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Interviews
Interview with Raiatea Helm on May 14, 2008
Raiatea Helm recently completed her first solo tour to the west coast to promote her third
album "Hawaiian Blossom." I had an opportunity to talk to her about the tour, her career
and about herself.
Jason: Your first night in Seattle must have been nerve wrecking but that only showed
twice during the concert. How have the subsequent shows gone?
Raiatea: I was very nervous but I think it went well. I felt comfortable after the third song.
You expect that when someone is doing their first solo tour. The rest of the tour was a
great success.
Jason: You have accompanied the Makaha Sons on their tours, how has that helped you
prepare for your first solo tour?
Raiatea: It helped me to know what to expect with the crowds and the audiences. I knew
what to expect with the traveling. There are certain things involved with traveling. It’s a lot
of work but I was well prepared. Guy (Sabilla) was very organized and that helped and
that was a big advantage touring with the Makaha Sons because Jerome (Koko) is also
very organized. Being with the Sons it was a lot easier and I knew what to expect on the
road.
Jason: How involved were you in the planning and details of the tour?
Raiatea: I took care of the music part. That was my main part. I did the brain storming
about whom I should bring on the tour with me. I had to think about what kind of sound I
was looking for and list of songs and which songs would be good for hula. You could see
from the show that it wasn’t your ordinary Hawaiian show. We had a very diverse sound
with slack key, piano, Aaron singing opera and me singing jazz, Hawaiian classics and
hapa haole songs. I also danced hula and played ukulele. It was such a big show and I
think that really surprised a lot of people on this tour. I got great responses from
everyone who came to the show.
Jason: What did you find the biggest challenge of putting this tour together?
Raiatea: The biggest challenge was timing, trying to organize everything especially with
outfits, like doing my costume changes. Making sure everything is taken care of before
we go on tour, making sure everything is organized well because when we are at home
we have other things its not just about the tour we have other engagements and other
priorities. It’s a challenge when you got to try and juggle everything together. Other than
that everything was easy once we had everything organized.
Jason: What made you decide on Seattle, Portland, Eugene and San Francisco for your
tour?
Raiatea: That was a “no brainer” because Seattle has a huge “local” population.
Portland and Eugene have a big school district and San Francisco is my favorite city
because it was the first place I traveled to outside of Hawaii and it also has a large “local”
population.
Jason: What appeals to you more, singing for a small crowd or larger crowd?
Raiatea: Now I have decided that I want to play for bigger crowds because I want to sing
in front of as many people as I can so that I can share the music and the message, to
spread the love of music. Music is big and it should be spread all over the world. If you
have that opportunity, do it, do it big. That is my philosophy. I do like the small crowds
and you need to do that in the beginning. I sang in hotels but I didn’t want to be known as
a hotel singer, that was not my dream. I want to be in big venues and sing through out the
world and carry Hawaiian music.
Jason: What has been the highlight of the west coast tour?
Raiatea: The fun, there was so much fun. I had great people to travel with. They have
such great energy. I had so much fun with them; it felt really nice. The traveling was
great. We took the Amtrak from Seattle to Portland and then to Eugene which was really
nice. You also have to realize that as an artist and vocalist you need to have your rest
and Guy had put a few days on the trip to allow me to rest. That was very important for
me to be able to rest before I sing.
Career questions:
Jason: You started off with dancing hula, how did the ukulele and singing take effect?
Raiatea: I danced hula ever since I was 3. I went back and forth in elementary school
then got into sports and then continued on in high school. I am glad that my mom made
me dance hula otherwise I would still be a tomboy. I started playing ukulele in sixth grade
and I started to sing when I was fifteen.
Jason: Did you take any ukulele or singing lessons?
Raiatea: In sixth grade we all learned to play ukulele and would learn a few songs but it
wasn’t really an advance ukulele class, we were just playing to have fun. I consider myself
a very fast learner and I picked it up very quickly and I think I have a good ear, which
helps. I pretty much learned by ear and self-taught. I did not take any singing lessons.
Jason: You studied Hawaiian language at Maui Community College. How challenging is it
to learn and sing a Hawaiian song when you are not fully fluent in the language?
Raiatea: I learned Hawaiian at college and in high school, Moloka’i High School. I don’t
consider myself fluent but I can understand. I cannot fully converse in Hawaiian but I can
understand what I am singing about. With the Hawaiian language, once you understand
how the words are to sound, like how the vowels sound, it is a simple sounding language
to learn. You pronounce it how you see it. With learning Hawaiian songs you pronounce
how you see it and it’s easier than you think. The hard part is the phrasing that is what
people need to work on more, not so much the sound of the words, which comes easily,
the phrasing has to be correct. Who ever the composer is like Lena Machado, they have
a certain style of phrasing and you have to stick to it. If you don’t do the phrasing
correctly, someone is going to scold you for it and that is what our kupunas want to teach
our young ones so that they know the correct phrasing and that’s what I learned. When I
first started off I didn’t have the right phrasing but after a few years I would meet people
who were very advanced in the language and the music so I think that helped me do it the
correct way. You need to respect the way people write and you have to leave it the way
they write it. So it’s a matter of respect when you sing any type of song that is written
before us.
Jason: With each album you recorded the quality of your singing seems to have
improved, not that it was bad to begin with. What do you attribute to the improvement in
your vocal talent over the progression of your recordings?
Raiatea: It all has to do with maturity. With the third album, being in the studio to record
the first, second and third album you have already grown into that stage of working in a
studio. You already know how to work with different levels and tones. It is like a sport, the
more you play the better you get. It is all about maturity and learning at the same time.
Jason: I read an article about your where you were quoted as saying, “I’m 20 years old
but I sing like a 50 year old”. Can you comment more on what this means?
Raiatea: I get that comment all the time. Some people say I have an old soul. For me I
believe it was a God given gift and it was in me every since I was born. It happened so
fast but with the sound it is what I fell in love with, that old traditional sound. I just became
immune to it and that is the sound that came out of my voice. I can’t really say what
caused it to be that way, it just happened.
Jason: You’ve been nominated twice for a Grammy and have won multiple Hoku awards.
What does it mean to you to have your music recognized with such honors?
Raiatea: I have five nominations for this year. It is a great accomplishment and for me
being so young it shows how much I have grown and how much people respect my music
and how much they support me. It is all about the fans, the listeners, people in the
industry, they watch you. They watch every step you make. For me I have been very
blessed and try to go the right direction. I am lucky to be honored with all the legends; it’s
a huge accomplishment.
Jason: What are your musical aspirations outside the genre of Hawaiian music?
Raiatea: That’s a good question. I am actually working on that. I am trying to find my
sound. I know it’s out there somewhere but it is something unique. I am still learning from
the industry. I am still young and trying to find my sound. I love jazz music and world music
but I have not accomplished enough to explore the world. I want to travel the world and
grasp music from different cultures and bring that together. I am still growing and trying to
find my sound from Hawaiian music but I will always sing Hawaiian music. I will always keep
that.
Jason: Coming from a small community has your career and success changed who you
are as a person?
Raiatea: Of course not. I am still the same kid from Moloka’i, still country. I have the best
family in the whole wide world. We are so close. My cousins, there are 21 of us and I am
the youngest and the oldest is 42 and every time I go home and I see my family it is the
best feeling. No one can take that away from you and for me that is what keeps me
grounded. I am so lucky to have that. There are so many troubled families hampered by
abuse and drugs. We don’t have that in our family its all love and music. Those are the
two big things we need more in this world are music and love. All we have now is war and
people fighting, it is a crazy world.
Jason: Are you able to walk down the street without having a dozen people stopping you
to say hello? Does that kind of attention bother you?
Raiatea: No it doesn’t bother me. People like that, they want to say “hi” and they want to
talk and I am okay with that. For some people that just makes their day. Just a minute of
my time can make their day. For me I don’t think about myself, I think about them. My
music is a healing for people. I have fans that come to my shows and they cry and they
tell me how wonderful I am and how I have touched them with my music and that means a
lot. It is about the fans, it is them that make us sing. There are a lot of people in the
Hawaiian music industry that have lost that touch and I don’t want to lose that because it
will hurt people. People are very sensitive about things like that, whom they listen to and
who they look up to. I like to give them that attention.
Jason: I have seen your father perform with you on a number of occasions. Is your family
still very involved in your career and what part do they take in it?
Raiatea: My family has been there from the beginning and they will always be there
because you can’t trust any body unless they are family. My mom and dad are awesome.
My dad has been in the business and he has been ripped off before and he doesn’t want
that to happen to me. My parents are smart people and they want what’s best for me but I
have made mistakes and I learn from them. You know as a kid you think you know
everything but my parents are great because they get after me because we are kids and
we think we know everything. My mom always tells me you have to listen to your parents.
Jason: With the release of “Hawaiian Blossom” I see that you are sporting a new look at
your performances. What prompted you to cut your hair and dress up?
Raiatea: It’s all about growing up and with this album its just a great example with the title
being “Hawaiian Blossom” I am just moving from one stage to another. I am growing up to
being a young lady. For me it’s my music and I try to be a classy person but inside I will
always be the same person I was growing up in Moloka’i. When I go home I don’t go out
dressed like that. I go out in jeans and t-shirt and I don’t put make up on. When I am in
public people want to see a good image and it’s all about building your company, you
show what you are made of. I have traveled all over and I have three albums and I want to
show people that I have worked hard and its nice to look dressed up and people
comment about you. It helps build your self-esteem. When I was growing up I wasn’t a
girly-girl, I was always in shorts and t-shirt, playing basketball and baseball, and you
name it.
Jason: What did the passing of Auntie Genoa mean to you?
Raiatea: She was such a glow and I just lost my tutu a week and half ago. My tutu helped
raise me when I was a baby and I miss her dearly. When I think about Auntie Genoa I
think about family and they have welcomed me into their family. I am very close to my
ohana but when I am away from my ohana and I see her, its like family to me. So we were
close enough that they were like family to me. She had lived a long life and her legacy will
live on. I consider myself lucky because I got to sing with her on my album. She was a
national treasure.
Raiatea Helm recently completed her first solo tour to the west coast to promote her third
album "Hawaiian Blossom." I had an opportunity to talk to her about the tour, her career
and about herself.
Jason: Your first night in Seattle must have been nerve wrecking but that only showed
twice during the concert. How have the subsequent shows gone?
Raiatea: I was very nervous but I think it went well. I felt comfortable after the third song.
You expect that when someone is doing their first solo tour. The rest of the tour was a
great success.
Jason: You have accompanied the Makaha Sons on their tours, how has that helped you
prepare for your first solo tour?
Raiatea: It helped me to know what to expect with the crowds and the audiences. I knew
what to expect with the traveling. There are certain things involved with traveling. It’s a lot
of work but I was well prepared. Guy (Sabilla) was very organized and that helped and
that was a big advantage touring with the Makaha Sons because Jerome (Koko) is also
very organized. Being with the Sons it was a lot easier and I knew what to expect on the
road.
Jason: How involved were you in the planning and details of the tour?
Raiatea: I took care of the music part. That was my main part. I did the brain storming
about whom I should bring on the tour with me. I had to think about what kind of sound I
was looking for and list of songs and which songs would be good for hula. You could see
from the show that it wasn’t your ordinary Hawaiian show. We had a very diverse sound
with slack key, piano, Aaron singing opera and me singing jazz, Hawaiian classics and
hapa haole songs. I also danced hula and played ukulele. It was such a big show and I
think that really surprised a lot of people on this tour. I got great responses from
everyone who came to the show.
Jason: What did you find the biggest challenge of putting this tour together?
Raiatea: The biggest challenge was timing, trying to organize everything especially with
outfits, like doing my costume changes. Making sure everything is taken care of before
we go on tour, making sure everything is organized well because when we are at home
we have other things its not just about the tour we have other engagements and other
priorities. It’s a challenge when you got to try and juggle everything together. Other than
that everything was easy once we had everything organized.
Jason: What made you decide on Seattle, Portland, Eugene and San Francisco for your
tour?
Raiatea: That was a “no brainer” because Seattle has a huge “local” population.
Portland and Eugene have a big school district and San Francisco is my favorite city
because it was the first place I traveled to outside of Hawaii and it also has a large “local”
population.
Jason: What appeals to you more, singing for a small crowd or larger crowd?
Raiatea: Now I have decided that I want to play for bigger crowds because I want to sing
in front of as many people as I can so that I can share the music and the message, to
spread the love of music. Music is big and it should be spread all over the world. If you
have that opportunity, do it, do it big. That is my philosophy. I do like the small crowds
and you need to do that in the beginning. I sang in hotels but I didn’t want to be known as
a hotel singer, that was not my dream. I want to be in big venues and sing through out the
world and carry Hawaiian music.
Jason: What has been the highlight of the west coast tour?
Raiatea: The fun, there was so much fun. I had great people to travel with. They have
such great energy. I had so much fun with them; it felt really nice. The traveling was
great. We took the Amtrak from Seattle to Portland and then to Eugene which was really
nice. You also have to realize that as an artist and vocalist you need to have your rest
and Guy had put a few days on the trip to allow me to rest. That was very important for
me to be able to rest before I sing.
Career questions:
Jason: You started off with dancing hula, how did the ukulele and singing take effect?
Raiatea: I danced hula ever since I was 3. I went back and forth in elementary school
then got into sports and then continued on in high school. I am glad that my mom made
me dance hula otherwise I would still be a tomboy. I started playing ukulele in sixth grade
and I started to sing when I was fifteen.
Jason: Did you take any ukulele or singing lessons?
Raiatea: In sixth grade we all learned to play ukulele and would learn a few songs but it
wasn’t really an advance ukulele class, we were just playing to have fun. I consider myself
a very fast learner and I picked it up very quickly and I think I have a good ear, which
helps. I pretty much learned by ear and self-taught. I did not take any singing lessons.
Jason: You studied Hawaiian language at Maui Community College. How challenging is it
to learn and sing a Hawaiian song when you are not fully fluent in the language?
Raiatea: I learned Hawaiian at college and in high school, Moloka’i High School. I don’t
consider myself fluent but I can understand. I cannot fully converse in Hawaiian but I can
understand what I am singing about. With the Hawaiian language, once you understand
how the words are to sound, like how the vowels sound, it is a simple sounding language
to learn. You pronounce it how you see it. With learning Hawaiian songs you pronounce
how you see it and it’s easier than you think. The hard part is the phrasing that is what
people need to work on more, not so much the sound of the words, which comes easily,
the phrasing has to be correct. Who ever the composer is like Lena Machado, they have
a certain style of phrasing and you have to stick to it. If you don’t do the phrasing
correctly, someone is going to scold you for it and that is what our kupunas want to teach
our young ones so that they know the correct phrasing and that’s what I learned. When I
first started off I didn’t have the right phrasing but after a few years I would meet people
who were very advanced in the language and the music so I think that helped me do it the
correct way. You need to respect the way people write and you have to leave it the way
they write it. So it’s a matter of respect when you sing any type of song that is written
before us.
Jason: With each album you recorded the quality of your singing seems to have
improved, not that it was bad to begin with. What do you attribute to the improvement in
your vocal talent over the progression of your recordings?
Raiatea: It all has to do with maturity. With the third album, being in the studio to record
the first, second and third album you have already grown into that stage of working in a
studio. You already know how to work with different levels and tones. It is like a sport, the
more you play the better you get. It is all about maturity and learning at the same time.
Jason: I read an article about your where you were quoted as saying, “I’m 20 years old
but I sing like a 50 year old”. Can you comment more on what this means?
Raiatea: I get that comment all the time. Some people say I have an old soul. For me I
believe it was a God given gift and it was in me every since I was born. It happened so
fast but with the sound it is what I fell in love with, that old traditional sound. I just became
immune to it and that is the sound that came out of my voice. I can’t really say what
caused it to be that way, it just happened.
Jason: You’ve been nominated twice for a Grammy and have won multiple Hoku awards.
What does it mean to you to have your music recognized with such honors?
Raiatea: I have five nominations for this year. It is a great accomplishment and for me
being so young it shows how much I have grown and how much people respect my music
and how much they support me. It is all about the fans, the listeners, people in the
industry, they watch you. They watch every step you make. For me I have been very
blessed and try to go the right direction. I am lucky to be honored with all the legends; it’s
a huge accomplishment.
Jason: What are your musical aspirations outside the genre of Hawaiian music?
Raiatea: That’s a good question. I am actually working on that. I am trying to find my
sound. I know it’s out there somewhere but it is something unique. I am still learning from
the industry. I am still young and trying to find my sound. I love jazz music and world music
but I have not accomplished enough to explore the world. I want to travel the world and
grasp music from different cultures and bring that together. I am still growing and trying to
find my sound from Hawaiian music but I will always sing Hawaiian music. I will always keep
that.
Jason: Coming from a small community has your career and success changed who you
are as a person?
Raiatea: Of course not. I am still the same kid from Moloka’i, still country. I have the best
family in the whole wide world. We are so close. My cousins, there are 21 of us and I am
the youngest and the oldest is 42 and every time I go home and I see my family it is the
best feeling. No one can take that away from you and for me that is what keeps me
grounded. I am so lucky to have that. There are so many troubled families hampered by
abuse and drugs. We don’t have that in our family its all love and music. Those are the
two big things we need more in this world are music and love. All we have now is war and
people fighting, it is a crazy world.
Jason: Are you able to walk down the street without having a dozen people stopping you
to say hello? Does that kind of attention bother you?
Raiatea: No it doesn’t bother me. People like that, they want to say “hi” and they want to
talk and I am okay with that. For some people that just makes their day. Just a minute of
my time can make their day. For me I don’t think about myself, I think about them. My
music is a healing for people. I have fans that come to my shows and they cry and they
tell me how wonderful I am and how I have touched them with my music and that means a
lot. It is about the fans, it is them that make us sing. There are a lot of people in the
Hawaiian music industry that have lost that touch and I don’t want to lose that because it
will hurt people. People are very sensitive about things like that, whom they listen to and
who they look up to. I like to give them that attention.
Jason: I have seen your father perform with you on a number of occasions. Is your family
still very involved in your career and what part do they take in it?
Raiatea: My family has been there from the beginning and they will always be there
because you can’t trust any body unless they are family. My mom and dad are awesome.
My dad has been in the business and he has been ripped off before and he doesn’t want
that to happen to me. My parents are smart people and they want what’s best for me but I
have made mistakes and I learn from them. You know as a kid you think you know
everything but my parents are great because they get after me because we are kids and
we think we know everything. My mom always tells me you have to listen to your parents.
Jason: With the release of “Hawaiian Blossom” I see that you are sporting a new look at
your performances. What prompted you to cut your hair and dress up?
Raiatea: It’s all about growing up and with this album its just a great example with the title
being “Hawaiian Blossom” I am just moving from one stage to another. I am growing up to
being a young lady. For me it’s my music and I try to be a classy person but inside I will
always be the same person I was growing up in Moloka’i. When I go home I don’t go out
dressed like that. I go out in jeans and t-shirt and I don’t put make up on. When I am in
public people want to see a good image and it’s all about building your company, you
show what you are made of. I have traveled all over and I have three albums and I want to
show people that I have worked hard and its nice to look dressed up and people
comment about you. It helps build your self-esteem. When I was growing up I wasn’t a
girly-girl, I was always in shorts and t-shirt, playing basketball and baseball, and you
name it.
Jason: What did the passing of Auntie Genoa mean to you?
Raiatea: She was such a glow and I just lost my tutu a week and half ago. My tutu helped
raise me when I was a baby and I miss her dearly. When I think about Auntie Genoa I
think about family and they have welcomed me into their family. I am very close to my
ohana but when I am away from my ohana and I see her, its like family to me. So we were
close enough that they were like family to me. She had lived a long life and her legacy will
live on. I consider myself lucky because I got to sing with her on my album. She was a
national treasure.
