Wild Hawaiian
If there’s anything that more than 30 years of performing has taught Henry Kapono, it’s how to get his audience moving, whatever audience that may be. Through his confident voice and charismatic personality, the Hawaiian singer-songwriter effortlessly injects into his listeners the peaceful, easy feeling that he celebrates in his songs. That talent earned him the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for male vocalist of the year in 1983, one of nine Hokus he has collected over the years.
On June 21, Kapono takes his solo career, which began 25 years ago (after a successful eight years and eight albums with Cecilio in the ’70s), to yet another level with the debut of his first all-Hawaiian album The Wild Hawaiian. (Watch out, Barefoot Natives!) The album (featuring his original graphic artwork) includes classics like ‘Na Ali’i,’ ‘Hi’ilawe’ and ‘Ke Aloha O Ka Haku’ as well as songs Kapono wrote about his love for his family and Hawaiian culture. He fuses the Hawaiian lyrics with funk grooves and riffs more daring than those in his previous 12 albums, even picking up the electric guitar in a few tracks. Kapono sits down after another timeless gig at Duke’s to tell us about how his musical journey went from Margaritaville and Montego Bay all the way home to Hawai’i.
So here we are at Duke’s and you bring the same vibe here as you did 13 years ago. Duke’s wouldn’t be the same without you. I mean, Henry Kapono at Duke’s on Sunday has become such a Waikiki institution that you even wrote a song about it and recorded a live album here. What keeps you coming back?
It’s been amazing. It’s pretty easy. You got Waikiki in the background, you got guys surfing, Diamond Head, the palm trees. It’s like the happiest place in the world. For me it’s like going surfing. You go surfing to have a good time. You catch a great wave and you want to come back again. It’s a good ride.
OK, let’s talk about your new album The Wild Hawaiian. It’s your first all-Hawaiian recording, it’s set to classic rock and funk grooves and you even play electric on it, right? Can you talk about how you created this fusion and how the album came to be?
Actually, I don’t think I came up with it. I think it came up with me! I just happened to be in the wayÖIt took a little while. I didn’t want to make a Hawaiian album until I had a good understanding about Hawaiian–I’m pure Hawaiian, but I don’t speak it. I really wanted to do something interesting although I didn’t know what it was. As I kept going at it and trying different things, it eventually started to come, and everything fell into place. It was like finding a new home, a new paradise. That’s how it’s been–I’ve never had a project that I’m so personally connected with and so obsessed with. I’m driving my wife crazy because I think about it all the time (laughs).
Even after 12 albums?
This is actually the first recording I play every day. I listen to it every day. I love it. That’s never happened before. Usually I make a record and I put it away.
A lot of what we recognize as signature Henry Kapono are feel-good ballads with simple, honest compositions influenced by the likes of Bob Marley, Eric Clapton and the Eagles. What kind of stories do you tell on The Wild Hawaiian?
I think the new album developed into the story of my life–me as a Hawaiian person. I’ve watched and listened and read a lot about the Hawaiian situationÖI started to develop my own consciousness about how I feel. Basically, it starts out with ‘Na Ali’i,’ and ‘Na Ali’i’ is about paying respect to our past, paying respect to our kings and queens, our ancestors, our kupuna. And the last song is ‘Queen’s Prayer,’ and that to me is what ties the whole thing up. If you read the lyrics, my interpretation is that Queen Lili’uokalani was saying, ‘You know, it happened. But you know we gotta let it go and move on; otherwise we’ll never go forward.’ Once I really played that song and got to understand it, what I was doing made sense. What I was doing was not what I was trying to do–there was something that was driving me to do it. I feel like I’ve been driven for a reason, and I don’t know exactly what it means, but I know it’s to help people to move forward and help people enjoy life.
What will help people move forward?
It’s about what we should be doing now. We should be role models for our children and building a new future that’s whatever we want it to be. We have the power to do that, and we should just go out and do it. We don’t have to get in anybody’s way, and we don’t have to push anybody out of the way. We just have to do it.
Can you tell us a little about your band for The Wild Hawaiian tour? I heard Kealoha will accompany you for the shows?
All of these guys have such a great talent. And together they have an understanding about me and this project. They’re really connected to it. Kealoha came out of nowhere, and he just ties everything up and brought it to another level where it’s becoming something real, and he’s trying to help me to get people to understand it. And then you have Intrepid and Hi-Frequency dancers, and they’re going to interpret the music. Three things I wanted to accomplish with this album: First, I want to make people dance. Then I want to make them sing–simple choruses like ‘ea, ea.’ And then when they do that–the third thing–I want them to go out and go, ‘Cool man, I want to know more about the culture.’
Henry Kapono kicks off his state-wide tour with his O’ahu concert at the Hawaii Theatre, Fri 7/8, 8pm, $30, tickets are on sale now at the Hawaii Theatre Box Office, by calling 528-0506 or online at [www.hawaiitheatre.com]
