COURTESY PHOTO

Willie K aims to give
fans more of himself

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

In the past 10 years, Willie K has received five Hoku awards for his work as a solo artist, and another five for his work with Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom. It's a tally that certainly demonstrates his unquestioned talent and popular success as a recording artist, songwriter and record producer.

Willie K In concert: 7 p.m. tomorrow Place: Kapono's, Aloha Tower Marketplace Tickets: $10 advance; $12.50 at the door Call: 536-2161 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Note: VIP Dinner Package is available is $71 per couple; seating starts at 6:30 p.m.

Even so, he says, many of his fans tell him that there's something about his work on stage that he has yet to fully capture in a studio recording.

In a live performance, "there's an exchange," Willie said Sunday during a long-distance telephone conversation from the Oakland, Calif. He'd just finished rehearsing the show he presented during half-time at Monday night's Raiders-Jets game. "Whatever they are getting hungry for, I can feel what they want and I give it to them."

He added that he invited 'Ote'a 'Api, a Tahitian halau of "some old family friends of mine that I used to live with here in San Francisco," to join him in giving Oakland a taste of contemporary Polynesian rock and whatever.

"It's gonna open up with 'Kaulana Na Pua,' then 'Indigenous Nation,' a song that I wrote, and then end up with Jimi Hendrix's version of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' ... we're just gonna rock like they've never seen Hawaiians rock before.

"This is going to be a different taste of Hawaii -- not like your typical hoolaulea (or) hula competition thing ... we're just going for it and see what we can do, what kind of energy we can build up and what kind of understanding we can get the people into."

IT SOUNDS like the fans who turned out for the game Monday night may be the first of many mainland concert audiences in the months to come to get a taste of Willie K as a high-energy, modern Hawaiian entertainer. Willie, who distinguished himself playing the blues as Makana's special guest at the Hawaii Theatre last month, says that it looks like he's going to be doing more mainland concerts in 2003 and relatively few shows in Hawaii.

The good news for Oahu fans is that he's playing at Kapono's tomorrow.

"If you've seen one Willie K show, you've seen 'em all -- NAH!" he said with a hearty chuckle, when asked if he'd be playing blues and hard rock at Kapono's. On the mainland, yes, a lot of times Willie blows 'em away as a Hawaiian blues artist. But tomorrow, the program could include anything from "Love and Desire" and "Uilani E" to some of the beautiful Hawaiian-language classics from his "Awihilima: Reflections" album of last year.

"It's basically up to the people what they want to hear and what they want to see and what they want to enjoy. For me, I just play. It's a hobby more than just a gig or a job. I love it.

"As far as future projects are concerned, we're looking at anything that comes our way. I've been approached to write some music scores for movies ... merchandising ideas and all this other stuff. I guess this happens when people start going, like, 'Hey, dude, you gotta start branching out.' But anything that gets heavier than a guitar pick, I don't want to deal with it."

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