WEBVTT

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Keao: I want to kind of venture through
this one idea, because you're

00:00:03.358 --> 00:00:06.823
Keao: talking about how you didn't really
know who your family was when

00:00:06.823 --> 00:00:09.914
Keao: you were younger. Yeah, so... all
these things within your

00:00:09.914 --> 00:00:13.538
Keao: family—your legacy and tradition—you
guys always sang at your houses

00:00:13.538 --> 00:00:15.990
Keao: and gatherings and stuff like that.
But you...

00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:18.549
Keao: and some of your cousins—you guys
just ran away.

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Keao: Right, because it wasn't of interest
to you; it was always done.

00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:27.520
Keao: So nowadays, when you're older and
you don't have all those people

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Keao: with you anymore, the best thing you
can do is what?

00:00:30.828 --> 00:00:34.646
Keao: Sing all the songs that they loved.
That's how you remember.

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Kama: Yeah, we do those things. Their
legacy becomes our legacy.

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Kama: My cousin [unclear] and I sit down,
and we...

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Kama: talk about it often. We cry. Like
now, I'm trying not to cry.

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Kama: And I know you and I have had these
discussions many, many times.

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Kama: You miss—you miss those days. And
like you said, yeah, we try to

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Kama: sing all those songs, because we
know if we don't, they're going to

00:01:09.297 --> 00:01:13.525
Kama: be gone— forgotten. And there are
some now that...

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Kama: we just don't remember. We'll talk:
"You remember?

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Kama: This song kind of goes like this..."
They're gone.

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Kama: And so, even with our own kids,
we're lucky.

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Kama: Between some of our cousins in our
generation,

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Kama: some love music and pick it up. Some
are hula dancers and pick that

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Kama: up. You know, in my family, I have
the ones who love to play sports

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Kama: and do other things, but

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Kama: I have some who are hula dancers—my
girls.

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Kama: Some of them love to play music too,
but my sisters' kids—all of

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Kama: them are musicians who can play. We
get together, and then Mandy's

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Kama: and Pomaikai's kids, right? They're
musicians.

00:02:02.063 --> 00:02:06.200
Kama: So we all get together; we all have
our own skills.

00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:11.391
Kama: But now I know why. We know why our
kūpuna and our parents said,

00:02:11.391 --> 00:02:15.366
Kama: "No, family party—we all come. We're
all coming."

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Kama: "Come sing, and learn. At least
learn some songs."

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Kama: So we try to impress that upon our
kids now.

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Kama: And, you know, whether other family
members or our friends know it,

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Kama: our kids can all kind of sing and
dance and do different things.

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Kama: It's just that we don't encourage it
as much, because we know how we

00:02:39.133 --> 00:02:42.621
Kama: were. So we try to let it happen
naturally.

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Kama: But now I understand why my
grandparents were like, "No, come.

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Kama: Sit up here. Sit up here, listen,
and learn."

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Kama: Yeah. I miss—I miss...

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Keao: So those are the things that we, as
families with musical

00:02:58.573 --> 00:03:02.844
Keao: backgrounds, can always fall back
on. Because if I forget a song, I

00:03:02.844 --> 00:03:07.179
Keao: can just call my cousin somewhere,
right? "What chord did Uncle play

00:03:07.179 --> 00:03:10.940
Keao: over there?" I can call [unclear],
my cousins, or somebody.

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Keao: I mean, please—I go back to his
family's recordings and listen to

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Keao: all of that to remember.

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Kama: Yeah.

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Keao: So we can all find different ways of
remembering, whether from a

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Keao: friend, a family member, or a
recording. But the things that we

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Keao: really need to instill in ourselves
are all those values besides the music.

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Keao: Our kūpuna would go to work early.
They'd come home way after they

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Keao: were supposed to, because they were
taking care of the people that

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Keao: [unclear], you know? And people
nowadays—the young generation—they

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Keao: don't have those... those people to
follow anymore, because we're

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Keao: not in those places, those spaces,
right? There are no spaces to do

00:03:57.381 --> 00:04:01.270
Keao: those things. It's tough. Hawaiian
music nowadays...

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Kama: You really have to search it out,
unless we create our own spaces to

00:04:06.959 --> 00:04:11.928
Kama: do it. You have to search it out.
And I'll say, I work for a resort.

00:04:11.928 --> 00:04:16.752
Kama: God bless this resort, because we
have Hawaiian music every night.

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Kama: But there was a time when Waikīkī
was filled—

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Keao: Oh, yeah.

00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.993
Kama: —with Hawaiian music. The hotels and
resorts were filled with music

00:04:24.993 --> 00:04:28.624
Kama: from all our different islands. You
could walk down the sidewalk,

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Kama: listen, and pick and choose where
you wanted to go in.

00:04:33.080 --> 00:04:37.753
Kama: Now that's not the case. There are
certain places you can go, and

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Kama: when you do, you've got to wait in a
two-hour line or something.

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Kama: So we're outside singing. Remember?
I remember, as a young musician,

00:04:47.241 --> 00:04:50.548
Kama: going to hear [unclear] play down at
Rainbows.

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Kama: And that place, if you didn't come
at a certain time, you were

00:04:55.005 --> 00:04:59.606
Kama: parking by Zippy's or someplace
else, hoping your car didn't get

00:04:59.606 --> 00:05:04.494
Kama: towed, broken into, or stolen. But
we did all that because the music

00:05:04.494 --> 00:05:09.095
Kama: was so good. And if we wanted a
different taste, we always knew,

00:05:09.095 --> 00:05:13.911
Kama: "Oh, Thursday nights, [unclear] was
playing," or we could go to the

00:05:13.911 --> 00:05:18.727
Kama: Halekulani. We knew who was playing
when, or which different hotels

00:05:18.727 --> 00:05:23.615
Kama: still had Hawaiian music. But then
it kind of—it kind of just melted

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Kama: right out. And so we're thankful for
those places that still give

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Kama: opportunities for Hawaiian music to
be played.

00:05:31.595 --> 00:05:36.483
Kama: And when people ask, "Hey, where do
you want to go listen to music?"

00:05:36.483 --> 00:05:41.371
Kama: we can name those four or five
different places right off the top of

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Kama: our heads. And... I mean, it's just
business.

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Kama: Like any other business, it goes up
and down.

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Kama: But like Keao was talking about,
those who came before us—

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Kama: they're gone now. But they left such
a good path, a good foundation

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Kama: for us. They always told us to keep
learning and not think we're too

00:06:03.368 --> 00:06:08.093
Kama: old. Never stop learning, and never
boast that we're the best at

00:06:08.093 --> 00:06:12.818
Kama: what we do, because... I mean, the
people we talk about—a lot of

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Kama: them were schooled musicians. You
had the schooled ones, and then

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Kama: the ones who learned by ear, like my
grandma.

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Kama: She learned by ear, but she was
schooled. She was taught how to

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Kama: play. Um... Yeah, because when we
had to sit down, the old folks

00:06:30.317 --> 00:06:31.720
Kama: would come and say,

00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:36.996
Kama: "You play it like this." Those were
our teachers.

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Kama: They showed us the chords and how to
play it, and we had to go

00:06:41.849 --> 00:06:46.937
Kama: practice. And if we screwed up—
believe you me—once they told you

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Kama: and taught you, and you did it wrong
again, you heard about it.

00:06:51.868 --> 00:06:56.487
Kama: You heard about it. And... yeah, so,
I mean, it was just...

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Kama: a different way we grew up. I mean,
we got cracks. That's why—

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Keao: Yeah, we got cracks.

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Kama: Nowadays you worry about people's
feelings—even Uncle [unclear] or

00:07:07.168 --> 00:07:08.300
Kama: somebody like that.

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Keao: Oh.

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Kama: I had to play with Auntie [unclear]
Hines one time.

00:07:14.937 --> 00:07:18.950
Kama: I had to sub for her. So she was
playing—I think she had me play

00:07:18.950 --> 00:07:23.213
Kama: guitar, and she was playing
ʻukulele. But by the end of the gig, she

00:07:23.213 --> 00:07:27.100
Kama: was on guitar, and I was playing
ʻukulele, because she said...

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Kama: She called me Jeremy, because that's
how she knew me: "Jeremy, I

00:07:32.609 --> 00:07:36.535
Kama: thought you knew how to play that
song." And I said, "Auntie, I

00:07:36.535 --> 00:07:40.524
Kama: thought I did too." "But you don't
play it the way I know how to

00:07:40.524 --> 00:07:43.578
Kama: play it. Well, this is the right way
to play it."

00:07:43.578 --> 00:07:47.255
Kama: "This is the way your Uncle
[unclear] taught me to play it.

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Kama: [unclear]." And she started naming
these people—the composers of

00:07:51.244 --> 00:07:55.420
Kama: the... Yeah, the composers of the
songs. And they were playing— for

00:07:55.420 --> 00:07:59.284
Kama: every simple part we played, they'd
change a chord, coming up,

00:07:59.284 --> 00:08:03.398
Kama: coming down. And I'm like, "Oh my
gosh." Then I remembered what my

00:08:03.398 --> 00:08:07.449
Kama: Uncle Anthony was saying: "You're
playing harmonics," or, "You're

00:08:07.449 --> 00:08:11.687
Kama: playing harmony." What he really
meant was, you're playing all these

00:08:11.687 --> 00:08:15.240
Kama: different passing chords that give
such life to the song.

00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:17.920
Kama: And again, my mind was blown one
more time.

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Kama: Here it is, my Auntie [unclear]
Hines, my grandma's good friend, who

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Kama: was a fabulous musician and singer
in her own right, just schooling

00:08:26.334 --> 00:08:30.136
Kama: me one more time. And then you've
got Uncle [unclear], Dennis

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Kama: [unclear]... [unclear]—we could be
here all night, naming all these people.

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Keao: Just know this: Jeremy Hopkins is
related to everybody.

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Kama: Yeah, yeah. Just like Keao Costa.

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Keao: No—not even. I know everybody.

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Kama: Yeah. So, speaking of people that we
know...

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Keao: So that's just here.

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Kama: Oh, yeah. So when we travel
abroad...