I’ve just watched you
very impressively playing some Bach in a Youtube video, and playing some other
music too. So clearly your style is eclectic and diverse. What music will you
be bringing to Cairns with you?
I am bringing the ukulele in an innovative and modern way
because I play Led Zeppelin, I play Beethoven – I play things that most people
think the ukulele wouldn’t be capable of playing. And the reason why I do this
is that for me it’s such a versatile instrument that can do anything. I’m hoping
people will be able to see that it doesn’t play just Hawaiian music. I want
people to be open and see that the ukulele can be just as serious a piano or a
guitar. I feel like it’s underestimated. When you think of an ukulele most
people think, Oh, it’s a souvenir from
Hawaii or it’s a toy. But it can play beautiful things – it can play
classical, it can play all sorts of different things.
Certainly watching
you on video, you’re so expressive as you play and you convey that physically
as well as in the notes that are coming out of the instrument.
Well, the ukulele was the instrument that was given to me
when I was five. I never thought of it as an ukulele that needed to play a
certain type of music. It was just the instrument that I was able to express
myself out of. I enjoy playing music that I like to listen to. I love to listen
to classical. I love to go crazy and listen to metal, and the ukulele was just
the way I was able to express this.
Some people might
play an instrument just the way they’re taught to play it, but the way you play
the ukulele suggests a lot of exploration and experimentation. So at what age
did you start to experiment with the instrument?
Good question. I started in college, when you’re exploring a
lot of different things at that time. So I would say about 18, 19, is kind of
when I started going into theatrics, writing original music. At the time I was
playing a lot in Waikiki and I was playing surf music, I was playing things
that go really well with Waikiki, and it was amazing but at the same time I
didn’t feel like I was artistically growing so I was kind of getting burnt out
from the ukulele. Thankfully my girlfriend took me to a place in Chinatown,
which is more of like a seedy place in Hawaii, and we went to this underground
art gallery and they had all these musicians creating, improvising on the spot,
collaborating with dancers and it kind of just rekindled the creative fire
inside of me and I started going with that and playing the ukulele in a
different way that was satisfying what I was looking for.
Have you found that –
when you’re playing an instrument in a non-traditional way, like Bob Dylan
going electric - any audiences have been resistant to the way you play?
I have, actually, and it’s funny you bring that up. I remember
playing in Tahiti – that was the first time I had that reaction. I guess
they’re very set on the ukulele being played traditionally and I wasn’t quite
sure how to handle it at the time. But, you know, art is going to get a good
reaction and a bad reaction, that’s what makes good art is that people will
have a reaction in their own way. What I’m doing is weird, it is – it’s
something that’s never really been done. I accept that and I’m just going to
keep doing what I enjoy doing. And you’re going to have people who love it and
you’re going to have people who don’t like it, and you just have to keep living
your life.
It’s true, because if
you listened to everyone else’s opinions you would lose yourself in all that.
Exactly. Everyone has a different opinion and you can’t
please everyone, so you might as well enjoy what you’re doing.
So in terms of your
own creativity, do you let things come to you or do you actively seek out
pieces to play or write new music? Some might say they follow the muse – or do
you let the muse follow you?
That is so hard, because what I do is my passion but it’s
also my work. I have my boyfriend who’s always saying, ‘You’re always working!
You never have any time for me!’ But at the same time it’s what I love doing,
so I’m just constantly surrounded that I automatically think, That would be a great place to shoot or Oh, that’s a great melody. So I have to
choose whether or not I listen to that muse or whether I’m going to be like a
normal person and try to enjoy a show as a regular person – which never
happens, because I always have a notepad where I scribble ideas. So it’s all
over the place.
I think it’s the
challenge of the creative life – there’s no off switch for it. You’re clearly
so passionate about your work, but it is also part of you – and that probably
comes up more for passionate people than non-passionate people.
You’re always working but I guess it’s never work.
I also saw in your
videos this element of performance you bring – you don’t just stand at the
front of a stage playing your instrument and looking outwards, you really bring
this great performance sensibility to it. Do you plan things or do you let the
moment decide?
I do both. I go into it with somewhat of a set list – some
bread and butter so if something were to drastically go wrong I would have
something. But most of the time I see what the audience is feeling – if they’re
in a rowdy mood or if they’re in a really dark mood. For me it’s a symbiotic
relationship – I constantly am giving the audience energy and then the audience
will give the energy back, so it’s an exchange and that’s what I love about
performance. It’s not just me – everyone is included. If you’ve seen me
perform, I always like to give the death stare – I stare people down while I’m
playing music, and they’re either creeped out or they really enjoy it, or both.
It goes well in concerts.
So you give the death
stare to be deliberately provocative?
Yes, well … I wouldn’t say deliberately – I think it just
comes from me and I realise a little later when I’m doing it, This is probably a little weird for people.
But at the same time I’m already doing it, so you kind of just have to stick
it, go with it. I don’t try to make it a little provocative – it just kind of
comes out that way and I go with it.
And that energy
exchange you describe is a mysterious process and it can be hard to get it
right. For some artists it can happen quite instinctually and you can hone it
over it. Is it something you found you were just able to manage the more you
performed?
It’s a good question. Yes, the more you do it the more you
get a feel for it, but I still have some problems trying to figure out what the
hell’s going on. I hear things in my head and then trying to put it into my
fingers so they’ll play the right notes is still a little bit of a difficulty,
but it gets easier and easier, and then I kind of just go from there after
that. But it usually starts either from a dream or an idea that I’ve had, I
make a story out of it – I write a little story with these different characters
and then I perform it. I perform songs that go into that theme that I’ve thought
about.
You perform in four
different languages: Japanese, Maori, Hawaiian and English. Do you have a
favourite?
I actually do a lot more. I do Hindi, I do French, I do
Chinese, Italian, Tahitian. The most recent one I’ve been having a lot of fun
with is Chinese. I just learnt that about six months ago. It’s really fun! It’s
fun to sing in Chinese, and they have some beautiful songs. Every language is
fun but I have to say the hardest is French. I’ve been going to Paris about
four to five times but I still can’t get their back-of-the-throat
pronunciation.
Particularly to put
it in song.
For me, in song it works easier. But when I try to just say
things it’s hard. I don’t understand that. I just listen to the songs that I
want to learn over and over and over in my head until I get every pronunciation
right – that’s how I learn the songs.
It seems from talking
to you that you have this incredible creative expansion going on – there’s no
limit to what you’re prepared to take on or explore. So after the festival, what
comes next?
Today is August. I’m going to Samoa and after that I’m going
to California. But regarding my life, I’m writing a new album and I’ve decided
that I really want to do this full on. I’m ready. At first I was, like, ‘I kind
of enjoy my routine. I enjoy being here in Hawaii and my privacy.’ But now I’m
ready to travel the world and see where the ukulele’s going to take me.
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