THE BOUNDLESS SOUNDS OF ALY ISHIKUNI

Text: Travis Horikawa
Image: Mark Kushimi


To induce an instantaneous chorus of yawns by way of literature, all one must do is begin a piece with the cliché, “a wise man once said,” or a similarly seasoned adage from yester-century. Now that I’ve prefaced myself into immunity (i.e. this is no longer the beginning of my piece, ha!) let us continue. A wise man once said “Core Tendency is the inclination to actualize one's inherent potentialities,” and it is this exact personality component that I’ve found most intriguing about my interview subject, as we sat down for a round of Q & A. We’ve agreed to meet at a popular coffee shop just off of Ward Avenue on a sweltering summer afternoon. As we settle in, the clamor of life lived at high decibels is barely blanketed by the door behind us.

“I wanted to be a role model for other girls. Guys can rock, but girls can do it too!” muses Aly Ishikuni, a Kauai born singer/songwriter who, contrary to her diminutive stature, possess a colossal passion for making music and the vocal aptitude to match. I can’t help but observe more of Aly’s accidental paradoxes. She speaks in a becalmed voice, yet through all of its subtleness, seems to effortlessly transcend the ambient chatter rolling around us. Glimpses of her enigmatic stage presence echo in my thoughts. Recalling my skeptical first impression of watching her take stage, fronting an all-male rock band, only to be treated to a lesson on book covers and how not to judge them. She jolts me back to the present with her words, “It all started when I was a kid. My brother and sister were supposed to baby sit me, but they would leave me by myself with nothing to do, so I would just listen to music every day. From there I just started singing with my Disney sing-along videos [laughter], and I just got hooked.” She continues to detail her rise through the ranks, culminating with a spot in the finals at the competitive talent mainstay, Brown Bags to Stardom. It is at this point that an 18-year-old Aly knew that she would pursue her craft with an unwavering conviction.

Lets take a moment to revisit our “wise man” from the not-so-beginning of this article. Psychologist Carl Rogers, in his same speech on Core Tendency, went on to profess, “this potential exists in all living organisms, even plants, though humans possess an additional form — Self Actualization, or the ability to actualize the self.” And that she did. An open audition for J-pop mega-label, AVEX on Oahu (think American Idol, minus the “Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwich” a.k.a. Paula, Simon and Randy) provided an unprecedented opportunity for Aly to showcase her talent. “I did the whole interview thing, sang two songs and thought [to myself] nah there’s no chance for me to win, so I flew back home to Kauai,” she recalls. That very evening her phone rang, and on the other end — destiny. The ensuing months were spent amid a maelstrom of contract discussions, trips to Japan and recording sessions with such industry notables as Christina Milian, M-flo and the Backstreet Boys. Never one to bind herself to any one genre of music, Aly then retuned to Hawai‘i to address another burning desire: to Explore the realm of rock music. My first exposure to her music came at around this time. The aforementioned moment that I stood witness as she made her way to the (Pipeline Café) stage to lead a four-piece, male, rock ensemble and thought to myself, “can she do it?” still fresh on my conscience. Her band, Explore, grew to become one of the most dynamic and critically heralded ever to emerge from the local rock scene.

Flash forward to the present day. We are nearing the end of our meeting and I take a moment to inquire about other projects that may be in the works. To my surprise, she reveals plans to delve into even more musical subdivisions, including electropop, hip-hop and downtempo. Call it an all-encompassing love for music, or proof positive of a converging music scene. Either way, I found myself grinning in anticipation. One need only look as far as her Myspace page for evidence of her eclectic approach to music. The songs featured are as diverse and intriguing as the company she keeps. Ever the socialite, Aly can be spotted on any given weekend, flanked by a man-tourage of the swankier-than-thou. You know the guys; artfully tousled manes, legs plastered in a denim epidermis, coping through varying degrees of Male Pattern Radness. This is not to imply that her clan is exclusive to the boys, for she also boasts a supporting cast of freakishly fashionable bonnes amies, all of whom can stake partial claim to the arts and cultural Renaissance that is boisterously changing the face of present day Downtown, Honolulu.

Through it all, one things is certain: Aly has aspirations to be the musical embodiment of it all. Sadly, Explore will not supply the soundtrack to this new revolution. The group disbanded earlier in the year, and its members have since moved on to other things. “I’m happy. I don’t regret. I mean, it’s sad that it ended when it did. I had hopes for us to be in Japan, but yeah, ready to move on.” Her eyes speak of loss, and a desire to revisit vacant moments, but her resolve knows only “forward.” Most people see scars as imperfections, she sees them for what they truly are: broken flesh...mended. It is this resilience that all but solidifies Aly’s role as one of Hawai‘i’s premiere voices in contemporary music. Though the genre may change with her mood, perhaps, someday, the words she pours over each melody may live on to become the core of a new cliché “a wise WOMAN once said...”


アリーイシクニ
文　トラビスホリカワ

アリーイシクニの声にはどんな音楽をやっても成功する“基本傾向”がある。J-PopでもExploreでもアリーのカリスマ的な歌は多くのファンをひきつけてやまない。彼女が次ぎに何をするのかわからないが、何をやっても新たな高みに到達することは間違いない。