 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community Matters here. OK, we're back alive with a special, wonderful show that has been long in the making. We are so delighted to have Bobby Hall with us today. He is an original member of the Peter Moon Band. And we're going to talk today about the phenomenon of the Peter Moon Band. So welcome to you, Bobby. Hello, gee. All right, great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. And my co-host, Ray Tsuchiyama, who is the Renaissance person who joins us on the show, we call it life after statehood. Because somehow life after statehood is a good container for this discussion. Peter Moon Band and music, Hawaiian music, the kind of hapahali music. Can I call it that? Can I call it that? To me, you can. I'm not so politically correct anymore. But tell us how you got involved in music, Bobby, and tell us how you got involved in the Peter Moon Band. Music, well, I almost kind of just fell into music. It wasn't something planned. We were around music from when we were young. My mom used to play music, perform music as a hula dancer when she was young. And my dad always enjoyed singing. So when we had get-togethers or family parties at the house, it always got to music. Everybody started. So as young kids, you just kind of listen and you hear it and you remember it. It wasn't really until after I got out of high school that I really started even having an interest in music. And it came all by chance, just my college days, which were the early 70s, guys just wanted to kind of get together just as college kids would. And then you pick up an instrument and you just start playing. So OK, I went along with the gang and did all that. And realized that I could do this not bad and not mean fairly well. And we started doing this as friends weekly, almost every weekend, kind of do that. And it got to a point where a good friend of ours was part of this group, moved to Denver to go to school. And the rest of us back here on the rock, OK, let's go visit him. Let's go visit Scott. OK, well, we can't afford to visit Scott. So how can we do this? So maybe we can go and earn some money playing music on the side. So that's what we did. Three of us, my younger brother, a good friend of mine, his name is Gary Shimabukuru. No relation to Jake, but the same last name. We decided to go and look for a small gig that could earn us enough money so we could visit our friend in Denver. We landed a job at the Outreader Reef Hotel. It was a three-night-a-week job. And it got to the point where we were good enough to stay there and continue there, and we could never take off. So our plans to go to the mainland never came to fruition. We started playing, got a little bit more popular, did more private gigs, got to play with other brands in Waikiki, and it kind of just took off from there. Totally unplanned. Now, your songs, did you develop your songs yourself? So you took songs that were out there? We took songs that were out there. I mean, we weren't initially into writing songs. So we just took the traditional Hawaiian music. We started music when we called the Hawaiian Renaissance, was in full swing, late 60s, early 70s. It was very inspirational to us to have traditional Hawaiian music blended in with contemporary music, period. So it was more appealing for us. So we tried to figure out how the chords go, and then just the interest in learning more about the music took me back to listen to the old Gabby songs, the old Sons of Hawaii songs, the old Hawaii Call songs, the old John DeMello, you know, orchestra stuff, and I really started to absorb that. So it really is a hapahaldi strain in your music. I mean, yeah, it was a hapahaldi strain to begin with. And it was kind of unplanned. It just kind of grew there. What differentiates the music that you were developing against other music at the time, because you were different, if not unique? Well, the Peter Moon Band itself didn't formulate until the late 70s. In the early 70s, late 60s, early 70s, Peter was already playing music. He was playing with the Pahainui Sons. He was playing with Palani Vaughn at that time. And then he formed a group which we all know well, called the Sunday Manoa, with Robert and Roland Casmarro. And that synergy, along with everything else that was happening, inspired a lot of guys who liked the music, including myself. That sort of launched interest from groups that are like Olamana, Country Comfort, Beamer Brothers, all of, everybody just kind of came up together around the same time, including myself and the group that I was in. And it just stayed that way throughout the 70s. Peter ventured on from the Sunday Manoa. Robert and Roland became the Casmarro Brothers. And they ended up at the Royal Hawaiian. But the music was in everybody's DNA already. And it basically took traditional Hawaiian music and gave it some upbeat, or just reintroduced music from the past to the current generations. And they've made it flavorful enough so the music attracted everybody. Once the music attracted that generation, then everything else that brought in, the culture, the dance, the hula, the food, the habits. The Renaissance wasn't just musicians playing music. I think it was more than that. I don't think it'd be fair to me to say that it was just music. I mean, there was a lot of things happening. But for me and for a lot of people, what we heard, what was appealing. And the music sort of gave us, okay, this is neat. Well, in a sense, Hawaiian music was a portal, a way to enter larger Hawaiian Renaissance of that time. But again, what Robert is saying is, how do you make Hawaiian music cool? I think that's the key. Yeah, I mean, you call it the Chalanga-Langue. But not everybody was, there wasn't appealing to maybe my generation at the time. So it made it interesting. And if there's a portal, it's basically looking backwards as far as trying to project forward. How can this music, what else can we do with this music? Then when Peter decided to get back in the music scene and form the Peter Moon Band, he wanted to take it even another notch. He wanted to push the limits of the music. And we got into some pretty fast up-tempo rock and roll stuff that drove that. Can you be a person of that, you know? Yeah, and I won't say that we were solely responsible for the transition, but that became a new sound for the people in the 80s, early 90s generation. They started listening to something that's a little bit more appealing to them. And we pushed the gamut, rock and roll, reggae, 40s, 50s, hapahali, traditional Hawaiian. And that was all interesting to us. Everybody in the band had a broad background of music that they already played, so it became interesting. So it was a great time, like experimentation in a sense. For us, and I credit that to Peter. I mean, his experimentation style goes back to when, he forged the union with Sonny Manoa and tested that limit and got traditional Hawaiian music to this level. And maybe just out of being impatient, he kind of jumped on the Peter Moon Band era and we started another level of music interest. And it worked well, it worked well for us. I wanna go back for a minute to the whole notion of the Renaissance. What do you think created this Renaissance? Because that's what Ray and I studied. We studied all the strings of historical development, cultural development, economic development, since statehood, sometimes before. But what do you think created the Renaissance? How did this come together? You know, I'm a victim of the tree in the forest because I was living and breathing at the time that that happened. So from my perspective, it just became interesting to learn about the music. And then the music led to your culture. It led to your heritage background. It led to a lot of other stuff. And it was up to you to take it how far you wanted to learn. There was a growing interest in development in Hula, Kahiko Hula and Awana Hula. And even a more broader interest in music. So everybody coined that phrase Renaissance. I don't know if I'm the best person to describe it, but it's like Woodstock. If you were there, you were there. Can you explain the three days that you were there? Probably not. You can tell anybody. You know, I know a woman named Fumiko Wellington. She plays for the Hawaii Orchestra. She's been playing a long time. Her father was a musician. And we interviewed her a couple of years ago. Her father came over from the mainland. And he settled. She was a child in Kailua. She went to Kailua High School. She said she was surrounded by music. Surrounded. There was music everywhere. And there was no question of priority. It was a priority. Everybody loved it. Everybody spent their time and invested their time in it. The parents, children, teachers, everybody. Since that time, it has diminished, I think. And I wonder how that plays with the Renaissance. You have a Renaissance? You have people interested, maybe far and wide, but then at the same time in Hawaii, we don't put as much time into creating the music as we used. Well, yes and no. Nowadays, the media and the technology allows people to create music right from their bed. And exposure, it just goes around the world, right? So maybe the exposure or the Renaissance is not something that we physically see anymore. There's not like a nightclub setting where you go and you pick up all ambiance. But it's still out there in various forms. It gives musicians, I think, a broader venue to try stuff, whether it's good or not, it's out there. You still see them coming up? I'm glad that they don't stop. I'm glad that there's always a next generation of music. I'm not trying to sound condescending or kind of ol' papay-ish, but I'm glad that momentum is still going. Well, you know what? I really like to hear a song. I've got to reach my stuff over there. Let's see if we can get somebody to get that for you. We'll take a short break. And when we come back, Bobby Hall is going to play something. And I have heard him play all by himself, not by the band. And it's really something. And he has a wonderful voice. You're going to hear that in a minute. So stay tuned and we'll be right back. OK. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Ray, Rich, can you move the ukulele? Match Day is no ordinary day. The pitch, hallowed ground for players and supporters alike. Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff, MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your Match Day experience. If you drink, never. One, we're on. OK. Here's a song that I like to say was being famous by the Peter Moon band, particularly my partner who's now in heaven, Martin Pahinui. It's a song that was written for us, for him, a good friend, Patrick Downs. And it's a song called Flying. I'll do a part of it. Mind you, I'm a one-man Peter Moon band. So you get what you get. Loud, yellow, white, and purple strands, woven like the many days, and countless ways we've held our hands. Bring out an airport gate. All those wishes on, it's done, it's so far. Like an Eptak, like a trade wind, like a tin. It's a bowl. Thank you very much. Martin. Thank you. So what's it like to be in a band or in a series of bands like that? I can't imagine I've never been in a band. It's a social experience. It's a communication, coordination, synchronization kind of thing. It's all of that. When Peter put the band together, he basically selected musicians who were already part of other groups and who've already recorded and done a lot of stuff. If I may say, he sort of just assembled a technical band who could help him envision and do the things that he wanted to create. So initially, he called me. He called partner Randy Lorenzo. Randy is a very prominent musician in Hawaii. He's original country comfort. Played with C&K. Played with Beamer Brothers. He's the studio musician on a lot of bass tracks for everybody. And then we added Serepa Inui from Gabi San and initially Steve Wulford, who also was from country comfort and Wulford and Keats. All experienced, all well now. All well-experienced musicians. All super bad. Well, I mean, I don't want to call it super bad. You're telling me like Peter had a vision. He had some kind of vision. I mean, he's always had a vision. He's always been the creative genius to me behind the music. His skill is playing. He's what probably, in my opinion, probably the best ukulele player, period. Why not? And guitar is his second love's lackey. He plays that well. But he surrounded himself with strong voices, strong talents that not overshines him, but complements his vision. Robin and Roland, Casemaro. He's maintained a good relationship with Polanyi Juan and Napa Inui. So it was a deliberate formation. As far as being in the band, we've all worked five, six nights a week, Waikiki Circuit. We were all kind of like drained with that. So with this man, we all committed to basically work weekends, work when we needed to work, go into the studio, commit to making new music. And that worked for us. We were like a part-time, full-time band. Got to a point where we were working every week, at least on Oahu or neighbor islands, and then West Coast, and then Japan, and then local play sales. Most of the band members, except Peter, everybody was basically pulling a full-time job, as well as playing music. So it got to a kind of a scheduling challenge for us. Yeah, and it makes it complicated, because it means, what I hear you say, it's hard to earn a living doing this. Well, I mean, the market is only so big in Hawaii, cost of living so high. Besides just earning a wage and you want to raise a family, you got to make sure you got your basics, your medical, your health, education. So it's a financial decision that we've made to hold on to jobs. That's unbelievable. But if a young person came to you today and said, wow, I want to make a career in Hawaiian music in Hawaii or international, why don't you tell this person? I mean, I'm not the best judge of who's the next Bruno Mars for the biggest star. But it depends on where do you see yourself? Do you see yourself just playing music for the rest of your life? And then by me, you just put your whole life into it. But you can't have competing goals. If you're going to be a musician, be a musician. Do the best you can to keep that as a priority. If you're going to be a musician and a father raising two kids, then you got to figure out what you want to do. Because by itself, every musician in Hawaii will tell you, you just can't, the venues don't pay that much to cover. Some try and they do not succeed. And you can make a lot in a short time. And then it's what you do with your earnings. It should last you till you 65 plus, but nobody thinks that far. To me, and I'm on the outside of this, although I used to play the piano when I was a kid. I just wonder, is this gratification involved? It's more than the money. It's gratification. You go down there with a group like that, getting gratification to be part of something that's creating something beautiful. Music for me, especially when you do it on stage, the gratification is being able to share the gift that God gave you with a lot of people. And the instant gratification you get from applause, or just, if the venue is small enough, you can see it in people's eyes, the impact that your voice or your instrument is having on them. And you're really making a mark in their timeline of life. You really are. I mean, when you think about it, at that time, I don't know if I thought about it all the time when I was on stage. And I was just thinking, OK, we're going to party after. We're going to go after this. But in retrospect, you can have that influence. You know, every time you study a band or a musician, you find that they're ups and downs, and that even in the short discussion we've had, it sounds like people go from one to the other, and then something doesn't work out. So they go again, and so forth. What's that like? I mean, why do these, I want to say disagreements, but that may be the wrong term for it. Why do these things happen that require people to move on? You know, I think in general, and again, my opinion, artists have a strong ego, especially maybe musicians or other type of artists. Everybody likes to be in front and in the Senate. I think what worked for us is we were only together a short time. How many years? I mean, when I say short time is, I mean, as far as actual performance playing. But I've played with, I've been in the Peter Moon Band for 14 years. I'm probably one of the longest members that stuck around that long. But- Is that because you're a very glee-able guy? You know, I want to, I'd like to think I know a good thing when I see it. Let's go a team player. But you know, as far as stage performance, you know, we weren't working six, seven nights a week, four hours a night when you get on each other's nerve. But not. And in just being together, you can burn out. So we were together long enough on stage not to hate each other. If that's the way you put it. You're still friends. You're past that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. And you know, although you're playing repetitive music or you're playing popular, there's always something that somebody does on stage every night that's different. And you look forward to that moment and that just, yeah, yeah. Or you hear something that, wow, you know, we did that. Special moment. Yeah, it's incredible. Have you listened to your music, your recordings? I mean, I do. You know, I don't know if I, you know, I do it by myself. I don't like to kind of like put it out there. Yeah, I'm listening to myself. Yeah, but I'm, you know, honored that I still hear it. I still hear it on the radio. I still hear it, you know, places I go. I steered it on the mainland on internet stations. You know, and it's something that I never thought that, you know, when I record tonight that it's gonna stay for all history. So we, you know, we're glad that, you know, we got good technicians when we did our recording. We did, you know, old style, you know, with the live engineer and everything like that. So, yeah, I believe our, the quality of the music that we did is long lasting. But I always thought that we could, we as a state, a society could do more to really place ukuleles and Hawaiian music into our children. Like Canada has a huge program for, you know, using the ukulele to teach music, you know. And we don't have centers to get people together and play young people and train them. And I suppose you went to UH and one of the prerequisites to graduate was to play one song of the ukulele, right? I mean, if we think of ourselves as very unique people with Hawaiian music as a gift to the world, we aren't doing that much to really, really foster that. You agree? Well, there's a lot of venues that are doing that. You know, the Reisakuma School of Ukulele, there's a lot of more ukulele schools. I think in the actual school curriculum itself, you know, the artists, you know, Jake Chimabukuro, Brian Tolentina from today, they're making it a point to get it out there. So to me, it'll come. It's just like the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian immersion school. Yeah, you know, those are almost mainstream of what we do nowadays. So it'll come back. You know, whether or not it's meant to be, every person has to grow and play ukulele. I just think, just the awareness to know that where it came from and if you want to, you can. Well, you know, in the last few years, you know, there's been a lot of change in the music industry, right? We hear about it in the context of mainland music, but it has to affect wine. I mean, the move to the internet, the move to electronic, move away from performed music and to music you can get on your cell phone. How has that affected people in band music? I mean, if anything, it sort of gave us a second, third life of exposure because, you know, our music is dated. It's from the previous century, you know, but it kind of regaved life. You know, people are playing it again and groups, I've heard young groups, you know, mimic the style that we have discovered. So they're rediscovering the music that they expect in the 70s for today. I mean, you know, my grandkids, but my nieces and nephews, they don't know what I did. They don't know who we are. You know, even like kids in grade school, maybe in early high school, they've never heard of the Peter Moon band. But if you hear the song and the parents hear the song, they'll stick with them. So I wonder, you know, Peter Moon died, yeah? No, Peter's still living. He's still living. Yeah, Peter suffered a major heart attack and stroke in the early 2000s, never fully recovered. And he's actually pretty much paralyzed, head down. So he's still living. He's up in Manawani Hospital. Quality of life, probably not the best. Left many good songs and memories for a lot of people in Hawaii, including the musicians that he worked with. Go visit him. Not had the chance recently, it's hard to see, yeah. What about, you know, the band itself? I mean, what effect did that, his inability to play, have on all that? Well, I'm sure it's torture not being able to do what you've done your whole life. His son, Peter Jr., is very talented. He's kind of playing in the music scene now as both a ukulele virtuoso and a guitar player. So he sort of made sure that the DNA strand continues. Very talented. I don't know too many people as creative as Peter though. I mean, Peter was very creative, you know, and was smart enough to surround himself with quote-unquote guns that can blow it off. Well, organization don't mind to put together, you know, technicians and then execute a vision as a band. This should be a special on him in the future on that whole thing. Yeah, I hope there is, yeah, I hope there is. Well, you know, what about you? Are you still playing as much as before? What's your trajectory right now? You know, I mean, I have the opportunity to play with friends for special engagements. But beyond that, I'm kind of, and I don't necessarily miss it. You know, I'm okay. Opportunity comes. We'll play in the backyard with friends. I mean, that's a high for me, so yeah. Any children or family members? So my son, my oldest son, Kainoa, I myself taught very good at, you know, picking up fast. He used to read it to me. Maybe, I mean, he's got a great voice too, you know, so I'm pretty sure that was it from the mom. So we're, is he playing? No, I mean, he plays with friends and you know, sometimes he goes out and does guest stuff but he's not the unstage person like I guess I was. Maybe that could change. Never know. So we're nearing the end of our show. Sure, okay. And I'd like you to play another piece at the end of it but before I do, I'd like to ask you to describe as you did during the break about your ukulele, what the history is. Really? Yeah. Oh, okay, well I don't know if she's out round but this Martin Ukulele. Martin, oh, that's a good quality brand. It's a Martin tenor. This is probably, you know, I want to say at least 40, 50 years old. A friend at work, you know, brought me this ad that he took off our community bulletin board, you know, Martin Ukulele, she said, go check this out. So I did, I went to a lady's house in Mililani and she showed me the ukulele, it was missing one of these keys and that was it. And it was for sale for $90. And I look at the ukulele and I put my, I start feeling the bracing and I know exactly what this is and I just ripped the $90 off and left. Okay, get out of there. Everybody go. Well they changed their minds. I've done some modifications to it. I reinforced the head. This is a thicker head and this is different type like banjo keys. So it doesn't have the original, you know, Martin, you know, stuff but it's a Martin and you know, I've always loved the sound, so. This is your main instrument. This is my girl, yeah. Thank you for bringing it down. Thanks Jay, thanks for having me. Please play us a song on the way out here. Yeah, I'd like to do, you know, I've always been fascinated by different kind of music. So one of the artists that I was kind of inspired by when I was young was Cooley. So I like to do a, you know, song by Cooley. I could fly like a bird, the wings of the wind. I played in the sun with the joy deep within. I had laughter as a toy and a sweet for my tooth. And a beautiful, everyone was a friend not a foe. The fears I have learned, not one deep and kind of beautiful. The sweet candy day, beautiful day, so.