Stories

We've got something special up for you. Today we dive into an enriching conversation with Ted de Oliveira, the multi-instrumentalist / producer behind the FRNT BZNZZ moniker. Oddly enough, this is probably the first interview of this kind for the blog: a radio-style discussion between myself and the artist. It felt really good to pick Ted's brain about his process, the music he's been making lately, and just talk story and get to know him better. Several years ago, Ted had the Honolulu music scene's attention not only with his improvisational acoustic guitar-slash-beatboxing performances, but with his "side project" called...

I started writing this post while Hideki Yamamoto was recording his show for Central Pacific Time, an online radio station that me and Lei started earlier this year. Hideki provided a vibe, as usual (I miss DJing with him and Oliver every month at Soul Time In Hawaii — in March, we decided to scale back the Soul Time parties from monthly to a few times per year) as I typed furiously at the keyboard. We didn't say much throughout that hour. He was focused on selection and mixing, I was focused on recounting our experiences in Japan in April...

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...

Words come in and out of trend frequently in the English language. I'm sure in other languages this is also true, but for the USA a lot of these words are related to food, technology, and slang. "Organic" is one of them, of course. The funny thing is, "organic" is how Nick Kurosawa described our recent trip to Japan; a full three weeks of going with the flow and doing what felt most natural. I totally agree. There were, on almost every single day, so many coincidences that happened to us it's been a task to recount every one of...

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...