lessons with Brian I was placed with then up and coming guitar hero Frank Paulino who played with numerous local favorites(Legacy, Calamity, Slak Alice,C.O.T.) for a number of years.
You'd think having 3 great guitar teachers that I'd be pretty damn good too right? Not! I'm nowhere near the level they are but just enjoy playing for the love of music and have a tremendous amount of respect for those who are masters of their instruments and have great influence on others.
I ended up working at Hot Licks for a few years though it's not quite the same store it was back in the day.That was then, this is now.About 3 and a half years ago I decided I was tired of selling guitars for close to minimum wage(kids working at McDonald and Zippy's were probably making more money than I was!) so I decided to pack my bags and move to the land of the rising sun. My mother's country of Japan to teach English. It wasn't exactly a bed of roses when I got here but that's another story.I lived in Nagoya city for the first 2 years until I accepted an offer from my cousin who runs his own school in Fukushima prefecture just north of Tokyo. I haven't been playing music since I moved up north since there isn't a music scene here. The last band I jammed with was a Japanese Country band in Nagoya. The guys in that band blew my ass to the floor! They were great to play with.
Well, I guess I wasn't too bad considering I had never played Country music before and they asked me back to play with them often(maybe they were just being nice!)
Now I just teach English everyday but am always on the lookout for local talent here.Anybody planning a trip to Japan? Give me a buzz! I'd be glad to meet up with you if I can arrange some time off from work.Aloha!
Roy
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