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 Take Me Home
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Production Notes
Where To Buy? Retail:
Read Reviews of this Album
One random day, Chad, Kale, and Kala'i went to Starbucks to get some mocha frapathingies, and while they were there, they decided they wanted to write a song. They messed around with a few different ideas, and they came up with a melody and a chord structure. They decided to call it quits after that. A couple of days later, we were all in Kale's living room, and after rehearsal, they were all like "hey, lets finish that song that we started". They brought me up to speed, and then we sat down to pen the lyrics to the song. After we were done, we dubbed it "Take Me Home", and our very first original song was complete. "Kapunahou" was a song that Chad and Kala'i suggested. We tried different things and ended up liking what we came up with. That song found its way onto the CD.. "Mapu Mau Ke `Ala" was an easy choice for us (to make the album). Keikilani Ako, whom we knew as "Mr. Ako" when we were all attending Kamehameha, composed such a beautiful masterpiece. One day, at rehearsal Kala'i mentioned that he had started composing a hapa haole song. He wasn't quite finished with it. He worked on it after rehearsal, and in no time he had penned "Hapa Haole Girl of My Dreams". It's a song about his love for his then girlfriend. We are still kind of shame when we bring this up, but "Kananaka" was a song that we saw another band do, and just fell in love with. Kana'e used to perform at the Reef down in Waikiki, and when `Ale`a was starting out, we would make group outings down to catch them play. They were (and still are) our idols. Ioane Burns, Hoku Zuttermeister, Kala'i Ontai, and Kekoa Kaluheiwa are very talented individuals, but back then, together, they were an awesome 4 piece group. Kananaka was Kale's pick for the album. (blame him! :) ) Helen Desha Beamer's "Kawohikukapulani" was Chad's pick. Such a beautiful mele, with so much meaning. At first the other 3 guys didn't know how it was going to turn out, being that we never rehearsed it, or we never performed it live. Chad asked Mahi Beamer, if he would join `Ale`a, and Uncle Mahi agreed to. We were so fortunate. Uncle Mahi's piano magic, Kala'i's background vocal parts, along with Chad's lead made for a beautiful finished product. Swing was the thing back in 98/99. So being the young, adventurous men that we were, we thought we'd give a stab at taking a swing number and putting a Hawaiian twist to it. It kinda worked, and the end result was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's "You and Me and the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight"..with a definite local flavor. I think somewhere Scotty Morris is just shaking his head. :) When people talk about Hawaiian music theres one name that always comes up - Gabby "Pops" Pahinui. Being the impressionable young Hawaiian men that we are, we fell in love with "Pua Kukui" and wanted to incorporate it on our CD. "Lady in Red" was a favorite of ours, and we decided we wanted to try and put something together. I don't think we did it live until after, it was just one of those songs that we always wanted to do. We knew Jon and Jake from our days playing at 'Java Java', and so we thought we'd ask them if they wanted to try and help us with an arrangement. So we all sat down in Jon's home, put our heads together, and what you hear now is what we came up with. We wanted Kala'i to do a falsetto number. Kale, Chad and I suggested something that would showcase his agile vocal style, and so Kala'i chose to do "Holo Wa`apa". If you listen to it, Kala'i sings both the original melody, and the modern melody. Kimo Kamana's "Pua Tuberose" was a classic song that we all enjoyed. A unanimous choice, we are still very pleased at the way it turned out. In high school, Kale was part of a Hawaiian Ensemble. His ensemble did a "Cowboy Medley", and although their medley and our medley share the same name, they are different. A very fun song to do, and it was a popular song of ours during our live shows. "Dueling Banjos" was chosen by me. I simply loved the concept of a banjo and a banjo going at it. Originally the way we played it, it was between a banjo and a bass, but for the recording, I decided i'd do it with an `ukulele. It's a bit corny, but darn it's fun to play. Kala'i listened to a lot of 80's music, we all did...he really liked this song that Tracy Chapman did. I think it was on her "Fast Car" album. Before `Ale`a, Kala'i was in another group called "Kawaihu`ihu`i", and they performed "Baby Can I Hold You" in their live shows. They performed an up-tempo version and had it in a medley. When Kala'i brought it to us, we slowed it down a bit, to more of its original tempo, and let Chad do his thing during the echoes. It got an embarrassing amount of local airplay, and helped put us on the map. After watching the movie "Inner Space", Chad was reminded of a Sam Cooke song that he always loved...he just didn't know how the verses went. One day we all sat down, figured it out, and put "Cupid" in our live show. We had no plans to put it on our CD, but then at the last minute our Producer suggested maybe we should.
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