GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
The local indie rock band Port Guyanas consists of guitarist and songwriter Gwen Hirai, left, guitarist Paul Bajcar, drummer James Baguio and bass player Eric Alcantara.
Together in Port
Everything's going according to Gwen Hirai's master life plan. The precocious 24-year-old is finally with a rockin' band she's always wanted to be in. It's a musical outgrowth from her duo work with teradactyl guitarist Paul Bajcar in which, as Paul and Gwen, they've sung and strummed Hirai's sweet, melodic songs of love and life. Now, with the addition of rhythmmates Eric Alcantara and James Baguio, Port Guyanas makes its debut tomorrow night at the Indie Pop Party at the University area Bedroq Bar & Grill.
Indie Pop Party
With teradactyl, Spare Batteries and Port GuyanasWhere: Bedroq Bar & Grill, 2535 Coyne St.
When: 9 p.m. tomorrow, 21 and over
Admission: Free
Call: 942-8822
Also: 7 p.m. today, Avant Pop Art Exhibit, featuring a one-night only multimedia exhibit, with music by Postmodern, Vax, Baby Microphone, DJ Sleeze and Kavet the Catalyst, at Club Pauahi, 80 S. Pauahi St., $5 cover, 18 and over.
The name Port Guyanas ("I know some people thought it was a play on the initials of Paul and Gwen," Bajcar said.) has no special meaning, other than "it's something I made up," Hirai said. "I liked the way it rolls off the tongue."
Even when Hirai initially approached Bajcar to play with her on stage, it was always with the intention "to, later on, develop into a full band." While all four ... Guyanans? ... started playing music while at their respective high schools (Bajcar and Baguio at Damien, Alcantara at Aiea and Hirai at Pearl City), they knew of each other when they all attended Leeward Community College, even though they were jamming with different bands.
Bajcar continues to be one-third of the lo-fi indie band teradactyl, while Baguio (formerly with the now-defunct Persephone Myth and former bandmate with Bajcar in Choda) drums in four other groups and Alcantara's other band is the hardcore Personal Foul.
And even Alcantara's occasional forays into photojournalism will also be on display this weekend, as tonight's related Avant Pop Art Exhibit at the downtown Club Pauahi will show some of his own photos.
IN THE meantime, Port Guyanas is the main focus for everyone's time, and Hirai, Alcantara jokingly said, "is the dictator of the band."
She laughs with embarrassment over this comment, seeing that she's just happy to be playing in a band, even though she's provided all of the band's songs and is the lead singer.
"I've always had a desire to write songs," she said, "and it's not set up in some organized way. So long as the feeling's there -- the need to sing about the things that I go through in my life -- I can't break it up into too technical a writing exercise. There are some songs that I do just for myself, and with the others, I go to Paul, and now the rest of the band, to help make those songs sound more full.
"I'm open to all of their suggestions. I want them to put anything they think will help make the songs better."
After close to two months' worth of woodshedding, the band should have at least six songs ready for their gig tomorrow night, including the electric incarnations of previous Paul and Gwen songs like "Roses Unknown," "Lost" and "Return to Your Love."
Hirai says, with no uncertainty in her voice, that, for the time being, she wants to make her mark as an indie rock singer and songwriter, "and then, from age 30 to 40, to study to become a tiger doctor," not depending on her family to pay her tuition and willing to work menial, low-paying jobs.
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