We are super pleased to welcome O‘ahu-born soul singer
Nick Kurosawa to the Aloha Got Soul label.
In September 2017, our lives changed when we heard Nick's deeply heartfelt voice on a
YouTube video that had just over 1,000 plays. We immediately rushed to see his next gig.
From there, our friendship grew. We locked in collab gigs at the Surfjack hotel and Hawaii State Art Museum and introduced him to musicians like
Maryanne Ito and
Gilbert Batangan — which resulted in his first major venue performance at the Blue Note Hawaii with the
Dae Han Ensemble's Tribute to J Dilla.
One afternoon, over beers at Nick's favorite local brewpub, the conversation turned to old school funk bands from Hawaii's nightclub heyday. "
My dad played in a funk band," Nick told us. "They even put out a record."
As fate would have it, his father played horns in the group
Natural High — one of the first funk bands that I blogged about in 2011. Yes, Oahu is a small island, but it seriously felt like the universe had aligned our lives.
Soon after, Nick and I were invited to
perform in Japan this April with local retailer Mori by Art+Flea. This was good enough reason to book studio time and record Nick's first release.
With that, we present
Home, the six song debut EP from Nick Kurosawa.
Recorded in Honolulu in February 2018,
Home celebrates Nick's original songs and influential classics by
Bobby Caldwell,
Sam Cooke, and
Kalapana.
The EP stands as an inspired stepping stone for a young, bright artist who roots himself in tradition as he explores his own sound, searching for where his voice and spirit feel most at home.
For Aloha Got Soul, Nick's debut represents a step forward in the label's continuing evolution to represent progressive and relatively unknown music of Hawai‘i —
regardless of generation or genre.
To bring the recording full circle, we asked
Kit Ebersbach to be our engineer — some of you might be hip to the fact that Kit's first sessions were playing piano on the Lemuria and Babadu LPs; his first engineering project was Tender Leaf.
Pre-order Home now, in digital and CD formats.
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Kit Ebersbach and Max Ebersbach at Pacific Music Productions on February 1, 2018.
Note: two takes of each song were recorded in the
session, with vocals and acoustic guitar or hollow body electric guitar, live in the room.
"I'll Come Running Back To You" written by Sam Cooke
"Possible", "The River", and "Victim" written by Nick Kurosawa
"What You Won't Do For Love" written by Bobby Caldwell and Alfons Kettner
"What Do I Do" written by Mackey Feary Jr.
