Beginning Again
The stack of Mike Lundy LPs the author recently sent out PHOTO BY ROGER BONG
The end of the year kept me busier than ever, starting with a trip to Japan in mid-December, then planning Christmas with my brother, Kevin, who moved back to Oahu from San Diego the day before I got back. Kevin spent almost a decade in San Diego and made it his home base while touring with reggae band Stick Figure, fronted by musician Scott Woodruff. Now, Honolulu is his home base, and he’ll be flying back and forth to the Mainland for the band’s busy tour schedule (he flew out Jan. 5 for a month-long West Coast and East Coast tour).
The day before Christmas, the first full-length release on my record label Aloha Got Soul arrived at my doorstep. Nearly 500 LPs of Mike Lundy’s The Rhythm Of Life finally made it to Hawaii, something of a Christmas gift, I suppose. But there was no time for me to ship them out — Christmas was in less than 12 hours, I still had a lot of work to finish at my day job, and I had to prep for my monthly gig, Soul Time In Hawaii, happening that Saturday.
DJ Oliver Twist and I have been hosting Soul Time for nearly two years on the last Thursday of the month at Bevy. But at the suggestion of Bevy co-owner Timo Lee, we recently changed it to every last Saturday. This past month’s Soul Time was incredible — the energy from the Saturday night crowd felt like the perfect fit for our soul/funk/disco DJ sets.
We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to return to Bevy from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Jan. 29.
After that, there was less than a week to finalize all the last-minute details of my wedding (!) taking place on the Big Island on New Year’s Eve. With the week of Christmas behind us, my now-wife Leimomi and I felt as if we could finally fully focus on the loose ends that were still hanging around (and make sure I got my Metro column in before departing!). We tied them all up before flying to Hilo, but still had a number of errands to run the day before New Year’s Eve in the quiet, typically rainy Big Island town. (We lucked out: No rain whatsoever during our entire trip!)We had some down time to enjoy before heading back to Oahu — I got some thrift store time in, but only found a few records out there. And now we’re back on Oahu, packing dozens and dozens of LPs at home (the things we do as a newlywed couple…) to ship all around the world to fans who’ve been patiently waiting to play Mike Lundy’s The Rhythm Of Life on their turn-tables.
Before we’ve even had a chance to catch our breath, 2016 has already begun and promises to be another busy, memorable and successful year. Let’s make the most of it.
ROGER BONG RECENTLY TURNED HIS BLOG INTO A RECORD LABEL: ALOHAGOTSOUL.COM
