by Tracy Chan and Loraine Ho

“What in the hell is it? It’s so good. It’s not punk, it’s not metal, it’s not anything that I’ve ever really heard,” said Lee Miyashiro, manager of A Hollow Union, about the band’s music.

After one of their tri-weekly rehearsals, the band sat down in a circle with us on the floor, calmly relating their stories. One would never guess that just a few minutes ago, this small room in the Vibe Asylum studio was wracked with howling screams, while gleaming instruments lurched back and forth in a tortuous symphony.

A Hollow Union induces involuntary head-banging. The urge to dance may explain why our photographers found it difficult to get clear and coherent pictures of these local metal virtuosos.

And yes. These guys rock the fuck out.

“We know what our purpose is, and it’s reaching out to that kid in the back of the club, in the corner,” said front man vocalist Michael “Haji” Higa, who also writes the lyrics.

“The kids who did take to us were like us,” Haji confided. “You know, the homeless kids, the kids that are all fucked up on drugs.” He said that A Hollow Union is in a unique position to reach out to these youth. “When we play, they understand.”

Lately, the band has been trying to make contact with abuse clinics and homeless shelters like Hale Kipa. Their intentions border on activism – last semester A Hollow Union played at the police brutality concert with Mass Dissent, a political punk band that has played several times on the UH campus. They have also appeared at Campus Center for an open-air show.

A Hollow Union is made up of fragments from other local bands. Born and raised in Honolulu, drummer Garrick Yogi used to play in a band called “Begging for Change.” He sheepishly attributed his interest in drums to DrumMania, a video game simulation. His virtual education has paid off though– his fervent playing is now the backbone to the songs of A Hollow Union. Much of Garrick ’s musical inspiration comes from death metal and the band Disturbd, which he’s been known to play bright and early while working at the Campus Center coffee shop.

“Biohazard!” chimed in Garrick, as Haji showed us his microphone, which has doubled as a hammer he’s turned on himself at shows. It is encrusted with skin flakes from being smashed against his head.

“I have a really bad anger problem,” explained Haji. “This is my way of doing something productive with my life. And I’m not smoking dope, and I’m not drinking myself to death.”

Alex Monico’s mouth warps into a scream as he takes over the vocals. He and Haji founded A Hollow Union after meeting each other at Foodland. “I play guitar out of necessity,” he explained. Originally, he only wanted to contribute vocals. His musical influences include Mastodon and Slayer.

Camille “Milla” Yago is an enigmatic guitarist and backup vocalist. During rehearsals, she sways in a haze of distortion, with deep purple hair obscuring her face. Hailing from Waipahu, she attended high school in Illinois before coming back to the islands and falling in with A Hollow Union. She met the band while attending their show at Coffee Talk in Kaimuki. Her influences run the gamut of heavy metal bands like Dimmu Borgir, Otep, and Lamb of God.

“I hadn’t really started listening to metal until I joined this band,” explained bassist Fernandino “Freddy” Pedro III. “I was all southern rock before … Lynard Skynard,” he said with a smile as his friends laugh. “My musical tastes were far off from all these guys.” It took him about four months to get used to playing metal. “That’s all I listen to now,” he said. Freddy, who grew up with Haji in Kalihi, learned to play guitar from his grandfather when he was 10.

In addition to bass playing, Freddy has earned the title of “lead spammer” for the band’s Myspace account.  He leads a double life, working as a preschool teacher when he’s not rocking out.

At least four members of A Hollow Union are considering a move to California in about a year. Jeremy Lee, their other guitarist, already lives there.

The band members repeatedly deny any interest in making money off their shows – they’ve only been paid for one show in the year they’ve been working together. “We want to help, not be selfish with our gift,” said Haji.

Their songwriting process is highly collaborative, where members bring ideas to the studio and work off one another.

With the slew of diverse musical styles influencing the members, A Hollow Union is in no rush to fall into a genre. Even Lee Miyashiro, the band’s manager and number one fan, wasn’t quite sure what to call the genre. “It’s like a fucken’ rage,” he said.

“We are A Hollow Union”, added Garrick . “That’s our classification. These guys are like my family.”

For more information or to contact the band and hear a sample of their music, check out their Myspace pageat  http://www.myspace.com/ahollowunion .

By Julia Wieting

Jake the Snake may look all sweet and youthful, but he has a real passion for local music. Local hip hop music, to be exact. He will host a concert of such musical delights on September 29th at Hemenway Courtyard. Jake recently sat down with Ka Lamakua to talk about the concert, Hawai‘i hip hop, and his journey to becoming a DJ.

KL: So, the hip hop groups that are going to play at this concert, are they student groups?

JTS: No, it’s community groups—I don’t think any of them go to UH Manoa. Maybe some go to a community college, but I don’t think any go here.

KL: Are they local hip hop groups in the sense that they are really making music that’s specific to this place or is it that they’re from here?

JTS: Mostly just that they’re from here, live here. It’s funny because Hawai‘i hip hop is seen as so small, and, like, any hip hop done by local artists is pretty underground…it’s just average local people that I didn’t know about, local hip hop and so I started doing my radio show. So, it’s local hip hop in the sense that they’re from here, local artists.

KL: What’s the hip hop like? Is there a dominant theme in terms of what people can expect from it?

JTS: Hawai‘i hip hop is really different from West Coast hip hop or East Coast hip hop just because of our environment. People in Hawai‘i write about different things, you know—you think about different things being in the Hawai‘i environment. There’s a pretty wide variety within Hawai‘i, there are a lot of groups that might be more Hawaiian, you know, there’re different groups like Sudden Rush that use Hawaiian in their music, there’re some that may rap more about the island or the place, the ocean, but there’re also groups that don’t—you can’t necessarily know they’re from Hawai‘i just from their lyrics. So, it’s kind of a wide range but the sound is really different from mainland hip hop. It tends to be more conscious, a lot of times, more positive on the whole. All the groups [that are playing on the 29th] you can listen to online, they all have Myspace pages, and I play their music on my radio show on KTUH too.

KL: Are there a lot of groups that are being formed—is it a really creative sort of environment to be in, or is it just, you know, six groups and that’s all you get.

JTS: I think it’s really growing, the scene is really growing, and there’s starting to be more shows. I’m trying to do shows at UH. I did a show last year at Campus Center, that was the first hip hop event at school that the Activities Council has done for a while. And then I did a smaller one at Hemenway courtyard in January, so the upcoming one is the third one on campus.

There are more events going on now—there’s one that goes down at Detox every last Saturday of the Month, Wormwood, which is put on by Nabahe….There is a lot more Hawai‘i hip hop than most people think, it’s just very disjointed. People don’t know about the music so the hip hop guys all know each other but there’s no real following yet. I think there are a lot of up-and-coming groups and it’s growing but it’s definitely one of the smallest underground music scene here. As far as indie bands, punk bands, ska bands go, there’s a pretty big following, a pretty big scene, but for local hip hop it’s hard. It’s cool because Nabahe invites indie bands to play at the hip-hop shows. It’s cross-genre and people are exposed to music that they normally wouldn’t hear. So it’s not just an indie show or a hip-hop show, but a blend of different sounds.

KL: Why did you start DJing? Why did you feel that this is something you had to do?

JTS: I started on the activities council when I was a Freshman here (I’m a junior now) and I was helping out with the events and we always did Hawaiian music concerts, reggae concerts, you know, Jawaiian music, indie bands or ska. And, I had always been into hip hop, but not real hard and underground stuff—I was just interested and I was like, we should try to do a hip hop event on campus, so I kinda advocated for that and they gave me that chance last November to put together a hip hop show. I was so stoked that I could do a hip hop show and then I was like, oh no, I don’t know any of the local hip hop bands, so I was wondering who I was going to get to perform, ‘cuz it’s not like we can fly people in, you know. So, I had to start researching and to track down groups. That’s how I got into to the local hip hop scene.

I did that show in November and it had a pretty good response, and I met Nabahe and he said, ‘Oh, you’re at UH—you should apply to KTUH to become a DJ.’ And I thought, no, why would I do that, I’m not a radio person, and I wasn’t a real hip hop head, I’m not good enough to do that. He said, ‘No, you should think about it.’ I kinda forgot about it and then I met MillionBillion who’s a hip hop DJ at KTUH and he’s like, ‘Oh, you helped out with that hip hop event in November, it was pretty good, you should apply to be a DJ at KTUH, and I thought that it was weird that two people told me to apply for KTUH. I applied at the end of December, 2005, and didn’t expect to hear back for a while, but they called me about two weeks later to say that they could train me.

I just dove in head-first and tried to get music from anyone I could, and fine local albums which are really hard to come by. Not many people have put out real albums. A lot of music I play is burned, unreleased, like people will send me tracks over email, or burn me a CD. I just got on a regular show the fall, when school started. It’s nice to be able to host a radio show—you can really get a message out there, and so I thought, why not help out local artists because there’s no other place where they can get their music played on the air.

KL: Do you think you’re going to DJ or promote hip hop for a while?

JTS: It’s more just a personal interest or hobby. I’m an engineering major, so that’s my main focus right now, but I’m on Activities Council, and I work for the Board of Publications Advertising program, and I work at KTUH, so I have this interest in more promotional and art stuff, music. I want to continue promoting music as a student, but I don’t know about doing it beyond that. But, definitely at UH, because I think UH should be the epicenter for local hip hop.

Check out this video of local hip hop:

Comments? Email kalamakua.org+music@gmail.com and we’ll post them under the story.

Theresa Houston has left the University of Hawaii. If you were interested in knowing her, you’ve lost your chance at doing so in a natural way.

Theresa is the type of girl who will tell you that she plays keytar simply because it is “the most awesome instrument in the world.” She is also the type of girl who knows what she’s in for if music will be the rest of her life.

Her music is ready. That’s the best way to describe it. It reaches into several different corners of genre but keeps its feet to its morals. There are several bouts with clean pop music, but, like most female singers with a message, comes down to that one acoustic (or nearly acoustic as the case may be) number about all of the secrets in their universe.

Theresa says she doesn’t really listen to music, though. She used to, but that’s a far off thought now that her efforts are being focused on helping her friend Nic Westlake tour the American Continent with his band, The Blinking Project.

After making a pact with her friend Nick, Theresa found herself picking up life and moving back to South Dakota to begin her career as a musician.

“We made a pact, me and my friend Nick,” said Houston. “Whoever made it first would abandon their own project and help the other.”

Nic’s sound is different. He’s obviously culturing the posthardcore message of masses. His sound is a sure thing. On songs, Theresa is caught in the chorus’ singing as saintly as she can muster; this is the girl who told me that girls in music don’t get the chance to really control a stage.

So now Houston’s pushing up dust thousands of miles away from the place that she came to get a degree in Fine Arts. “Before I moved to Hawaii I had never done anything with music before. I went there as an art major and realized that I really hated art.”

Houston spent the last two semesters, her first two semesters, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She wrote an entire album of music in her dorm because she “had no friends.”

“When I moved, all the stupid boys played guitar, and, quite frankly, I thought that they sucked at it,” Houston said. She goes on to explain the problem with girls in the music industry. She never refers to them as women, only girls. She seems mildly offended when I call her a feminist and ask about girl bands like Sleater Kinney and Eisley.

“Girls would try to start bands with me. They only wanted to be in a chick band. I was left writing everything and teaching them how to play their own instruments.”

After proclaiming her new view on music, and her rightful spot in the world of it, she got down to business and signed up to be on the bill for Battle of the Bands at UHM.

She, of course, killed the competition.

But before killing said competition, she had hopes to finish up her album in time to give to people watching. She spent two weeks recording and mixing her album in the home of her friend Nic’s landlord. She played every instrument and sang every song. She wrote every lyric and every melody. That is how she gave birth to her one-woman band, Trey’s Parade.

There are talks of stage fright. There are talks of Houston’s legs splayed across the pages of Ka Leo last fall. Even through her monologue on what a good musician really does for her, she projects the sort of coy nature you find in field mice or other furry woodland creatures. Not that she’s a woodland creature; actually, quite far from it (although she’s quite aware of her own nature to be a bit timid).

The voice she uses for her music is nothing like her speaking voice. The voice she uses on each song is different from the next, trying out the different styles as if to set parameters for herself.

“I have the most severe case of stage fright,” says Houston as if she’s been to the psyche ward and back with her mauled esteem. “It really kind of sucked when I realized that I wanted to be a performer.”

She cites Yellow Hearted as one of the 7 and a half songs that she could care less about. When asked what she meant, she said that she only really cared about two and a half of the songs.

“I want for people who actually want to listen to the album for really understanding, not just to hear a catchy rift, but to come across that song and really think about it,” said Houston of her song “My June.”

“The pop world is entirely filled with meaningless lyrics,” she said. “It feels like people aren’t even trying.”

She goes on to talk about her song Mary that describes a ghost that she was told about in her dorm at UHM, Mokihana.

“I’m so scared of supernatural things and it completely controlled my life,” said Houston. She wrote the song after getting so scared that she couldn’t even stay in her dorm room by herself. “I used to make people stay over if my roommate was gone.”

Despite the unnatural odds of people staying in Hawaii, Theresa has gotten out. She is taken her interest on the road, touring with The Blinking Project. And all she wants to do is be heard.

You can hear Theresa’s music athttp://www.myspace.com/treysparade orhttp://www.myspace.com/theblinkingproject.

Story by Nick Krismunando and Amit Kalra

In Aiea, there were five potential band members just floating around creating music on their own accord before starting the band Hotsui.

So Matty Sumida used to be in a band called Ex-Superheroes. There was this other guy, Landon Tom, who played guitar while Matty played drums. Matty was also in Vax with three girls who were well known for their antics in China Town and the accompanying alleys. One of those girls was a bassist named Cristy Clark who happened to be a fan of a young man named Zac Carper, the brother of Alice Carper who sang for a band called Persophone Myth (a frequent play on KTUH). But back to Matty. Matty and Cristy went to school with a fellow named Oliver Boe, who, according to Cristy, plays ethnic music with his father on the weekends.

This is the story of Hotsui.

The music is arid; the melody stretches wide open for graceful bouts with lyrics. It’s obvious that this is a showing of instrumental talent with tiny gaps for messages interjected through the song.

Drums are tactfully interjected through the songs, accompanying guitar instead of setting pace. The members of the band are not competing for time on the track, they’re melding.

Hotsui is 1/2 of Ex-Superheroes with 1/2 of Vax plus some random soloist from Haleiwa and a boy from Aiea high school with a penchant for getting high with bassists and going to art class.

That was all before they had even decided on a name.

Hotsui’s name came about from a colloquialism amongst the members’ grandmothers’ generation, according Cristy Clark. “In Japanese ‘atsui’ means hot, but when my grandma said it I heard hotsui,” said Clark.

“I wanted it to be Whoriental, but they wouldn’t go for it. I also wanted Faghot, but they rejected all of my ideas until Hotsui,” Clark said in the sort of monotonous tone that could only mean she was actually being entirely serious.

Clark and Carper are in another band together called Simply Beauty. It’s rare that you catch a part of Hotsui’s music sounding like those two members. On their track, “Slow Creeper,” you get a bit of an idea of the cloud-coated world they live in. It seems to set itself apart from the other songs, dancing through a patch of flowers or Japanese cartoon characters.

“Oliver and I rock out to the rolling stones all the time,” said Landon Tom, the lead singer and guitarist for the band. The boy’s a rock star. He’s probably the shortest member of the band, but there’s no disputing his stance amongst them. He is singing his baby to sleep, the arrangement built on the simple accompaniment of daily truths with a heavy guitar entrance.

It’s not unlikely that an encore will consist of some random adlibbing on a blues riff. Members of the crowd at Hotsui’s show at Detox last month were caught off guard with a mildly Scottish melody for their song, Music Box of Soul.

Clark would like everyone to believe that they were trained by Tegan and Sara, but at least one other member of the band disagrees. “Put the Ka’au Crater Boys,” was the last thing she told me to add before revealing the truth.

Tom says the members of the band are making music to the tune of Led Zeppelin, Iggy Pop, The White Stripes, and the Strokes.

Clark says this is a pretty intense lineup.

“We’re really random,” said Tom. “I think it’s just ‘cause we’re a new band; our songs are all very different from each other. It’s debatable as to whether that’s good or not.”

You can hear Hotsui’s music at Detox on August 5 or on Myspace athttp://www.myspace.com/hotsuimusic.

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Experimental / Indie / Pop
Honolulu, HI
JEFF SANNER // guitar + vocals
PAUL BAJCAR // guitar + alcohol
GWEN STAFANI // bass. keys. + vocals
MOE RADKE // drums + jokes

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Rock / Gothic / Experimental
Honolulu, HI

YVONNE HARADA // guitar
ARA LAYLO // vocals
JACK TAWIL // drums
LORENZO TRINIDAD // bass

Story by Nick Krismunando and Amit Kalra

For the last month the general vibe I got around the island was pretty depressing.  I mean, 3 to 4 weeks of some serious rain will do that to anybody—believe me I’m from Seattle, I would know.  So if you were wondering where this dark and gloomy cloud was coming from, I can tell you it wasn’t from the NW, but came from right here in Honolulu.  The Malcognitas—a local band—spread their dark and melodic goth sound around the island for a ridiculous seven shows during the month of March, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.  Might I suggest you keep your umbrellas handy.

After finishing their most demanding month of shows to date, The Malcognitas find themselves hard at work and keeping their regular routine of Sunday night practices.  After stumbling upon the band at Detox for the UH fashion benefit on March 22nd, we decided that we would like to get to know the band a little better.  Before the show at the Wave (see April 6th Review with Explore and At Sea) we were fortunate enough to sit down with the Malcognitas for a little get to know you in which we learned why this band really is the sexiest band in Honolulu.

KL: Did you guys all grow up here?

Yvonne: I think I’m actually the only one who was born and raised here.

Lorenzo: umm…I was  [Everyone laughs]

Yvonne: Oh ya of course, Lorenzo was…sorry!

Lorenzo: Technically Jack was born here too, but he was raised outside [Seattle].

Ara: I was born in the Philippines.

KL: We’ve heard a lot about bands that will move to the mainland for-

Ara: Notoriety? Oh ya, it’s a fact.  Go Jimmy Go, Jack Johnson [have] had the best success.  There are a lot of bands out there you know, and I realize that here.  We             don’t think that we’re the greatest band in the world.

Lorenzo: Ya, it’s funny because a lot of people here think that, you know we’re on an island secluded from everything else.  And I thought that too, that’s why I moved to San Francisco.  But while I was there I missed it as far as the things that you can’t really have in some big metropolitan city.

KL: So what’s missing there that you find here?

Lorenzo: The aloha spirit.

Ara: We’re not trying to be anything but musicians.  You’re kidding yourself if you think like, “This is the band, this is it and we’re gonna make it.” You’re gonna accept it, you’re a musician, the music comes and goes and hopefully you play with people that you love to play with.

Yvonne: Eveyone’s a musician. We’re just doing whatever we can.  I don’t think there’s musicians and non-musicians, we’re all musicians, we’re just doing it.

KL: What do you think of the scene in Hawai’i?

Jack: Personally, I really like it here. You can start a creative endeavor and see the whole thing through.  It’s really hard to do that in the mainland.  I’ve noticed here that the environment is very nurturing.  Sometimes it can be hard to find a venue to stage events, but at the same time there’s not quite as much… competition.

Lorenzo: Ya, the bands in our local scene are very supportive.  Also, in the mainland I remember where certain venues would only play certain genres. The metal bands would play here, and the punk bands will play there.  In our scene you’ll often go to a show and have a ska band, a punk band and a metal band.

Jack: The scene in Seattle was just like that, where you could go to a show and see all kinds of bands. It was very eclectic.

KL: Do you feel like there’s an audience for independent/underground music here as opposed to somewhere on the mainland?

Jack: It seems that when people here find out that there are actually shows and original bands, I’ve met a lot of people that are shocked.  It seems that it’s harder for people that aren’t from here or even ones that are from here to connect with the underground music scene.

Ara: It’s true. I remember when I played in Portland and people were like, “there’s bands in Hawai’i?  You guys can play instruments?” [Laughs]

Lorenzo: Ya, “Where’s your ukulele?” [Laughs]

KL: Have you been together for a while?

[All heads turn to Lorenzo]

Lorenzo: Oooookay. [Laughs] In October 2004, I had changed jobs and one day I walked into the art gallery I worked at and one of my friends at the time was there and she was listening to Interpol and I mentioned about wanting to start a band with that kind of sound for a long time.  She mentioned something about Jack, and immediately I called him.  We started to get together and trying to make some original music together, but at the time it was just us so we just spent time writing songs and tightening up the rhythm section.  Towards the end of the year, another mutual friend told us about Yvonne.  We met up with Yvonne and gave her some stuff that we had recorded.  It was right around Christmas so we took a break and after we came back, Yvonne joined us.

Ara: This was when I started getting irritated.  [Laughs]

Jack: Oh, this is interesting.  So your first, your very first feeling towards us-

Ara: I was pissed off! [Laughs]

Jack: Was jealousy.  You were jealous and anxious.

Ara: You would be too! [Laughs]  You stole her! [Laughs]

Lorenzo: When I first saw Ara, she was performing this Wham! song, and I was looking for a singer at the time but they just weren’t what I was looking for.  Then I saw Ara and was just like, “Oh my goodness!”

Ara: This one time, I didn’t go to practice [Laughs] then I show up and there’s this girl there! [Laughs]

Lorenzo: Well here’s the thing. So Yvonne is now with us…

Ara: I wasn’t taking it seriously at first.

Lorenzo: Yvonne comes up to me and says, “You know my friend Ara?” I was like, “I think I’ve heard that name before.”  Then she was like, “She was the one singing that Wham! Song.” I looked at her and said, “that’s your friend…get her in the band!”[Laughs]

Yvonne: Ya, so the story is she didn’t come to a couple of practices right?

Lorenzo: Right, we told her to come down to rehearsal and try out, and she never showed up and so we were like, “Okay I guess she’s not into it.” So on April 1st Ara finally walks in.

Ara: And there was another girl there!!

Lorenzo: Ya, since Ara wasn’t coming we called this other girl

Jack: The Replacement [laughs].  That’s the only acceptable word.

Lorenzo: Just as she was about to start, Ara Walks in.

Ara: I was like, “Uhhhhhh.” I felt so [poopy]!

Lorenzo: So I said to both of them, “Who wants to try first?”  Ara then gets up there and does her thing and the girl was like, “Wow, I don’t know if I can top that.” So basically, the Replacement felt outmatched and left. [Laughs] I think the next couple of months we flushed out a couple of new songs and on June 4th we played our first show. [Everyone applauses and laughs]

Jack: How do you remember all that stuff?

Lorenzo: I have a very good memory. I can remember all the way up until I was four years old.

Ara: Okay, we’re out of time here. [Laughs]

KL: Ya I think we’re running out of tape here. [Laughs] So what did you guys grow up listening to?

Jack: Well I was fortunate enough to grow up in a place with a strong local scene, and so mostly I listened to a lot of local bands, bands like Green River, The Melvins…

KL: Did you get to see Mother Love Bone?

Jack: Ya, actually I got to see one of their last shows before the singer died.

Ara: So what do you listen to now?

Jack: Our stuff. [Laughs]

Lorenzo: I’m the one in the band that listens to a lot of Goth.  A lot of old stuff like Bauhaus, and even newer bands…bands that you really have to be into the scene in order to really know.

KL: Do you still listen to a lot of that?

Lorenzo: Ya definitely, but when I was growing up I was fortunate enough to listen to all kinds of music. I’ve been exposed to a lot of pop, disco, jazz music because of my family.  When I was first getting into music, I was around 12 and I got into the whole Seattle band thing.  Then when I was in high school I got into ska, punk…ya, basically I listened to a lot of stuff.

Ara: Hello. [Ara then attempted to sabotage our mic to no avail. Okay so she didn’t do it on purpose]  My musical influences are…hmm…a lot of r&b influences…old school stuff, Sade, love me some Sade.  Basically, woman that I could look up to, women that had this really commanding voice.  Anita Baker was a really good example of that.  She didn’t have this typical woman voice; she had this really low and beautiful voice that I always wish I had when I was a kid.  Then I started listening to a lot of Everything But the Girl, Portishead, Massive Attack, a lot of that kind of stuff.  There’s a lot of that female stuff, you know, but Everything But the Girl and Portishead were really life changing.  If you listen to it, it’s just so beautifully sad, I love that.

Now I listen to a lot of different stuff…Black Candy…I’m listening to a lot of Goldfrapp right now…oh and the arctic…what’s that band? The arctic…the Arcade Fire, that’s right, [I] love them.

Lorenzo: I just realized I forgot to mentions two bands that are regularly in my rotation Evanescence and Lacuna Coil.  I love that stuff.

Ara. Lorenzo hates the Smiths!

Lorenzo: That’s right. It’s true.

Ara: It’s okay, cause I balance it off, I love The Smiths.

Lorenzo: Oh, another band I forgot to mention, the Swans, everyone should listen to them.

Yvonne: I grew up listening to Japanese talk-radio. [Laughs]

Ara: [in a sped up Japanese accent] Konichiwa! Konichiwa!

Yvonne: It wasn’t even J-pop.  I don’t know, that stuff mostly, and the more I grew up I started listening to more boy stuff, like metal and avant-garde stuff.  I was influenced a lot by the other band I was in with a lot of metal and crazy noise.

KL: What are your guilty pleasures?

Ara: ummm…what’s her name, Toni Gail?  You know that stuff, “Walking around naked…dut tu tu…just took a shower…doing a little dance with my robe…” [Laughs]  That’s my guilty pleasure.  Sorry. [Laughs]

KL: C’mon you guys, guilty pleasures…let it out.

Lorenzo: All I have to say—but first I will note that I have absolutely no guilt about it—I love pop music.  [Laughs] Whether it’s the classic stuff or the stuff that’s out now.  I think Christina Aguilera is absolutely fabulous.

Ara: And beautiful.

Lorenzo: Ya, that too.

Jack: Let’s see, present guilty pleasure or former…?

KL: Like stuff you’re embarrassed to listen to when you’re by yourself. [laughs]

Jack: Maybe when I was younger…uhhh…okay, I was really into Boy George.

Ara: [Fairy!] [Laughs]

Jack: See, exactly. [Laughs]

Ara: No, I was gonna say that no matter what you said. [laughs]

Eventually all eyes turn to Yvonne…

Yvonne: Okay, I do have a Debbie Davis album with me in my car.  [Laughs] New kids on the Block . [Laughs]

KL: Don’t they have some video where they’re running out in graveyards

Ara: That’s the new stuff. The NKOTB stuff. [Laughs]

KL: Hey man if it makes you feel any better, I totally had that culture club album. [laughs] Anyways, what would you like to see the Honolulu scene become?

Ara: Well, young people are finicky and they’re going to listen to what their friends listen to.  There are a few that have that need to find more progressive, more alternative, more edgy music.  The thing in Hawai’i is there is not enough events that are all ages and no smoking, no alcohol and it’s just about music.  I think in general most people don’t want to support music and the arts.  That’s everywhere not just Hawai’i.  If you don’t have a place or radio station that continually plays this kind of music, how is it going to get out? They’re just going to keep listening to what they’re listening to.

Lorenzo: I would like to see a renaissance of sorts where more mainland acts come down here, but also a lot of local bands are being supported by the general venues, especially all ages.  The teenage crowd, believe it or not are going to be your biggest supporters and can help create the hype for it.  It would help tremendously.

We owe the all age crowd a lot just for being able to play the amount of shows that we’ve been able to play.  I would like to see that continue for not only us but every other band out here as well.  [Head nod in unison]

KL: Okay, a couple more questions.  What does your name mean?

[Everyone laughs and looks at Lorenzo]

Lorenzo: Well it comes from the Latin words, ‘mal’ and ‘cognita’ and it refers to
the part of your mind that is often dangerous to even explore about yourself, but often that is what you have to do, tap into the dark side.  The malcognita can be many things to anybody, but the only way to find out what it is, is to ask yourself, “What is your malcognita?”

Ara: I haven’t been there. [Laughs]

Lorenzo: Everyone has one.

Ara: I wanted that to be our catch phrase, “What’s your malcognita?” Like, “Got Milk?”

KL: So where does the sexiest band thing come from?

Ara: Ohhhhh no…[laughs]

Jack: Ara’s tried so hard to get every trace of that stamped out.

Lorenzo: We’ve been stamped with it…without our knowing sometimes [laughs]

Jack: Wait a second. Lorenzo has this thing where he’ll call me up and be like, “Are you feeling sexy today?” My waking thoughts don’t usually involve that. If that’s how it started then it’s kind of cool.

Ara: Okay, there is us in the day time, which is this.  Then when we’re playing, it’s not us, it’s our malcognita.

Yvonne: I don’t know…it’s about the same. [Laughs]

Ara: Well for me, that’s not me, that’s somebody performing.  It’s like me x2. [Laughs]

Lorenzo: It’s funny tho that even before it got tagged on us, people would come up to us after our shows and be like, “That’s some sexy music.” [Laughs]

KL: So we should have the headline for the interview read “Sexy music for sexy people,” then. [Laughs]

Ara: No no no!

…Oops.