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(Find the lyrics and translations at kapoku.com)
Aloha e n a hoaaloha,
Just wanted to introduce myself, a little bit of biographical information. Thought I would write it myself. Who better? I was there! To start with, a big mahalo to all of you for your visit and for your support. This may get a little long but anyone who knows me knows that I have portagee fingers. You'll get used to it.
I am Hawaiian. Contrary to popular belief, though, I wasn't born in Hawai'i. Some people hear you singing, chanting or talking in Hawaiian and they automatically assume "Oh, must be from Keaukaha." Nice thought, but actually I was born in Eugene, Oregon. My dad wanted to try his hand at farming so we moved to the Great Northwest, where my mom is from. When the pineapple crop failed, we ended up back in Hawai'i. Papak o lea is a long way from Keaukaha but still pretty Hawaiian. Just ask Auntie Genoa. We were there until 1968 at which point, we move to the LA area and Bobbie (my step-mom) joined the family. In many ways that was good 'cause, as I like to joke, had I stayed in Hawai'i, I probably wouldn't have ended up studying Hawaiian language. I probably wouldn't have ended up interested in the Hawaiian culture. I probably wouldn't have ended up dancing hula. I probably would have ended up in prison!
Arriving in LA right after the summer of love must have affected me pretty profoundly. Here is this little, dark, Hawaiian boy, no doubt speaking full on pidgin (I cant remember), used to running around barefoot all the time (especially to school), dropped right into the middle of the Laugh In culture and flower power. Put the Hawaiian music on the back burner for awhile. Of course Aunties and Dad played and sang Hawaiian music and even performed. I was exposed to it. But, as momentum for the Hawaiian Renaissance was building back in Hawai'i, I started listening to The Beatles, James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, Jackson Browne and Wayne Newton (No kidding about the latter. Not by choice, of course. Dad liked Wayne Newton and since Dad controlled the stereo [along with the TV remote], oh well. Couldn't run too far in the small house at 647 N. Dillon St (I think it warped me badly). So, at age 12, I started cutting my fingers (literally) on Dad's Sears Silvertone guitar (man, was the action high on that thing) and my teeth on the rock poets (Wayne Newton excluded, of course).
I graduated from Belmont High in Los Angeles as a barely marginal student and through some miracle (and through the wizardry of Robert Miller, a very kind teacher), I somehow ended up at USC as a Japanese major. See, in my early teens I saw this series on channel 28, the international channel, featuring films of Akira Kurosawa. I became infatuated with the Japanese culture and must have unconsciously vowed to major in it. There I was, my second year as an exchange student in Japan. Didn't know how I was going to pay for it all when I got back but a very corrupt coordinator at USC took care of that. Guess he was fiddling with the funds so somehow they ended up waiving our tuition that year. As Homer Simpson would say, "Woohoo!"
After coming back to the States I didn't have much direction so, of course, I joined the Air Force Reserves. What a waste of government money I was. All I wanted to do was get back to Japan and somehow live there. I was like a junky. I used the Air Force as much as I could to get my fix for my two weeks (or more) of active duty every year. I did manage to get a few Japan trips out of it, the last in 1987.
About that time, Le-Ann Ogawa, a dear family friend, lent me some of the vinyl records from the Panini label. Of course there was Gabby Pahinui and there was the Peter Moon Band. From that point on, I was on fire for the Hawaiian music. I wanted to be a part of that scene, that magical world. I wanted to be able to sing and understand what I was singing. As the Hawaiian repertoire began to grow, I also began trying my hand at composing non Hawaiian tunes. Was I the only one who had a Tascam Porta One four track cassette tape recorder? Those first songs were kind of corny but, eh, they're buried somewhere now and nobody's the wiser.
Meanwhile, I shuffled through various schools and ended up graduating from UCLA with a degree in Japanese. Didn't do too badly either. Made the Dean's list my last quarter. Guess I learned a thing or two about studying. How the hell I made it into graduate school though, I'll never know. I was a couple of classes away from finishing. I never did because my heart wasn't in the right place. You'd think I would try to emulate Robert Epp, a true educator, the professor I admired and respected the most. NOT!!! Instead, I chose to travel down the road not less traveled of this other professor who used his tenured job to hit on college girls. The educational system is probably better off that I became a musician.
To help pay my way through school, I worked at a natural food chain called Mrs. Gooch's. It was a great place to be and was one of the last sizable chains with the grassroots natural food movement of the 60s vibe (remember the summer of love). That got me into the whole natural foods scene. From there I started giving up the Spam and pua'a k a lua. Eventually I gave up all meat except for fish (people say, "Oh, youre vegetarian" and I have to remind them that a fish is not a vegetable). My family thought I was a freak (probably still does) when we would sit down to eat Thanksgiving dinner and I'd be sitting there with only this massive green salad in front of me. Pass the sprouts please. I realized that many of our family members were being taken by modern Hawaiian diet related diseases. I didn't want to join the ranks (not so quickly at least).
In 1997, Auntie Emily fell into Auntie Gloria's arms in a supermarket parking lot and expired from a stroke (I have my own theory). She was the lead entertainer of the family. She had a beautiful voice. As her body became worn down though from the prescription drugs, from the cigarettes and from the lack of proper nutrition, she wasn't able to do what she really loved to do play and sing Hawaiian music. I got the feeling that she got fed up and so she finally ditched her body. I had just started hula with Auntie Clarice Nuhi. My theory is this. Auntie Emily was tired of not being able to do her passion, her hula and Hawaiian music, so she gave up her human form and her passion entered me. Is it any coincidence that from that point on, I started performing hula and Hawaiian music? Of course I'd have given my left nut to have the vocal quality she had but maybe Im better off with an average voice and my jewels intact.
I actually found out about Auntie Clarice's h a lau in Hawaiian class. I had started taking Hawaiian language with Mike Brito, of Fullerton, formerly of Kailua, to be able to sing the Hawaiian songs better and to understand what I was singing. There, I was united with long time friend, Charlie Oyama of The Travelers Three fame. Having taken a few languages (3 years of French in junior high school and high school, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian in college) I felt comfortable enough learning Hawaiian. Plus, I think I have the Hawaiian language gene! I soon started attempting to compose in Hawaiian. Those first few corny compositions from the 80s finally began to pay off. And......at least if you compose a corny song in Hawaiian, not too many people will know it!
In 2001, I met Randy Dacoscos of the famed Honolulu musical family. Soon after I met his brother Kawika (Raynard). We formed a band called H u i!!! (pronounced like an old Hawaiian auntie [or Filipina] calling out to a friend). We began to perform in the LA area and build a unique repertoire. I liked the Hawaiian-Hawaiian stuff old and new. Randy liked the contemporary stuff from the 70s, i.e. Country Comfort, Kalapana, C&K and Olomana. Kawika used to tour with a rock and roll band that played any kine. What resulted were songs like "Nani Waimea" funked up a little, "Ue O Muite" with a ska-like rhythm, Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" with Hawaiian lyrics and a host of Hawaiian island songs with some pretty cool arrangements and harmonies, the foundation of our set list today. Jim "Kimo" West, guitarist for the Weird Al Yankovic band, an accomplished slack key guitar player in his own right, would occasionally sit in with H u i!!! when he wasn't touring with Al.
Eventually, Randy moved on to teach 'ukulele and to perform with his own 'ukulele group. As Kimo began to play more and more with the group, he learned the Hawaiian songs, and our repertoire, on the fly. A few years back, Greg Maka'ala Porth, renowned 'ukulele player from Minnesota, was hungry to find people to play Hawaiian music with. Since we share the same birth date, we figured it must have been the will of the gods that he be in the band. Rounding off the line up now a days, we are often graced by Joe Kamanu Bird on 'ukulele and ipu heke and Arno Aloha e paka Arno Featherstone on percussion. Heads up for a name change in the near future and a new incarnation. I'm feeling the need to regroup.
My debut CD Eia Mai Ka La was released on Mountain Apple Records in 2006. Ongoing promotion has been a concern but Mountain has been doing a good job of getting the album out there. I have been getting feed back that the songs have been touching people. That really makes me feel good. See, I'm not the type of person to shove things in other peoples' faces. If you like what you hear and want to listen cool. If not, I won't force you. Still, I need to get creative and expand my sense of being a creator.
Let's see, what's happening these days? I've cut back on pick up gigs to a very large degree focusing on enlarging my kuleana, my dharma, (my spiritual purpose, if you will) as an original artist. Most recently, I believe we've taken a step in the right direction connecting with Brian Rusch, founder of Malama International. We co-produced a new CD, N a Oli Aloha: Chants For A New Age. This project , although founded in traditional Hawaiian elements, is not extremely traditional. Its purpose is multi-fold. First off, of course it is yet another means to express myself. Too, it is a way to reach the mainland crowd and get it more ma'a to the Hawaiian language. And, finally, what use would it be if it didn't help to raise consciousness? So now Brian has the ball and is in charge of putting the message out there into the world. Run, Brian, run!
That is my life in a nutshell, so far. Along the way, I realize that I've treated people much less consciously than I'd care to admit. I would like to humbly ask their forgiveness. Mahalo to them for helping to temper me, through the some time painful fire of life experience, into who I've become. Mahalo for helping me to see myself as a not so perfect human being, for helping me to find inner peace and perfection in being Hawaiian. My deal is not to use the Hawaiian culture as a source of pride in order to separate myself from those who are not Hawaiian, rather to use it to connect us all. After all, we are all, at least in part, Hawaiian. Are we not all only one? Aloha!
Ke aloha wale, ka mahalo wale,
Ried Kap o Ku
