Imua Garza

Imua Garza is a vocalist, musician, producer, recording engineer and composer. His interest in music began at the young age of eight when he started playing the piano and taking music lessons. Soon, he was playing several instruments including the ukulele, guitar, violin, and the electric bass. Early in his career, he placed second on the local music competition Keiki Stars and was voted one of seven acts considered "Producers Best". By his early teens music critics started calling him a ukulele virtuoso. He has gone on to master many other instruments and often does his own instrumental backing tracks for his CD releases.Imua first appeared on a professionally released compact disc at the age of 11 when his version of local song "On Fire" was included on the Hidden Treasures - Ukulele Stylings 2 CD released in 1996 featuring Hawaii's most promising ukulele players.About this time Imua started playing in his first music group, Opihi Pickers, with his brother and his cousin. The Opihi Pickers' first CD, Fresh off the Rocks, was released in 1998. From these recordings and early live performances his reputation as a ukulele virtuoso soon grew around the islands. Ten years later, The Opihi Pickers have become one of Hawaii’s most beloved bands with several 1 radio hits.Since that time Imua has become an accomplished producer, recording studio engineer and musical arranger and has appeared on over a dozen CDs including 7 from the Opihi Pickers, several various artists’ projects and a solo instrumental project featuring the ukulele called Dreamspeaking which was released in 2003. He has also done work on a movie soundtrack for an independent film from New Zealand and on commercials for radio and television. He recently produced a 2008 release of Hawaii’s top new reggae band “Rebel Soljahz” who is currently the 3 top selling reggae album in the U.S. He has played a variety of instruments on stage; the ukulele with Opihi Pickers; keyboards for singer Kaipo; guitar and keyboards for John Cruz.Imua has traveled throughout the Hawaiian Islands, mainland U.S., Guam and to Japan where he has played before appreciative and enthusiastic audiences.He is currently in the studio recording new music that takes on a more universal sound that is guitar driven and appealing to most ages. His songs reflect that of real life stories, dreams and purpose. At this time Imua is planning to release a solo album and group album this year with new band “One Right Turn” that includes his wife Tiffany Garza and sister-in-law Connie Cruz.