Stories — Interviews

Last August I took a trip to Maui, during which I drove the Road To Hana, proposed to my girlfriend, and went hunting for records in the basement of Wailuku’s Request Music, the only record store on the island. It was there I met Brendan Smith, the shop’s general manager. With Record Store Day now nearly a month behind us, I decided to spend more time getting to know Brendan, his involvement with Request Music, his awesome #sleevefaceoff contest idea that (unfortunately) no one entered, and his take on the annual frenzy we call Record Store Day. Note: an edited...

With the second Soul Time In London on the horizon—returning to Brilliant Corners on September 6th after a brief jaunt at The Queen's Head back in April—I'm extremely excited to announce that DJ, broadcaster, producer, writer, musician (the list goes on, folks!) Patrick Forge will be gracing the turntables with his presence, which, of course, includes his ever-powerful, ever-thoughtful selection of seriously good and groovy tunes. Soul Time In London takes place September 6, 2014, at Brilliant Corners with Patrick Forge, Laura Coxeter, and Cedric Bardawil. 6:00pm - 1:30am. Expect vinyl-only sets all night, ranging from Jazz Fusion to Hawaiian...

There are few local radio DJs who pull off a quality soul program like Jeff Long (aka Benjamin Stencil) does with his Sunday morning show, Love Is A Real Thing. Jeff arrives by bicycle at the University of Hawaii's college radio station KTUH around 5:45am each Sunday with a backpack of vinyl and a few CDs to spin from 6am to 9am. (Check out his playlists on his blog.) I first met Jeff earlier this year when my fiancé, aka DJ Leilow, became one of the newest members of the KTUH DJ lineup. All the new DJs start out with...

I met with Norm Winter on an evening in February 2014 several months after I had recorded a previous conversation of ours. I should say that that conversation—which took place at the Aloha Lounge sometime in the Spring of 2013 during one of Jah Gumby’s Rub-A-Dub all-vinyl reggae sessions, and which gave us an overview of how Jelly’s came to be (and why other records stores in Hawaii failed to stay in business)—I recorded without his knowledge. I’ve since apologized to Norm about publishing our pseudo-interview without his prior permission, and he’s since forgiven me. If you don't know Norm,...