Personal History

Born May 22. 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii at Tripler Army Medical Center.   Racial Mix: Hawaiian, Irish, Filipino

Raised on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu.  Hawaii residences have included: Pacific Palisades, Punchbowl, Downtown Honolulu, Pearl City, Waipahu, Kailua, Waialua, Kaneohe, Waikiki, Aiea, Ewa Beach and Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Graduate of The Kamehameha Schools Class of 1985.  Played the tuba for 7 years.  First picked up the ukulele at age 6. Started guitar at 10 years old.  Began writing music at age 16.

Instruments played:  Ukulele, Guitar (electric, acoustic, slack key), Piano, Tuba, Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Harmonica

Other cities lived in: Kirkland, Washington; Medford, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Reno, Nevada

Favorite places visited (so far...)  New York City; Barcelona, Spain; Milleha, Malta; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Kalapana, Hawaii (before lava flow), Boston, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C; Seattle, Washington; Kennet Square Pennsylvania (Mushroom capital USA), San Francisco, California, Baltimore, Maryland, Vancouver, BC; Whistler, BC; Monterey, California.

Favorite pastimes:  Playing music, Swimming, Fishing, Surfing, Cooking, Golfing, spending time with family and friends
(Back to top)

Something I Cannot Run Away From

On March 11, 2005, something happened to me that turned my whole world upside down.  I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Viral Dilated Cardiomyopathy.  Similar to Barbara Hershey's overly-busy career driven character in "Beaches", a common flu virus attacked my heart and almost took away my life.   Everything changed after that.  My focus became survival, and trying to build something new.

This condition is with me everyday and so I live to enjoy and experience my life to the fullest despite that fact.  Music has been an outlet to express my feelings and emotions.  My CD "HOME TO ME" is the story of my life over the past couple of years.  It is my journey from tragedy to redemption.  Making this CD not only helped me sort out my life's experiences, but it also helped transform my life.  

I started playing music when I was around 5 or 6 years old.  Music was one of the last things I had left in this world to turn to when I lost it all. During the making of this CD I was physically struggling and trying to make a statement about my life so my loved one's would know the story of my life's experience.  

I've been composing my own music since I was a 16 old junior at The Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii.  When I was a boarder student at the school, I used to sit under the big tree in the circle across from Paki Hall and write songs when I  was all alone on Sunday afternoons. I felt like I was the only person there on that expansive hillside.  There is a special solace that I  find in these pursuits.

(Back to top)

A Special Dedication

I cannot talk about my life without mentioning Mother Marianne Cope and the Sisters of St Francis.  Through the prayers and love of many people I have found the strength to rise above my adversities.   Through my family, my wife, my mother, the Sisters of St Francis and Mother Marianne Cope, I have come to understand the meaning of acceptance and love.  This is the spirit of Aloha.   When I sing the song "Angel" I remember those who suffer in our world and the angels that touch their lives.  I dedicate this song to the angels in my life, and I pay tribute to Mother Marianne Cope who's life and example are still with us today.
(Back to top)

Holding On By The Sex Wax  

What is Sex Wax?  (see www.SexWax.com)  It's a type wax that surfer's apply to the top deck of their surf boards which keeps you from slipping off the board.  When I was growing up in Hawaii, everybody used to use Sex Wax on their surfboards.  It's just a part of surfing.  A simple, but crucial ingredient to experience the joys of surfing.  When you stand on a surfboard, you are literally standing on the wax, which is keeping you attached to the board.  Without it, you're not going to be doing much surfing; just lots of slipping and falling.   With the Sex Wax however, you become one with the board and the ocean.  The ride can be better than sex!

I wrote this song while recovering from congestive heart failure in Waikiki during 2005.  I decided that despite the physical danger that life is short and, that I would get out in the waves despite the obvious perils, to experience the magic of the ocean and the thrill of surfing again.  After a couple of months of swimming nearby, I eventually gained enough strength to paddle a surfboard out to a break called Kaiser's, which is a long distance from shore.  I wrote this song while making the long paddle out to Kaiser's to pass the time as my arms burned and body strained to make it out to the lineup.  This was the first break I learned to surf at in high school.  I passed the time thinking about my life; where I was, where I had gone, and where I was going.  All I knew is I had today and I was going to live it all it was worth.  There are few things more beautiful than being in the lineup in Hawaii.

Sex Wax is about the experience of surfing and about life.  I often tell people that everything I ever needed to know in life I learned surfing.  Every surfer knows the feeling of a wave that changed their lives.  A wave has the power to be the source of harm destruction, or the same wave could be the source of the greatest experience of your lifetime. Here's a story of a wave that changed my life and is the inspiration behind the song "Sex Wax".

It all happened one fateful afternoon in the winter of 1993 on the North Shore of the Island of 'Oahu.   The waves were huge and breaking on outer reefs a quarter mile or so offshore.  The waves had 20-30 foot faces and were as big as two-story houses.   I was at a outer cloudbreak called "Avalanche" on the North Shore near Sunset Beach with two surfers.  I was just learning to tackle the really big waves.  I was having a thrill going after giant two-story wave waves on a bodyboard when I got separated from my two surfing pals and was swept out to see in the rip current.   After a few hours, darkness fell upon me and the lights of the island appeared as tiny dots in the night.   I had given up hope for a moment, too tired to go on.  Then I prayed like I never did before and started paddling again for maybe the last time in my life.  I was completely exhausted and pretty much out of hope when a freak wave approached in the darkness.  I could hear it coming and felt the water pulling me in and lifting me up.  This was the largest wave I've ever been on, but I knew that if I didn't get on this wave and I might not survive the impact of this or the subsequent waves crashing down on me and drowning me.  It was now or never.  In the dark, I paddled madly into the wave and I clung on to my board, trying to beat the giant lip from crashing down on top of me.  I remember "holding on for my life by the Sex Wax" as I jetted down the face of the wave, a violent explosion of water and energy pounding down behind me.  All I could think about was keeping a grip on my board as I bounced through and over the ocean chop.  I hung on with everything I had.  The relief from surviving the ride alone was overwhelming.  I remember thinking "Thank God I didn't slip off the board!"  I eventually rode the wave to a safer place where I  received a greeting by my surfing buddy and the Honolulu Fire Department Search and Rescue team.   Thankful to be alive, I came to shore to find out that a body boarder was killed 24 hours earlier by a tiger shark at a nearby break called "Leftovers" leaving only a board with a gaping shark bite behind at Waimea Bay.   The authorities informed me they feared I was victim number 2, then I realized how fortunate I really was.  The story could have ended so differently for me that day.  One wave changed my life.  Thank goodness for the Sex Wax.

 DISCOGRAPHY

2007 Home To Me (Full length album) Debut Hawaii release.

2001 Forever Strong (single)

2000 Better Days (Full length album)