My musical journey began when I was 6. I remember sitting out front of our house in Ngiwal while my Dad was playing his old records….Sam and Dave, Kool and the Gang, Peaches and Herb, Marvin Gaye…Even though I was so young, I really was digging into the music…it left such an impression.
My Dad was from Phonpei. His family were all choir singers. I could hear his deep bassy voice, sing his native chants. There was a certain rhythm, that served a purpose, it created a relaxing soothing feeling. They used their chants to preserve their stories. …my dad also had a lot of 8 tracks of what was playing on the radio at the time…there was a new movement sweeping in…reggae. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh…I could relate to the music but not to the message. I couldn’t understand what the anger was…the oppression…the older I got, it would open a whole new world to me.
My other great musical influence was my mother. She was born and raised in Palau. From an early age, my Grandmother taught my Mom all the ancestral chants. My Mom attended an all girls school where she learned how to play guitar. This is when she started to get heavily into church and would eventually become a choir teacher, which she did for over 30 years. My Mom would do things in Palau either you weren’t supposed to or no one ever tried. She was the first woman to ever bring a guitar in the church. She took church songs, translated them into Palauan and taught people the harmonies. As with anything, when you are the first to try something, you will always have your critics, especially living in a small island community. This never bothered my Mother.
My first singing lessons, came from my Mom… she was always teaching my sisters and my brothers how to harmonize. I’ve always said my Mother was my biggest cheerleader and also my harshest critic. When I was 13, choir was divided into two groups. One for adults and one for teens….my voice was so high, she would always put me in the tenor section….with the adults because she said I sounded like a girl. She was always hard on me and pushed me to get better and better.
I had a natural love of music so picking up instruments came easily. I could play guitar, piano, bass, and eventually drums. By the time I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to do music at some point in my life…I traveled to the states, to attend university of South Florida, Tampa campus…it was here I met other islanders who had a similar desire for music…we started a group but I was only a musician and not a singer. My big turning point was when we got hired last minute to do a gig at the school’s stadium….they lost an opening act and they were desperate for a band. We were all excited to play in front of thousands of people...the only problem was the lead singer had strep throat…so I was forced to perform the vocals….it wasn’t he best performance but there was a warm reception and from that moment forward, I knew I wanted to sing.
I brought the dream home with me in the late 90’s but I wasn’t as well received as I would like. Everybody was into the same old cha cha rhythm. I wanted to do something that wasn’t done and it was taking awhile for people to warm to it…I spent time performing between Palau and the states,…performing in front of islanders…I ended up in Saipain for 4 years, then Guam… I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I decided to come home.
After spending a few months bouncing around clubs, I had what you might call divine intervention…a chance meeting took place between me and the owners of Roll’em Productions at an afternoon get together. It was there I would meet my future producer and partner in crime, MoFo. Talks about doing sessions in the studio took place but didn’t materialize right away because MoFo was about to produce another artist. After this artist dropped out towards the end of 2007, the owners of Roll’em and I decided we would cut an album.
This album would become a journey… a journey that would include a marriage, a birth, and two deaths…In early 2006, I met who would be my future wife Lisa. Not long after we were married, we had my first son, Bo, named after my grandfather. Little did I expect the album to span the length of Lisa’s pregnancy to Bo being two years old now! What took so long? There were obstacles. There was sacrifice. Lots of it.
I was still singing in a club when we started X Factor. My producer MoFo, worked fulltime during the day and had a family of his own. The only time we had for recording was on nights and weekends, the busiest times at the clubs. During so many of my sessions, I would have people who covered my club shifts not show up and just as we were starting to get into a groove, I would get called in to perform. Eventually it got so bad, I had to leave the club gig all together, which meant no steady paycheck. They say that all great things come with sacrifice…
In the beginning of 2009, we were pushing for the album to be finished when my Mom went into the hospital with a major stroke. On Jan. 11th, I was called into the emergency room thinking it was for my Mother, only to arrive in time to see my Father’s final breath. I can’t tell you how hard this was…my Father, that great big strong figure in my life was suddenly and unexpectedly gone. To make matters worse, my Mother’s condition was so bad we couldn’t even tell her that her husband had passed. They say that it’s always darkest before the dawn...
I was able to make the trip to Phonpei to bury my Father. My mother’s condition improved and she eventually returned home. My producer was tied up in a big production for most of the summer, so it’s now fall of 2009, and we find our selves once again in a push to get the album completed. Unfortunately my mom’s health did not hold and on Sept. 21st, we laid her to rest.
I’m not sure why I was meant to lose two of the most important people in my life and my greatest musical influences in such a short period of time. Part of me wants to be sad that they never got to hear the album but I never want to forget the sacrifice they made that allowed me to get to where I am. Now more than 3 long years later with X Factor finally ready…maybe you can have an idea of what this experience has meant for me. My goal for this album was to bring the listener along my personal musical journey. I wrote the songs as we produced the album so you are able travel with me through all my highs and lows and when it’s all said and done, I want you to leave with a positive feeling of hope. Even though I am an islander from a small place, I wanted anybody who listened to my album to be able to relate to at least one song. That’s why there’s so many genres, reflecting all my influences.
I chose to do songs in R n B from my years living in Tampa when I was the only Palauan, and most of my friends where African American or Caribbean. I chose Hip Hop because the Hip Hop I listened to had a strong message with a different beat that I dug. The haunting ballads are my emotional side. Vandross, Peabo Bryson, Michael Bolton…my affection towards ballads I hope comes through. Pop music is fun for me. I like that I can take any idea and make you get up and dance. And of course Reggae. That sound born from and that fits so well in the islands, yet always carries a message. It helped me relate to my own struggles. The longing for an ideal that you know can exist but hasn’t yet arrived. I liked taking Reggae and combining it with all my different influences…including the different styles found in my region like Micronesian and Cha cha.
I only hope you enjoy the album as much as I did making it. We Pacific Islanders, are small in number but we are listening to and influenced by the music of this world. Now we hope the world will listen to what we have to offer, bringing our own unique cultures and influences into the mix. We are the “X Factor”. Are you ready?
