Stories — Releases

It was in 2013 when I first met Jah Gumby, or Ryan Murakami, while organizing an all-vinyl party with friends. Our headliner was Woosey, who went by Papa Woowu at the time — and a number of names, really. I'd known Woosey for several years prior through music during high school. From Hilo, Woosey told me over the phone that "there's another guy who I want to co-headline with, Jah Gumby." Woosey told me about Gumby's record collection and how deep his knowledge of music goes. I looked him up on YouTube and found his Rarities for Sharities series. Serious...

It was late one night at Bevy. Me, Oliver, and Hideki were wrapping up another Soul Time in Hawaii party, something we did every month (but recently scaled back to doing semi-annually). The time was maybe 1:30am, the bar was pretty much empty by that point and the bartenders were closing up before the 2am end time. That's when, to our surprise Ted de Oliveira walked in. I'd never met the guy, only heard stories. Oliver and Ted go way back to the early 2000s, if not earlier. They grew up in the Honolulu hip-hop music scene, b-boying, DJing. Ted...

We're still reeling from the release party with Kakubarhythm at Daikanyama UNIT. It was amazing — probably the best concert any of us have ever experienced, as our friend Mark told us at the end of the night (grateful for that compliment, Mark!). The venue was packed, everyone was dancing, and so many of our friends from Hawaii were there, too! Can't wait for 2019 — we'll definitely be back! (Order the Coast to Coast EP on 12" vinyl here) Briefly: Hideki and I opened the night with an hour-long DJ set of Hawaii tunes to get the crowd ready...

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...