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Acoustic duo Native Tongue
has plenty to talk about with
release of its new CD'Native Tongue' speaks boldly
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinTHE language is Hawaiian. The sound is mainstream American rock. The group is Native Tongue.
"I was living in California and I thought acoustic rock and Hawaiian would be a great mix," Angelo Jensen explained between sets at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
"The band I was in wasn't doing this kind of stuff so I had to move home to get it together. I spent three years in Volcano on the Big Island writing."
An early single released without fanfare or promotion several years ago earned Jensen a tie with Walter "Waltah Boy" Tavares for "Best Recording/Contemporary Hawaiian Artist" at Johnny Kai's Hawaii Music Awards in 1998. Jensen and Gerard Gonsalves followed it more recently with a self-titled 15-song debut album.
Jensen describes the music as "acoustic island rock."
"If you say 'contemporary Hawaiian music' people think you play Jawaiian or reggae and this isn't," he explains.
"I like mixing the two worlds. There are a lot of American Indian groups out there -- rock bands -- that sing and chant in their own language but have this rock background. Why not Hawaiian rock? I want people to know that we're from Hawaii, Hawaiian rock with a commercial edge."
Jensen does most of the talking but Gonsalves isn't an entirely silent partner.
"We've taken the sounds that we've grown up with and meshed them all together," he says. "There's a lot of Jawaiian bands out there and they all basically sound the same, playing reggae with an ukulele. We don't want to copy any other style or any other band."
Jensen mentions Kalapana, Cecilio & Kapono, Gabby Pahinui, Jimi Hendrix and Sunday Manoa as some of Native Tongue's musical kupuna.
ON STAGE
Who: Native Tongue
He and Gonsalves have been playing music together off and on for 15 years. They got together in 1985 when Gonzalves' band, Stage Fight, broke up just as Jensen's band, Aaronsrod, lost its drummer. Aaronsrod went on to play at the Rock n' Roll Clinic, a k a Waikiki Junction; Fast Eddie's; Wave Waikiki; the Jazz Cellar and the 23rd Step.
All but the Wave are long gone but Jensen and Gonsalves maintained their friendship even after the band moved to Los Angeles and Gonsalves returned to Hawaii. They renewed their musical partnership after Jensen returned home. Gonsalves sings and plays lead guitar, drums and percussion. Jensen is the lead voice and second guitarist.
"Native Tongue has been together a little more than three years -- me and Gerard are the nucleus. We've been working together so long that we don't have to say anything to each other. It's like osmosis or telepathy and it works out great like that.
"A lot of the gigs that we do want an acoustic duo but when we showcase the album in a big venue we'll have four other guys."
In the meantime, Jensen and Gonsalves work as full-time musicians without the financial safety net of "day jobs." They work a steady schedule of "unplugged" performances of their originals along with pop, rock and island standards.Jensen added, "Gone are the days when you just sign (with a record label) and then they do everything for you and you just sleep all day. It's a matter of time and hard work but it's what we do for a living.
"This is our day job and we put all of our energy (and) all of our mana'o into it."
He adds that the neighbor island radio stations KPOA and KIPA have been much more receptive than the conservative "island music" and "island rhythms" stations on Oahu.
"The outer island stations are more willing to play new stuff. Honolulu has become very, very mainland corporate. Oahu is a hard kukui nut to crack, but we figure if we can work up a following and with radio support on the outer islands, that eventually Oahu will (play the album). There are songs on Oahu stations today that were being played on the outer islands a year ago! It's a matter of me going to all the stations and hoping the people at Moon Surfer Records will do the same."
Behind Native Tongue stands other members of the Jensen family. Angelo's father, artist/sculptor Rocky Jensen played nose flute, chanted and provided much of the album art. Angelo's mother Lucia Tarallo Jensen, wrote adulatory liner notes and served as the band's publicist. His sister, Natalie Mahina Jensen, did the photography.
"I like to include my family in things, especially my sister. She's been doing our photos even back when we were in a rock 'n' roll band with long hair and Spandex pants."
"When you have the Jensens behind you, you have the artist, the photographer, the graphic artist. God forbid I should go to anybody else! We had a whole other idea for the album and the concept and everything, but it ended up just like this, with my father's statues and my sister said, 'OK guys, put a black shirt on and let's go.' "
‘Native Tongue’
speaks boldly with its
use of Hawaiian
By Native Tongue (Moon Surfer Productions MSP-9005)By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinTHE melodies are somber. The lyric images are local and some of the vocabulary is Hawaiian as Angelo Jensen and Gerard Gonsalves define a new genre of hapa-haole music they dub "acoustic Hawaiian rock."
The concept -- mainstream rock with Hawaiian lyrics -- is developed most fully with the powerful "Ho'i Hou 'Ike," which uses Hawaiian entirely. Most of the other songs are primarily English with Hawaiian words or phrases used for emphasis.
Both Jensen and Gonsalves are songwriters; topics include the importance of maintaining cultural identity and preserving the spiritual mana of the 'aina. Jensen's "Queen of Makaha" is his tribute to Rell Sunn. Gonsalves' "Paniolo" adds a relaxing ki ho'alu, or slack-key, instrumental to the collection.
Speakers of the Hawaiian language may question whether it is possible to apply traditional Hawaiian vocal techniques to a rock idiom, but seen from a mainstream musical perspective, Native Tongue stands with Big Island rappers Sudden Rush in boldly expanding the frontiers of Hawaiian music.
nativetonguehawaii@yahoo.com
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