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Sean Na'auao has enjoyed such consistent popular success over the past 10 years that it's hard to imagine him being nervous about the release of his fifth solo album.
Sean Na'auao hopes fans will embrace
a new side of his musical personaREVIEW OF THE NEW CD
By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin"Neutralize It" will be officially released tomorrow. What's he nervous about?
"It's almost the same basic Sean Na'auao album, but with this one we're going a little more back into the traditional Hawaiian music, he explains, uncertain whether anybody is ready to accept a Sean Na'auao album that contains equal parts local reggae and traditional Hawaiian-language music, two forms that dont seem to agree with "kids" or traditionalists.
"Neutralize It" contains several beautiful traditional Hawaiian songs as well at the commercial reggae-beat originals that have made Na'auao a staple on Hawaii's "island music" and "island rhythms" radio stations. Na'auao says that while he "loves reggae," he wants hisfans to also be award of their Hawaiian heritage.
"The thing that I'm trying to do is neutralize it. Take some stuff from the other places of the world and incorporate it in my own way without forgetting the basics of Hawaiian music. That's what I'm trying to incorporate as far as telling people what I'm all about.
"The kids these days are really talented and I would like them to follow in the footsteps I'm doing. We can take things out from the world but just remember where you came from. The foundation is the Hawaiian music. I would like to steer them in that direction."
At the same time Na'auao hopes that traditionalists will accept reggae-beat Hawaiian music with the same aloha that previous generations showed for such non-traditional thing as choral singing, the guitar, the ukulele, string bass and electric instruments.
"If they could try to be open minded and listen to the reggae side as well as the young kids appreciating where they're (coming) from. ... The ukulele came here from Portugal and now it's accepted (as traditional Hawaiian). We all have to have an open mind and listen to all kinds of music."
Na'auao first enjoyed fame as a member of Mana'o Company and survived the Jawaiian band's demise to achieve ever greater success as asongwriter, record producer and solo recording artist.
Na'auao has not only achieved fame and commercial success but he even won over the conservative and traditionally anti-Jawaiian and anti-reggae membership of the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts to win a Na Hoku Hanohano Award for his third solo album, "Fish & Poi," in 1998. The title song, a catchy listing of popular local delicacies set to a commercial blend of Jamaican-style rhythms and '60s teen pop melodic riffs, became the inspiration and template for at least a half dozen similar songs by other artists.
Na'auao says that he, too, has become more interested in his Hawaiian heritage in recent years. He and Mountain Apple Co. head Jon de Mello, the distributor of the new album, discussed the possibility that fans might feel he was rejecting them if he released a traditional Hawaiian album.
"Originally we were going to do an all traditional Hawaiian album but the people know me for songs like "Fish & Poi" and -- sorry to say -- "Punani Patrol," which was a really controversial song (due to its sexual reference)."
He credits his wife, Kau'i Dalire Na'auao, and his mother-in-law, Aloha Dalire, with inspiring him to take his heritage more seriously. He and Kau'i wrote or co-wrote seven songs for the album, and while he's the one with the experience when it comes to writing commercial contemporary Hawaiian hits, she takes charge when he's recording in Hawaiian.
"She and my mother-in-law are really into the hula and the Hawaiian language, whereas before, when I used to play Hawaiian music I didn't care about pronunciation and I didn't even want to know the meaning of it; I was only worried about pitch and timing.
"I used to really take it for granted, but now I want to pronounce it right and bring it out to the people. That's the only way that people will really understand it. I'm more than 50 percent Hawaiian and I should be helping to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture."
SEAN Na'auao has taken a big step forward and the result is his best and most impressive album ever. The title track is one of several that conveys the theme of embracing new ideas while remembering one's heritage. Na‘auao shows
new maturityNeutralize It:
By Sean Na'auao (Poi Pounder PPR 7003)
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinReggae icon Bob Marley used his music as a conduit for political and cultural education, and with a little luck Na'auao's strong new local reggae songs with have similar impact as local reggae funs absorb the messages will enjoying the rhythms they love.
Traditionalists will applaud Na'auao's falsetto and treatment of several Hawaiian-language songs, including Queen Lili'uokalani's "He Inoa No Ka'iulani" and two beautiful new songs by Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett.
And then there is his imaginative working of Marley's classic "Three Little Birds" as a predominantly a capella number. This is obviously one of the best local remakes of the year.
Na'auao and his wife, Kau'i, prove themselves a talented song-writing team whether writing of love or addressing social issues with "Living the Fast Life."
The couple gets an assist from local sportscaster and musician Robert Kekaula, who plays a hapless Hawaiian with extremely large and smelly feet in "Lu'au Feet." The song is a novelty that kids will love and more mature minds will find gross, but it has a catchy arrangement.
The order of the songs reinforces the disc's message. Na'auao opens with an oli by Hewett, which segues into "Hawaiian," a reggae-beat anthem advising Hawaiians to "remember who you are/remember where you came from." He closes by going almost full-circle with "Sandy Beach," an original song that celebrates a contemporary Hawaiian lifestyle, followed by a beautiful rendition of "Pua Lilileluha," a Hawaiian-language classic by Mary Kawena Pukui and Kahauanu Lake.
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