My Story So Far...

I joined the population of Earth on the windward side of the island of O'ahu, Hawaii, adding to a long line of Hawaiian ancestors descending from Pelekunu, on the isle of Moloka'i.

I was adopted by a U.S. Marine couple who were stationed at the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe. It was the era of Elvis and Blue Hawaii. The air was full of music and the sweet fragrance of tropical flowers. We moved to Southern California when the next stationing came up. I was young, extremely skeptical, and opposed to the move. In California, I became increasingly involved in many different bands traveling the entire length and breadth of the state. I also played tours around Oregon, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado through the years. Touring with bands and on my own was a particularly rewarding profession for me as it allowed me to indulge my passion for study, learning, traveling, mountain biking, backpacking, watersports, and just general adventuring. Heeding the advice of Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's, I took my music to the UK and Europe. After discussing options with many record labels throughout Europe and the UK, I ended up signing a contract with CBS Norway which was bought by SONY during my contract.

MTV Europe featured my band in their launch playlist.

I was able to parlay my deal with CBS/SONY to a lifetime career in music long after having left the label. As a singer-songwriter and bandleader, I continued to travel extensively touring clubs, pubs, restaurants, lodges, parties, concert halls, stadiums, music and cultural events, and festivals around Norway, Scandinavia, England, and Europe. I returned to live, work, and play my music around Arizona, Colorado, and Nashville for five years before returning to form new bands in Norway. Over the next twenty-three years, I recorded with some of the most prolific and innovative major label artists and legendary producers, continuing to tour in addition to recording. During these years I also did numerous radio and tv interviews, had my music used in documentaries and film soundtracks, ran an Internet radio station at Live365.com, and did some DJ work at Radio Haugaland 102 where I hosted an Americana music program. I also had a starring role in the Christopher Lambert film North Star/Tashunga along with James Caan, Burt Young, Catherine McCormack, and Native American actor Frank Grey Wolf Salsedo who had portrayed Ed Chigliak’s Uncle Anku in the Northern Exposure TV series and played my father in this film.

   In 2012 I began touring on the Trop Rock and Parrothead circuit. The route ran from Key West, through Florida, and on through the Mexican Gulf Coast States, down East Texas towns such as Beaumont, Port Arthur, Port Neches, and Kemah. Finally ending the circuit at Galveston Island, the route included the cities of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles along the way.   

Having re-established a base in Lake Charles at the end of 2015, I landed a job writing a music column for Lagniappe Magazine which is the most-read printed publication in the region. Soon I was writing main feature articles, interviews, and cover stories. I soon backed away from all musical activities to concentrate on my increasing writing assignments more fully. 

Shortly after I was asked to write for the Jambalaya News - the second most-read printed publication in the region.   

In June, a friend from my days as a Trop Rock Troubadour asked if I would help him start an FM radio station in Sosúa on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. He had heard some of the playlist programming work I'd done for other modern Americana and Trop Rock radio stations in the not-too-distant past and thought that it could work for his vision.   

At the urging of my incessantly adventurous Polynesian genes, my Cajun lady and I loaded up our therapy dog, two cats, and left for the DR which we now call home. So begins the next adventure in what has been a relatively adventurous life so far. Aloha from Sosúa in the Heart of the Caribbean.

Stay thirsty, my friends.