COURTESY LIVING IN QUESTION
Standing tall, Living in Question is Chris Albers, left, Jason Paulsen, Glenn Motoishi and Frank Bianchini.
The Big Island’s answer
It could be that the Big Island is truly "ground zero" for progressive rock in Hawaii. Or it could be that Big Island bands are more proactive when it comes to getting their albums out beyond the limits of their own particular scene. Or maybe a couple of local bands got lucky.
Whatever the explanation, Living in Question is the latest Big Island band to go national. The quartet still lives in Puna, but they're testing the national scene with their first recording for the Seattle-based Lazy Bones Records label.
Vocalist Glynn Motoishi says they got their big break through a series of fortunate coincidences that came together for them last year.
Living in Question CD Release Party
Where: Wave Waikiki, 1877 Kalakaua Ave.When: 10 p.m. tomorrow
Admission: $10, 21 and over
Call: 941-0424
"We were looking for a label, and (Scott Schorr) from Lazy Bones was building a house down here ... and the lady who did his locks somehow knew our drummer ... and she got him a copy of a CD that we had done down here," Motoishi explained last weekend.
Schorr hadn't been looking for acts to sign, but liked what he heard, Motoishi said, and after some back-and-forth negotiating, the band was signed last September. Work on the album began in a Big Island recording studio in October and wrapped by year's end. The eponymously titled album was officially released in March, and the band will be celebrating with a return engagement at the Wave Waikiki tomorrow night.
It's a return in the sense that all four members of Living in Question previously played the Wave as four-fifths of Liquid in March 2001. Returning with Motoishi (who plays keyboards as well as being the lead vocalist) are Chris Albers (guitars and vocals), Frank Bianchini (drums and percussion) and Jason Paulsen (bass).
The departure of guitarist Isaiah MacDonald, who formed the original band with Albers six years ago, condensed the lineup some time after they played the Wave in 2001, and the discovery that someone else (Motoishi thinks it was a band in Australia) had already copyrighted the Liquid name left the four remaining members with no choice but to find a new moniker. They experimented with a couple of variations and eventually settled on Living in Question -- sometimes shortened to L.I.Q.
However, even without the copyright issue, Motoishi says a new name might have been in order.
"We've taken a totally different direction, more of a focused direction since the loss of one member. It's a new band, new music, more positive lyrical content. More focus as far was what we want to say, basically just a lot tighter, and we all have an equal role in the back as far as songwriting goes. I think we just write about what we experience in everyday life.
"A lot of my stuff focuses around greed -- maybe because I don't have any money. Chris writes more poetically. I think a lot of his songs may be about love in some way, but you have to listen to it a lot to kind of get what he's really talking about."
IT'S PROBABLY natural to make comparisons with another Big Island-bred band, Pepper, who left Hawaii in 1999, and was signed by Volcom Entertainment in 2001. (Their song of local life, titled "Give It Up" -- a.k.a. "the dirty hot sex song" -- continues to resonate.) Motoishi says that Living in Question's songs express the frustration of being in an isolated area where many residents aren't open to rock music.
"I can hear it, the frustration and the hunger to get out of here, so I don't think we need to say we're local. That's Pepper's trip, and they make it happen, and it's conducive to the music they play. ... My No. 1 influence is probably Bob Marley, and I love the fact that the guys allow me to put that in (our music), but as far as writing a local-style song -- we have one that was on our first album, and when we play live shows, everybody sings along and knows the words, but it's not going to get re-recorded (for Lazy Bones)."
So what is it that's driving rock music on the Big Island? Motoishi isn't sure but he's proud it's happening.
"It's crazy. Honestly, there are no venues here, but the amount of bands that are good down here totally blows Oahu away. That's why we're bringing with us this other band from Kona, Bhudahead, that I think has a chance to make it as well. I think Oahu is going to blow their mind when they see these guys and see us again, too, (and) the quality of stuff that's coming out of here."
Motoishi adds that the band's days on the Big Island are numbered.
"It would be great to be able to stay here and make a living, but it's just not possible. Even on Oahu it's not possible. There's just not enough money being offered. There's not enough venues, not enough concerts, not enough bigger bands coming down here for us to open up for and get hooked up with. You've gotta be on the road -- like Pepper, they're just touring like mad. They're all over, and they're doing what they gotta do. We've already got plans to go."
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