If 365 days counts as seven years in a dog's life, it can add up to an eternity in the entertainment business. This time last year Pati was just another young man with big dreams and some people who believed in his potential. Come tomorrow night he'll be one of the headline attractions at Mass Appeal presents the 6th Annual Jammin' Hawaiians concert at the Waikiki Shell. Pati ready to kick
reggae up a notchThe 20 year old is among the artists
MP3 audio clips By John Berger
jammin' at the Waikiki Shell
Star-BulletinFiji tops a bill that includes every major local reggae-rap and Jawaiian act in town and some of the second-tier hopefuls as well. Pati has already established himself on the club scene. He says he'll be taking his act to a higher level tomorrow night.
"It's gonna be bad," he said. The 20-year-old singer of Samoan and Tongan ancestry has been on the fast track to stardom since his debut album, "Nesian," hit the streets last December.
Pati and his producers, Laiku Soares and Chris Jay, exhibit a warm camaraderie.
"We're trying to broaden the horizons of what people have come to expect in island music and island performing," Jay said.
Soares says they aren't taking Pati's career trajectory for granted. "A year ago we were on the down-low," he said, explaining that he and Jay don't want to cut any corners, but they also wanted to get "Nesian" out there before anyone anticipated their direction. They had started on the project in 1998 and wanted to position Pati well ahead of the Jawaiian reggae-rap acts that had hung in on local clubs and "island music" radio stations through the '90s.
"Hawaii wants what it wants," Soares continues. "You can't stuff new ideas down their throats. Chris and I had tried it. Doesn't work. So we came up with the idea of doing island classic hits R&B-style with hip-hop, people rapping and singing, and sounds that traditionally aren't used here in Hawaii, to make it a transitional style to open the door."That explains why Soares and Jay (a k a the Whodunnits) introduced Pati with an album that consisted largely of the type of pop-chart remakes that music directors at local radio stations generally prefer over original music.
Soares adds that the Whodunnits' concept of taking pop-chart hits by acts ranging from George McCrae to the Everly Brothers to Journey, as well as standards by C&K and the Peter Moon Band, and reworking them into reggae-rap/urban pop arrangements, wasn't what Pati had in mind.
"It was hard for him to sing over a reggae track because he was actually into R&B and didn't really care about the local market. ... My dad (local record producer Bully Soares) told us we had something (big) on our hands, but the thing was that although we could do what we wanted to do, we have to conform to the local market instead of expecting the market to conform to us."
"I've learned a lot by adding their knowledge of music to mine," Pati says. He grew up singing in church, at family gatherings and in a capella sessions with friends. He preferred pure African-American R&B and urban music over the Jawaiian and local reggae.
Pati also enjoyed wrestling and football. He wasn't thinking about recording until he met Soares.
What: 6th annual concert presented by Mass Appeal Enterprise featuring Fiji, B.E.T., Colon, Jamin, Pati, Baba B, Damon, H-Dawg, Hawaiian Time, Ho'onua, Kanalo, Native Blend, Natural Vibrations, Sly Dog, Ten Feet, Van Ray and Mana 'Ohana. Jammin' Hawaiians
In concert: 3:30 p.m. tomorrow
Where: Waikiki Shell
Cost: $25 pool seating, $18.50 lower terrace, $16.50 upper terrace, $10 grass. Available at Blaisdell Box Office, Tempo Music, House of Music, UH-Campus Center and Foodland, or call 526-4400
Call: 566-0644
Soares heard Pati sing, liked what he heard and brought his father and Jay into the picture.
Pati wanted to do an R&B album. He wasn't sure about a new sound combining R&B with an updated blend of reggae and rap.
Soares said it took some studio tricks to persuade Pati.
"We wanted Pati to sound like Pati no matter what the music is doing underneath him, so what we implemented with him was not to let the music dictate to him how he's supposed to sound. We had him sing to an R&B track and then put the other track under him while he was out of the room. When he heard it, it was cool."
Soares says Pati doesn't drink or smoke or use illegal drugs. He has visited schools with the "Music With A Message" program.
With Pati exceeding expectations and looking at material for a second album, Soares and Jay are readying two Whodunnit projects, but neither will sound like Pati.
"When there's something out there that's new and different and exciting on the radio that the people are flocking to, we want them to say 'Whodunnits!'," said Soares.
Jay sums it up this way: "We want to bring Hawaii to the world but, necessarily, the world to Hawaii. We want to broaden the music here and get it to as many people as possible but we don't want to pollute the water."
MP3 Audio Clips:
Talia Maia
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