Kalai
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| Kalai | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kaniela Ka Lei Ali’i ‘O’ Kalani Kala’i |
| Born | December 18, 1979 |
| Origin | Alaska, United States |
| Genre(s) | Blues, Folk rock, Acoustic |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Label(s) | BridgeTone Treble V Music |
| Website | http://www.kalai.cc |
Kalai (born December 18, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and composer.
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[edit] Background
If the word “eclectic” were an anagram of the letters k-a-l-a-i, then the fresh, up-and-coming singer-songwriter of the same name could never have asked for a more fitting moniker. How else would you describe a self-taught musician in the vein of Ben Harper, who was born in Hawaii and raised in Alaska, converted to Mormonism, is an expert fly fisherman, and a diehard NFL and Green Bay Packers fan?! Everything about KALAI is eclectic; from his music to his hobbies, straight on down through his mixed heritage and colorful background, and as evidenced by his offbeat sense of humor, slashing wit, boundless creativity and unique spirituality. KALAI marches to the beat of a different drummer, and nothing validates that old adage like his latest album, Crow’s Feet.
Crows Feet, released on the Bridgetone Music label ranges coast to coast with soft ballads, edgy blues, straight jazz, acid jazz and a little bit of Kalai’s own thing. Crows Feet was recently featured as a favorite on the iTunes home page powering the album to jump 43 paces on their top one hundred in just one week.
Kalai’s music is best described as urban vintage. Through the fusion of all his musical influences, Kalai has built a style that is soulfully aggressive, exercising very intricate finger pricking like Chet Atkins, his thumb always on the baseline like James Taylor, with walking chord progressions like Paul Simon, and melodic details like the Beatles. His sound is an uncanny mixture of all that you know and nothing you have ever heard before.
Kalai was born “Kalniela Ka Lei Ali’I ‘O’ Kalani Kala’I” December 18, 1979 in Kailua, HI. His father, also a musician as well as a plumbing shop manager and mother, who worked for the school district, relocated the family from the sunny 50th state to the much colder 49th state: Alaska. The youngest of three children Kalai began singing even before he could take his first steps. His parents divorced, re-married each other and divorced again all before Kalai was ten years old, leaving him to mostly raise himself in a single parent house-hold. Kalai always turned to music, he would practice singing and vocalizing upwards of four hours a day, singing along to vocal harmony groups like Boyz II Men, Color Me Badd and Bel Biv Devoe. As a youngster Kalai didn’t realize that the groups were made up of quartets of men so he would desperately try to mimic all of the different harmonies, vastly improving his own vocal range.
Kalai didn’t pick up a guitar until the age of 15 and learned his first set of chords from a guitar book of nursery rhymes. After that he devoured anything that contained chord charts, practicing up to ten hours a day, until he was proficient despite having never learned to read music and being born with a cavernous hemangioma on his left hand. The hemangioma is a vascular growth or network of extra blood vessels which swells and deflates depending on pressure and placement of the hand. The hemangioma, coupled with a failed surgery left Kalai’s hand largely deformed and permanently prone to pain. Despite the odds against him, Kalai not only mastered the guitar, but also plays the mandolin, banjitar and hand drums on stage.
Kalai has also become a prolific writer, penning literally hundreds of songs and compositions before the age of 20. At 16, he was awarded the Anchorage Youth Star award for music and writing, an annual award given to young talent in the Anchorage community and at 19 he was invited to perform at the Telluride Blue Grass festival, the nation’s largest Bluegrass festival, and wound up taking 4th place out of approximately 1,200 entrants. Soon after, Kalai was signed by the Indie label Treble V Music. Under their tutelage Kalai would release three Albums, Acoustacism 2000, Six Strings and the Rainy Day Man 2001 and Rebel Hands 2003 before cutting ties with them in 2004.
[edit] Career
At the age of twenty-one and with the help of friend Sam Cardon, Kalai signed a recording contract with Treble V Music, and released “Acoustacism” in 2001. Prior to this he recorded "Kalai" and "Watching the Others" with a very independent producer. Kalai then returned to Alaska where he built an in-house studio and produced his second Treble V album, “Six Strings and the Rainy Day Man” -- for which he performed all the instrumentation. Following its release he began touring more extensively, while working on his third album “Rebel Hands,” which was released in 2004. After signing a new contract with BridgeTone Records, he released his latest album “Crows Feet” in 2006.
Kalai's work has appeared in several movies including: The Work and the Glory: American Zion, The Legend of Johnny Lingo, and Mysteries of Egypt (IMAX). He released his first music video on June 24, 2007 [1]. Kalai performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live [2] as well as Extra during the summer of 2007.
[edit] Discography
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