Stories

The editors behind Honolulu's Contrast Magazine have a very similar approach to what Aloha Got Soul is all about: We started with the idea that Hawai‘i is often overlooked because of its size and geographic location. We wanted (and still want) to show people abroad what Hawai‘i has to offer in terms of art, music, and culture. There are a lot of passionate people living in the Islands with great stories doing amazing things. Contrast is their platform. On the other hand, we also want to show our own community what’s going on overseas. In a way our publication is...

The premise behind every Aloha Got Soul release is to tell a story beyond the music. The story of Mike Lundy is mysterious, complex, and layered with good intentions. The story of this reissue project is marked by multiple coincidences throughout the process of rereleasing music from The Rhythm Of Life—so much so, in fact, that I've been told these aren't coincidences. This story was meant to be. A large part of the unfolding story of Mike Lundy's The Rhythm Of Life reissue project will be told in the liner notes of the LP release, due out November 28th, 2015....

I often think back to the autumn of 2013—the year my life underwent a big shift in all areas—and the blog post I wrote with it. "To say that September brought extraordinary opportunities to my door would understate the fact that it was probably the busiest, craziest, most serendipitous and exhausting month in my life thus far, passing in what feels like a single day." That's from this post made two years ago, when apparently I was working harder than ever before in life, love, and the label (although at the time Aloha Got Soul was a year away from...

Some things take time, something we don't always have enough of. I first connected with Rob Butler, the man behind Be With Records, in October 2014. He sent me a friendly email and mentioned plans to visit Hawaii in mid-2015. Rob and I both do the same kind of thing: run a record label that focuses on reissuing out-of-print classics and obscure deserving-to-be-classics. Except Rob's way out in London (or, from his perspective, I'm way out here in Honolulu), so the only way we could meet in person is to wait until he makes a trip to Hawaii or I...

"I found that special find". Look closely, and you'll see those words inscribed in the dead wax on the flip side of AGS-7002, the second release from the Aloha Got Soul blog-turned-label (but still a blog!). The idea came to me in January after picking up a copy of RVNG Intl's anthology music by Ariel Kalma. RVNG's attention to packaging quality is consistently superb, all the way down to the dead wax. The Kalma release featured different phrases etched on each side. Inspired, I wanted to do the same for AGS-7002. So I texted Mike Lundy to make sure I...