 Hi, welcome to Think Tech. We are raising public awareness about technology, energy, diversity, and globalism. This show is center stage. I'm your host, Donna Blanchard, proud managing director of Kumukuhua Theater. And we are coming to you live from Pioneer Plaza in the heart of downtown Honolulu, very near Kumukuhua Theater, where Improvaganza will be showing this weekend, just in case you were wondering about that. I am really excited to introduce you to my guest today. He is one of the most awesome guys in the music scene here in Hawaii for several different reasons, and we're going to explore those right now. We're going to talk with Ceddie Blaise Pascua. Do I say her name right? That's correct. Oh, good. Thank you. Ceddie, thank you so much for being here. You're welcome. It's an honor to be here. Oh, that's cool. Thanks. You are one of the nicest guys around, period. You're an awesome guitar player and vocalist in the band Wolfpack. And you are also a go-to guy for a lot of people in the music scene because you are the guitar and amp doctor. Yes, I am. Thank you. I love to. So we're going to talk about all of that. Okay. Okay. First of all, let's talk about, if you don't mind, let's talk about what you have coming up for Wolfpack. Where are you playing next? We'll be playing at Anno O'Brien's on October the 8th. Rocktoberfest. Yeah, that's going to be for Rocktoberfest. Thank you. Yeah. I hold those every month and a half and we're going to be featuring Sire, the Lords of Rock. We're going to be featuring Black Rose and Our Good Friends of Bread of Roof and, of course, my band, Wolfpack. Which is heavy rock, can we call it a heavy rock? Heavy rock. That would be perfect. Is that good? Yeah, that's great. Okay. So a little bit earlier, we were talking about the difference between rock and metal. And I really don't, I can feel the difference. Can I say that? You know, one makes you want to go more like this and one makes you go like that. That's whatever. The definition. Is there a definition that you know of that between the two? I think hard rock is more melodic, more based on more set in the 80s or that style of rock, which melodic, regular, four-four temple, and then now it's changed into lower tunings, louder guitars, just more orchestrated into themes, into theatrical type of compositions and things. Do you think it's more lyric heavy, necessarily? I think maybe it's a little more shouting, yes, lyrically, correct, yeah. Okay, I'm just wondering, I don't, you know. Good shouting though. It's good shouting though. Wolfpack, so Wolfpack has that coming up. How long have you guys been together? The spend has been together for about two years. This is the latest incarnation of it. And we have Tommy Kedani playing drums and Jason Pack playing bass. And I'm very happy with this lineup. This lineup seems to be the one that I was kind of, had my ideals toward what I wanted this band to be, what this band to be. Have you always been the common denominator in the band? Is it your band? It is my band. Okay, yes. Is it okay to ask that? Sure. It's your band. That's cool. You're the pack leader. I guess, yes. Ow! Okay, just had to howl a little bit on the show today. It's the equinox and we've had a lovely full moon so we can howl. That's right, how you know. And you have always, your music is original? We play only original music, correct. That's very cool that you have not succumbed to the tyranny of covers. Well, I shouldn't say that, but I am. Yeah, we just, I just have this vision and I only have one life to live. And I want to paint what I want to paint in my life, instead of doing something that's already done, I'd rather go out playing something, well, let's say if I flop, I'd rather flop on my own music than playing music that's already been done or someone else's music. Gotcha. Now, and I do have to say, I went to see the Symphony, the Queen show last weekend. Oh, awesome. Speaking of covers, there's a lot to be said for someone playing a song that you know and love really, really well and they were awesome. That was a good show. And there's also something to be said for taking someone else's cover and making it your own. Correct. So, you know, I'm not poo-pooing all of that, but I think it is very often that you are offering your 100% your own expression. Correct. So are you coming to the band, are bringing lyrics and an idea of the music? Are you bringing the package to the band? Or are you collaborating entirely with the band to create? This one's unusual. A lot of the songs that I've had that we have now were written a while back ago. But we're in the process of changing them to each individual band member style, you know, here and there. Oh. But yeah, I pretty much have a vision of what I want the lyrics to be, how I want the music to be, and pretty much I bring it to the band and we sort of put our ideas together and see what we can come up with. Yeah. Nice. Okay. So you're kind of tooling your own covers? Correct. Yes. That's good. That's nice. Right? Correct. So are you, do you feel like you hear the music in your head first or is it the words that drive it for you? It's the music first. The music's always first. I'm just musically driven. Whatever I'm doing, wherever I'm going, I'm always thinking of music, melodies, beats. My father was a guitar player and so he taught me when I was a child and then I went to school and learned from there. But music has always been my passion. Something that I do is music based, whether I'm walking or hopping on a street or whatever. Hopping. Yeah, there you go. I try to create a beat here and there. So you are feeling music, sort of a rhythm of life, would you say? Music is life to be. So do you listen to music? Are you someone who is listening, you know, you're the good guy with the headphones or the music playing at all times? Or do you find yourself spending time in silence and just listening to what's... I spend more time in silence listening. That's a good question. I don't get asked that. It comes from my heart. I hear the music and then gathering from what I learned in school and about music. I'm so blessed that I'm able to bring that out and construct music in a way that is with life and happiness and love and everything. Now with that kind of attitude I might expect show tunes to come out of you. So it's interesting that expression comes out in hard rock. Yes. Yes. Okay, so let's talk about your background a little bit. Your dad was a guitar player. My dad was a guitar player and I was raised in the military. We were in the Army. Oh, see, were you moving around? Yeah, we were constantly moving around. We lived in Europe, a lot in the mainland, in Germany, Spain, places like that. So you were around a lot of musical influences, varied. A lot. How cool is that? Do you have your first guitar still? No, I don't. No. Sorry. I think a Montgomery Ward, I think, one of those catalog guitars, but yeah, that's long gone. I wish I still had it though. Yeah, I'm sorry that I brought it up then. No, no, no, no. I just kind of assumed you'd have it. That's great. It's good to think about that. Where's that guitar? So you had the opportunity to, I mean, music is different in Germany. I would imagine at the same, when you were there in the 70s or 80s? Yes, yeah, early 70s, late 60s, early 70s, very classical, very disciplined, very, I find that the culture there and the children there are very mature for their age, being very family-oriented, very musically inclined. That place goes way back to classical music, and a lot of waltzes come from Germany, a lot of composers, yeah. So more metered music, you felt like that makes sense. Martin Luther was my first experience with German music. Oh, really? Okay, that's a good point. Okay, so then you went to school. Did you study music? Yes, I did. Yes. Went to, graduated, took classes in UCLA and graduated in Pasadena College, and of course my father taught me, and I was blessed to take guitar lessons from Joe Pass when I was a child. So my father kind of knew him, so yeah, I had a very musical upbringing. My parents were very supportive, and I'm very blessed for that. And you make your living entirely based on music now. Is that correct? Correct, yeah, fixing musical and repairing them, anything musical, teaching lessons, yeah. Oh, that is really awesome to be able to say that, that your passion is also your career. It is, yes, yes, I wish there was more to it, but I love, that's my passion. And I love doing it, and that's where my heart lies. Awesome, I'm happy that that's where your career lies also. How long have you, how long have you been back in Hawaii? You traveled around, you were at UCLA, what brought you here? I got a notification from my mother. She's well in her years now, and she wanted me to come home to be with the family. So I came back in 2000, and I was up there. I left after high school, which I graduated in 79, and left shortly after that, and stayed up there. I did everything that I needed to do, and then came home, yeah. And did you start your first band here? No, I had some pretty good successful bands in California, opening up for some pretty good acts. And I also did guitar-hacking for some major, major bands. You don't want to drop names? Sepultura, Steve Stevens, Terry Bozio, yeah, people like that, yeah. Oh, okay, okay. So that's really cool that you came back for your mom, because you had some big stuff going on there. Yes, yes, but my mother is more important. And I didn't want to miss the rest of my life with her. How quickly after you came back, did you form a band here then? I didn't form a band until I think it was 2008, I think, or somewhere around there, 2007. You waited a little while. Yeah, waited a while. And was that Wolfpack and its original iteration then? No, I actually formed Lucky 13, which was a very popular band here. We were so blessed to win the first Hard Rock Cafe battle of the bands ever after four gigs, so I was very gifted with the musicians that were in that band. But everybody moved on to things that they needed to do in their life, yeah. No names that we would know. Rick Rocket is currently doing his music at home. Gerard Gunsall is, of course, in Storm, yeah, because we all know Storm. And my good friend Eddie Black is in Sire. And Scott Moniz, they had a band called Slack Alice, and he was in Calamity Jane back then. So we all have our... So some of them are around? Yeah, we're all around. Okay. We're going to take our first break. I'm ready. Yeah. We're going to be right back talking more with Sette, so please stay put. Hi. I'm Crystal. Welcome to Think Tech, my show, Clock Talk. Normally airs at 10 o'clock on Tuesdays, but it's going to change to 11 o'clock. So don't miss it. It's an hour later. You can sleep in a little longer. Come with me and engage in some sensitive, provocative discussions on everything. It's all good. All right? So, thanks for all the great ideas and issues, things that people don't dare to talk about. We want it on the table. So, join me. Aloha. How you doing? Welcome to Clock Talk. I'm here at Gardo the Tech Star on Think Tech, Hawaii. And I'm here with my good old buddy, Andrew the security guy. Hey, everybody. How you doing? Aloha. Thanks for watching. Good to have Andrew here in the house. Please join us every Friday from 1 to 1.30 and follow us up on YouTube. And remember, as we say at the end of every show, how you doing? Aloha. And welcome to The Savvy Chick Show on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm the weekly host at 11 a.m. Honolulu time. Very excited for the next six weeks. We have the Aspire series, which is all about the coolest careers I could find. And interviewing and getting insights from these amazing people who want to share it with you and help you live your dreams. Look forward to seeing you on the show. Aloha. Hi. We're back. We're live. This is center stage on the Think Tech, Hawaii digital network. I want to let you know that you can, if you would like to interact with us, you may do so. You can tweet us at Think Tech H.I. Also, if you or someone you know really should be here at the table talking with me, you can let me know. You can tweet me at It's All About Donna. I would really love to hear from you. We are back talking with Ceri Blaise Pascua, the guitar and amp doctor and leader of the Wolfpack. Yeah. Correct. Ooh. Okay. So let's talk about the guitar and amp doctor part of your life. Did you have another job on the island and then one day decided, no, I just want to have my life all be music? What? I started working at the music stores naturally when I first came back. I started working at Hot Legs. And then I went to Dan's Guitar. He's a very good friend of mine, Dan Dukmuni. I worked there for about eight years and then had moved on from there to Easy Music Center for a couple of years and then decided that I wanted to do this on my own. Is that a difficult step today? It was in the beginning, but then when I realized that I could do this on my own and on my own time, that's when I made that decision to do that. Okay. So guitars, I understand that if you are a guitarist, you get to know your electric guitar. Amps is another thing. Amps involves electronics. Where did you learn that? I learned that in college. Oh. I learned everything that I know in college. You studied electronics in college? Electronics, yeah. Oh, did you know that's what you wanted to do with it? Well, that being a part of it. Musical instruments, anything electronic. I do keyboards, rack equipment, studio equipment. Well, I try. Okay. I do have to say I'm going to mention Dan's has a wonderful stock of ukuleles. Oh, yes. He does. They really do. And they let me play even the really expensive ones. Oh, they're awesome. That's such a great store. It is. It's a nice store. They make you feel at home. Yeah. I think it's one of the boutique stores here on the island that carry things that pros would look for. Yeah. I was steering at a very expensive resin ukulele, I think, up on the wall. And a fellow came over and asked if I wanted to play it. And I said, yeah, you're going to let me. It's like $1,000. Oh, geez. Yeah. So I just wanted to throw that in. Okay. So here's what I'm wondering. As someone who has formed a couple of bands and you guys gig pretty often. Correct. Yes, we do. Yeah. What kind of, what goes into forming a band? A lot of discipline first. A lot of dedication. A lot of love and passion. A lot of patience. Yeah. And musical knowledge. Okay. And of course we all have to be on the same page. Yeah. To, you know, sort of to, because I want the love of my band members to be there. You know, so it's not so much of a job, not so much. So they enjoy making the music as well with me. Do you, did you go out to other gigs and watch guys and say, you, I want you in my band? That's what I did with Pac-Man, Jason Pac. Yes. Okay. Yes. When we were in the middle of a change, I told Tommy, my drummer, I said, I want him. That's him. Did you steal him from another band? No, he was, he had just actually left, left his band. Yeah. Oh, okay. That's when we grabbed him. And the others, were you already buds or how did that happen? Tommy Kadani, I've known, I've actually known him since, since the late 70s, 80s. But I haven't met up with him for a long time until I found him on Facebook. Oh. And then found out that he wasn't doing anything. So I grabbed him. Oh, okay. Yeah. How often do you guys rehearse? We try to rehearse at least twice a week. Right. Yeah. Before a show. We go into a loud live rehearsal until about the last three rehearsals before. And you were, before we came on, you were saying something about, I said I don't really like to prepare for my shows because I, I mean, it's not, it's not that I don't prepare for the shows. I don't, well, I don't, I do a little, I do a little stalking. Okay. We can say it. Well. I do, I look around a little bit, I watch, you have a lot of videos on YouTube. You know, I watch that and I know you. But I don't, I don't want to come in with prepared questions or anything because I want an organic conversation. And I was really surprised to hear you say that that's, that's kind of what you like to do with a live performance, not prepare too much. Exactly. I think part of the magic of a live performance is to give them something that they already know, but in a different format. It should be live. Things should be spontaneous, I think. You know, I think that brings out the magic in a performance instead of just doing the same thing over and over again. Yeah. But you have to work with each other enough so that you're trusting. Yeah. So you can just let it out. We do have our cues. Yes. Well, yeah. Okay. You have to. As an actor, we, yeah, we do this too. And generally, like when you're on stage as an actor, you don't want to switch things up too much from rehearsal. But when it does happen, it galvanizes everybody into an awesome, usually into an awesome performance, not something you want to fabricate. Yeah. Correct. So you are, you are purposely throwing a little something in there. Yes. Yeah. We have a few things that we're going to do with this next show. Oh, yeah. That's, that I think that is part of the raw rock and roll element that I think people are used to seeing in pictures back in late 60s, 70s where things were unbridled. Oh. And they were just kind of spontaneous on stage. That's what we like to do. Yeah. Nice. The unbridled. Yes. Yes. So is there the dynamic of the people working together? And I'm broaching this very carefully because, oh, I know. Have you ever seen the show Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, the Dennis Leary show? I've seen it a couple of times. Okay. It's awesome. It's funny. And I think it's often very realistic. And there's a lot of tension between those people in the band. And sometimes it really heats up the music side of things because they're real passion involved in what they're doing on stage. Yes. And we're not going to get it. We don't have to name any names or anything. But if there is, do you feel like that can help a band sometimes to have tension or a scene to have conflict? You mean conflict in the sense of a competitive way? Potentially. Yeah. Competitive argumentative just differences? Definitely. I think that's where your heart really comes out. On stage we like to test each other. We like to try each other out. Tommy will do something on the drums and I'll try to one up him on the guitar or we'll, yeah, we pull that out. We try to pull that out in each other. I think it's a very healthy thing to do. Okay. Interesting. As long as it's, we know that we love each other. That's the main thing. Okay. Yeah, I think you are a very loving person. So I would imagine your bandmates all feel very comfortable in that. Do you guys go out to see a lot of other bands? We do when we can. Jason works nights so it's kind of hard. But I try to when I can when I'm not working or just seems my musical repair right now is getting kind of busy so I wasn't able to go out. But I will soon, yeah. And I love supporting everybody. I love having different bands on my bill when I hold the rock fest and stuff. I just love just my circle of friends. Nice. It's a very good scene of people here. Yes. Really. There's a lot of good people. A lot of very different personalities. It's pretty cool when they're all out and it is really, I think it's really wonderful to see people out supporting other bands. Yes. And I also think it's really important. It is. Because the scene is only this big. Correct. Correct. It's not really a lot of a lot of the places where people play here at, you know, Anna's and O'Toole's and and Hawaiian Bryant. Those aren't tourist scenes. Correct. You know, they're reliant on the people here on this island to come out and support. Yes. Yes. It's nice to see. Yeah, it is. It is. It's just always a joy to go out and be amongst my friends. It's a feeling like no other. Yeah. Yeah. Just for everybody, musically. Were you, you're instrumental in putting together Rocktoberfest? Correct. I am. Yes. Thanks, Suri. You are on it. Thank you. You helped gather the other bands and work with Anna's to get it all together? Yes, I do. Oh, that's very cool. With the promoter, the person who does the booking, Jamie. And I, knowing pretty much everybody, I'm able to, you know, ask them give or take or, you know, if they want to be on my bill, you know, and I try to have different bands headline, if I can, to give them an opportunity, you know, to have a really cool poster. Yeah, with them. But yeah, I'm just totally into having everybody have a good time. Yeah. I just love it. Are you guys making any money doing that? We are. But I think the rehearsal, what we pay for rehearsal, since we don't have our own private rehearsal, it's not much. But, you know, that's where you know for sure, you're doing it for love and passion. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be nice to make money hand over fist as well. Correct. Yeah. And who knows? Do you guys have an EP? No, but we're working on one. Good. And I know that, you know, it used to be in the music business that that's what people made money off of selling their CDs, their albums, their tapes, their CDs. Correct. And it's not really that way anymore. However, there is something to be made. Yes. It's so funny because when I started this band, I told my bandmates, I, this is more of a live band. So I wanted to get our popularity by just playing live. And so far at where we are at, we're very blessed for our support. And we've come this far without a product, without t-shirts or anything. I would wear your t-shirt. When we make what you like. When you get those. You'll be for sure. Okay, good. Personally. Yeah, I'm also a big fan of when you do decide we're going to put together an EP. We're going to get that music out there. And, you know, you get that out there for sale on, you know, iTunes or Google or wherever you want to, everywhere you can go with it. And people in Germany will be downloading your music. Yes. And why not? Why not? Allow them that privilege to be able to hear you. Yes, yes. Tommy is more savvy on the computer than I am. Okay. Yeah. So hopefully I'll get him. I'll be able to get him to do that part for me. There you go. For us. I, yeah. I hope that you do. But in the meantime, we'll go see you live at Rocktoberfest. And let's talk about that one more time. It's October 8th at Anna O'Brien's. October 8th at Anna O'Brien's. And it starts at... The music starts at nine and the door's open at eight. Okay. That is going to be, there we go. That is going to be a lot of fun. I will definitely see you there. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Be honored to have you there. Oh, well, thank you. Beautiful. The nicest guy in the rock and roll scene in Hawaii City Blaze. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I would also like to thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us on center stage. There's a few more people here. I would like to thank our floor manager, Rich Prapas, who's right over there. Thank you, Rich. Zuri Bender, our studio overlord, who is in my ear. And I'd also like to thank Jay Feidl, who somehow manages to put all of this together. Thank you. And we'll see you next week. Center stage Wednesday at two o'clock. Bye.