Representing MONO from the Aloha State

We first met Shaun at NAMM 2008 and he totally brought the Hawaii vibes with him. As some of you know, NAMM can be a hall of madness, but we felt totally chill when Shaun came up to our booth. The first thing we talked about was a ukulele case, something that has been swimming in our MONObrain. We soon found out how versatile Shaun really is playing ukulele, acoustic and electric guitar, backing up a band or fronting his own while singing lead vocals. But to really get to know Shaun, we have to peek into his bio:

Shaun grew up in Pauoa valley, Oahu- a small valley next to the famous Punchbowl Memorial. At the age of 9 he moved out to Hawaii Kai on the east side of the island of Oahu. After graduating from Kaiser High School he attended Honolulu Community College and graduated with a degree in Fire and Environmental response. He is currently working for the Hawaii Crash and Fire and Rescue Unit and studying music at the University of Hawaii.

Shaun has studied music with numerous musicians such as, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro ( d’addario, kamaka endorsee) , Herb Ohta Jr., Vernon Sakata and Gary Shimabukuro. He also has worked with many renown musicians/producers such as Nathan Aweau, Grammy nominated producer Dave Tucciarone, and Grammy winner Daniel Ho to name a few. Shaun has recorded 3 albums to date under numerous indie labels. He is fast becoming known as one of the Ukulele masters around the world. Currently, Shaun is doing shows on the west cost and working with management to sign to a major label. Shaun loves to share music, it is his therapy, his heart, his passion.



Pro Recordings:
Kani Makou - "Easy Stylin"
Kani Makou - "Cool State of Mind"
Shaun Reyes - "Food for the Soul"

Shaun was also kind enough to give us a couple of his songs for you guys to check out.


all photos courtesy of 10-G's photography

Rising Down to come out...on top.

The Roots. How do you describe them? Well let's take a quick peek back in time with their original name...the Square Roots. You could say they are a square root better than any live hip hop act out there. You could say that they are a square root and a half better than any live group out there. I wouldn't quote you wrong if that spit out of your mouth, but there is one thing about the Roots...they will go down in history coming out on top.



Rising Down, their latest effort finds this mega group taking it's organic hip hop to greater heights. The formula that's worked before is still intact, but are we hearing more of the same? I think not. What stays is the ground breaking beats of ?uest with a cast of individually talented phenoms. Black Thought is still at it with lyrics that ride political views galore. Hello hello hello. Get God on the phone. What we are hearing now is a band, in it's 10th album, still reaching it's primacy. No one is doing hip hop like this. No one. That is why they are on top.

The Roots are:

Black Thought (MC)
?uestlove (drums)
Kamal Gray (electronic keyboard)
F. Knuckles (percussion)
Captain Kirk Douglas (guitar)
Owen Biddle (bass)