Ray Bumatai was a musician long before
taking up acting.

Bumatai finds timing
is right for his tales
of modern life

By Gary C.W. Chun
Star-Bulletin

When Ray Bumatai and Matt Souza finally met each other face-to-face six months ago at Souza's weekday gig at the Tropics Bar of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, they immediately shared a serendipitous moment, the mutual vibe that each had each met his artistic soul brother.

Bumatai was there with a mission in mind - to find the missing piece that would help him realize his idea of a stage presentation of local stories and music, a bass player for his band, dubbed Mossrock. He had already found his drummer in Jon Glaser through their mutual work teaching bicycle safety programs to fourth-graders. Then they went in search of a bassist and, voila, there was the effusive and animated Souza doing the working musician's Waikiki lounge bar grind.

The fruit of their mutually inspired story and songwriting debuts tomorrow, what the two hope will be a long-running show called "Tales of Urban Hawaii." (It goes "on the road" when Mossrock performs at the Lizard Loft space at Marks Garage downtown on two consecutive Mondays, April 16 and 23.)

Bumatai said that while the show shares stylistic components of VH-1's "Storytellers" series and the Lake Woebegon tales on public radio's "A Prairie Home Companion," it's neither as spontaneous or fictitious of those programs.

"Both the songs and stories are threaded together," Bumatai said during a break in rehearsal Friday. "It's all scripted out and thoroughly rehearsed. It's our purpose to design a show with a clear message."

The well-established stage and screen actor said few people remember his roots. "I actually started out as a professional musician 10 to 12 years ago," he said, doing pretty much the same thing as Souza.

Except that Bumatai's interest lies in folk-rock - something that hasn't exactly been in fashion of late. "There're three reasons why I didn't go on playing music; my acting and comedy work became more successful than playing bars in Waikiki, the local music changed and places to play live music - let alone the folk-rock I liked, playing covers by Cat Stevens and James Taylor - had disappeared, to be replaced by karaoke and sports bars, and third, I had to find like spirits, musicians who didn't want to play Jawaiian or other kinds of schlocky music." He searched two years before he found the right personnel for Mossrock.

"Matt and I should've met years before that - we share the same mutual friends and they kept telling each of us separately that, 'Geez, you're just like Matt or you're just like

Ray,' " Bumatai said.

"For me, this show was inspired by my lifestyle here in Hawaii," he said. "It's almost like a throwback to the times when Hawaiians gave their history through mele - where storytelling marked different phases of life. I have no interest in doing pop songs of the 'ooh baby baby' kind."

"I got into music 'cause I wanted to get chicks!" Souza jokingly chimed in, relaying an underlying truth most male musicians would admit.

Souza has been a restless spirit throughout his life. Maui-born and a Kamehameha grad, he's been back-and-forth (up to four times by his count), living in the islands and on the mainland since he was 17, constantly following his muse. Now he's back in Hawaii, and this time it looks as if it's for good.

"It was nice to find someone like Ray who was willing to make music outside of the mainstream box," he said.

"We want people to go to a theater and pay to see us perform - which brings our net worth up a little bit!" Bumatai added. "Someplace where we don't have to deal with second-hand smoke and all the focus is on us."

"Yeah, where music isn't treated as an afterthought, something pushed aside near a club's bathroom door," said Souza.

But there is, at times, a more serious agenda. "I wrote a song called 'Take A Ride,' " said Bumatai of one of the songs the band will perform. "It outlines the lives of four people who were inspirational to me - Father Damien, Rell Sunn, Queen Lili'uokalani and George Helm - these people lived pono; they stayed true to a righteous direction to their lives. 'Holoholo Way' tells how we're always actively going to-and-fro between islands, visiting family and friends and how we feel about each other. It shows that how we as a people, it's not where you live, but who you are."

Souza's songs have an edgier, sociopolitical bite to them. A song like " 'Anahola," is based on the true story of a Kauai man who killed himself rather than abandon his Hawaiian Homelands property over "blood quantum" issues.

"I write for what I think are the majority of native Hawaiians who, while not content with the unjust treatment of our people, are not going back to digging the land with o'o and wearing malo! Where there's a difference between 'poi Hawaiians' and 'rice Hawaiians,' I define myself and others like me as 'urban Hawaiians'," Souza said.

"Hawaii has such a wide range of life experiences that I think it's way beyond just Polynesia. Becoming 'local' means having to give up divisiveness,"

"These are songs about living in Hawaii," Glaser said. "Even though the music itself isn't Hawaiian, the words and stories take you there - it's stuff you'd grab onto if you were born and raised here, but any everyday Joe could relate to this."

With Souza's lounge-playing partner, Darell Aquino, along for the ride, Bumatai hopes to take this show not only around the state but to folk festivals on the mainland.

Bumatai continues to act; he'll be shooting an independent movie here in May titled "Give and Take," with fellow Island actor Tia Carrere and, of all people, Alice Cooper (in a jail scene, interestingly enough) and continues to do voice work in Los Angeles for the character Tito in Nickelodeon's "Rocket Power" animated series.

"My music and stories looks at my life," he said, "and everybody else's who decided to remain here and make Hawaii our home."

Tales of Urban Hawaii Place: Manoa Valley Theater, 2833 E. Manoa Road Time: 8 p.m. tomorrow and Tuesday Admission: $15/$12 for theater subscribers and senior citizens. Call: 988-6131

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