the overeducated and underemployed this is the
last interview that we've got this year and it's
a doozy um I'm gonna not waste much of your time
because we got Jim Kimo West from Weird Al Yankovic's
band he's a Grammy award -winning Hawaiian slack
key guitar player and his latest project Sounds
of Kumba is also nominated for a Grammy this
year I encourage you to check it out. There's
links in the description. We had a great talk
about everything from his childhood all the way
up until what's going on on the latest tour.
So I really hope you enjoy this. Thanks for tuning
in. Hit that subscribe button. We've got a lot
more coming next year. I'm not going to waste
any more time though. Here's my interview with
Jim Kimo West. I'll put out one more episode
this year just kind of recapping some stuff.
But this is the last interview for the year.
Thank you all so much. Thanks to everybody that's
been on this show. And let's get right into it.
I'm here with Jim Kimo West, who is a Grammy
Award winning guitar player and guitar player
for Weird Al Yankovic. And welcome to Overeducated
and Underemployed. I appreciate you being here.
That's perfect. I love the title of your show.
It works for me. It's the state of America, I
think, at this point. I think so. I think you're
right about that. I'm going to start with the
question that I ask everybody, and that's, what
was the first song that you remember loving as
a kid? Yeah, my older brother, he's 10 years
older than me, he had... As a kid, he would buy
these novelty records on 45. And I remember one
maybe like the Flying Purple People Eater and
just these comedy songs were being some of the
first things that I remember as a kid. Although
I've also, it's funny because I've had a partial
career as a composer and I've always been in,
music has always affected me in a great way.
And I remember as a kid, I literally remember
being affected by a piece of music. that was
a theme to a TV show. My parents would watch
TV shows in the evening. And there was a show
called Dr. Kildare, which was, oh, I can't think
of the actor, famous actor played. It was one
of those early doctor shows, probably maybe the
first one. And it had an amazing theme song.
And I can't sing it right now, but I remember
as a kid being actually affected by that and
feeling like an emotional effect from that music.
Throughout my life, music has affected me deeply.
Yeah, yeah. It's interesting that... It was one
thing I was curious about that leads to a broader
question I had was like, how into the type of
music that you ended up playing with Al were
you before you joined his band? And that's interesting.
I think I read a story about how Frank Zappa
was inadvertently related to... you moving out
to LA and getting Al's band. And I think it's
cool because it became, it came full circle because
Genius in France ended up being like my introduction
to Frank Zappa's music. And I think for a lot
of other people. Oh, right. Yeah, that's an interesting
story. I had played in cover bands a lot, like
we all do when we start playing rock and roll.
Some of the bands, some of my first bands were
we would play covers but we weren't like a lounge
band we would play really cool covers and i was
playing in a house band situation with steve
j al's bass player and we were playing at this
big club it was probably the best gig you could
get in the state it was a big club play there
six nights a week and it was a lot of times different
rock stars would come in there like on their
nights off and frank zappa came in one night
and really liked the band he said oh i think
this is like the best cover band i've heard and
and and it was a nice production because we had
a big pa we had a sound guy and a lighting guy
and it was quite it was a nice production anyway
he asked for our phone numbers and he did never
called me but he did call steve and ask him to
audition for his band so steve came out to los
angeles to audition didn't get the job but decided
to stay in la and started playing in some bands
and he met some guys who were looking for a guitar
player so he introduced them to me and i was
ready to move i knew at some point i would have
to move to new york or la so i said okay i'm
coming out and i drove out to la and became started
working right away and about a year later Steve
met Al, I think he got called, hired to play
bass on Al's very first album, record deal album,
and he was looking for a guitar player, and I
got recommended, I didn't audition, and I really
didn't know much about Al, but I really respected,
once I started learning the songs, I really gained
a lot of respect for them, because they were
very well crafted, even those early ones from
way back. Yeah, that's very true. We can get
a little bit more into that in a few minutes.
I do want to back up a little bit, though I started
to get ahead of myself. But you knew at a pretty
young age that you wanted to be a professional
musician. I think I read somewhere like 16 or
17. When did you start playing music? Where did
you go from, okay, I love music, it affects me,
to I want to start playing and making music of
my own? playing when i was 12 my older brother
had a guitar in the closet he wasn't playing
and i started noodling around on it so he got
me a book and strings and new strings and etc
etc and i fell in love with that was an acoustic
guitar and then a couple of years later of course
i wanted to get into electric guitar my friend
of mine loaned me a guitar and an amp and we
play jam together. I didn't really know a lot
of musicians, but I had a couple friends from
high school I would jam with. But at a certain
point, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted
to be in this band, and they had a paying gig.
And I was probably 16, I think. And I said, of
course. And I actually played my first paying
gig when I was 16. And then I got into another
band, and we started working regularly. And I
just By the time I was 17, it was like, you know,
I had been in college because I was studying
art, visual arts, but the music thing was like,
this is a lot more fun and I'm making money.
And so I decided when I was 17, that would be
what I would do. Yeah. Were you playing mostly
in cover bands? Were you all playing original
music or kind of a combination? Yeah, both. Yeah,
both. I was in a couple bands where we did a
lot of... But we would also throw in some originals,
even some things I wrote when I was a teenager.
And later on, a few years later, I was in some
other bands where it was maybe half and half
original music and covers. We were playing like
cool covers as opposed to holiday and lounge
covers. More southern rock was big in those days
and stuff like that. So we were playing cool
covers and originals. Playing covers, of course,
learning covers and learning them note for note
and everything was a good preparation for working
with Al. Yeah, it's interesting to me that Frank
said that you and Steve were in the best cover
band he'd ever heard. And then I think that's
been said about Al's band for years and something
I would agree with, especially... On that tour
where you played like a different cover every
night and really proved you could. Yeah. I mean,
you've proved you can play anything over the
years, but then you played everything in one
year. And that was pretty amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
Seventy seven different seventy seven different
covers. Yeah. We got we got peaches at the show
I was at by the by the presidents of the United
States of America. So that was right. So. Did
you tour with any of these bands as a teenager
or were you playing mostly like you said you
had a house gig with the band that Zappa saw?
Yeah, that was the last band I was in before
I moved to L .A. Yeah, my earlier bands, we would
tour, play shows not far. We would play around
Florida and then sometimes up into Georgia and
Alabama on a couple of some of those bands. But
we would just tour regionally. And they would
often, because of the kind of band we were, we
were playing these sort of rock clubs where you
might be there for two weeks in one place, playing
every night for two weeks or something. I'm curious
how booking was different. There's a lot of technological
differences, for one, but having to navigate
and find places is just very basic. thing that
i think people think about but i think booking
and promoting and even finding clubs that you
can play at in other cities is there anything
you remember about that was particularly true
yeah i think in some of my earliest bands i think
i did all the booking i don't know why but i
guess nobody else could do it so i figured it
out but then even in one of my early bands when
i was still a teenager we actually had a booking
agent who would book us into teen centers and
stuff like that but so some of the bands there
would be a booking agent and she would line it
up and other bands we would just do it on our
own we just hear about a good place to play and
we'd call and talk to somebody on the phone old
school and they would send them maybe we'd have
to send them a demo tape or a pictures or things
like that send them a little promo kit and but
it was old school but it worked we we always
we were always working And what was the music
you were listening to at the time, particularly
teenage into college? What were some of your
favorite bands, maybe some of the bands you liked
to go see, things like that? Was there anything
that sticks out? Well, gee, I did get to see
a lot of concerts. For a while, because of my
art background, I was doing posters for the local
promoter for all the shows. As a quirk, I would
get to go to those shows and be backstage and
everything. So I saw all kinds of people. Jeff
Beck and Jeff Thrall and Just Yes and all kinds
of different bands. For a while there, in my
later teens, I was getting into, you know, back
in the day, prog rock, progressive rock, stuff
that was more musically challenging. In our bands,
we would sometimes play Allman Brothers songs
and blues -based things like that. And that was
fun. Musically, I started getting into some of
these English prog bands and things like that
because it was musically more challenging and
more interesting. We would play some of that
kind of stuff. And then some of the later bands,
we'd play Steely Dan songs and this and that.
Stuff that was musically satisfying. But as you
develop... your musicality what you'd like to
play stuff that's more challenging so we managed
to still play enough regular stuff to keep booking
but keep booking the shows but we would throw
in cool stuff too yeah i feel like so many bands
now at least in my area you go see cover bands
and they play like the same songs that people
are like singing at karaoke it's really yeah
learn about a new song from a cover band or yeah
we in my last band the one at the house band
gig we would learn like three songs a week new
songs and so it kept your kept you fresh all
the time yeah yeah and it seems like that's something
you've continued through the years to like continually
want to challenge yourself musically not just
like without but You started putting solo albums
out 25 years ago now at this point. Yeah, yeah.
And I think, where do you think the need for
an outlet, just a creative outlet? I think there's
a lot of musicians, comedians have, and this
isn't universally true, but a lot of them have
maybe a tumultuous upbringing or they struggle
with like anxiety or depression or have some
kind of internal struggle. Was there anything
that you can think of that was ever a driving
force or was it just a love of music that always
drew you in? It really was just a love of music
that drew me in. And of course, once I started
playing live shows and got that feeling of being
on stage and people enjoying it, then that, of
course, feeds that. But it's always been a love
of music. And to this day, even if I wasn't performing,
I would still be writing music for the love of
it. When I got into my solo music, the Hawaiian
slack key guitar, that was something I got into
purely for the love of it. I had started writing
my own slack key guitar songs and I would record
them so I wouldn't forget them. And then at some
point somebody said, well, you know, you've got
all these songs. Why don't you make a CD? And
I had not even considered that because I didn't
consider it to be something that. you know i
wanted to do commercially it was just something
i loved and then another friend of mine you know
artist friend offered you to do the cover and
all of a sudden i had a cd and then i had a cd
some cd release parties and all of a sudden i
was asked asked to play at the slack key festival
and then it just kind of mushroomed from there
but it was all pretty much intentional and unintentional
and it was um really based on just for the love
of the music can you tell us a little bit about
like the origins and history of slack key guitar
because I know it goes back to the 19th century
and you started going to Hawaii in the 80s I
think you said at one point yeah yeah I think
1985 is when I first went to Hawaii yeah I think
I had heard about slack key guitar I'd read about
maybe an article about Rye Cooter or somebody
like that but Slack key is an old style. It's
actually older than the blues. It started probably
in the 1830s on the big island of Hawaii. What
had happened was Kamehameha III had brought over,
he contracted some Spanish vaqueros, cowboys,
Spanish cowboys from what is now California,
which was Spanish back then, because they had
the knowledge about managing cattle, roping them.
all that stuff there had been this overpopulation
of cattle on the big island because one of the
early explorers george vancouver thought it would
be a good idea to bring five head of cattle over
and give them to the king but i think they wanted
to establish food a meat source on the island
but the cows escaped and became feral and over
the years there was just tons of these huge longhorn
cattle all over the islands and the local people
didn't know what to how to control them They
were scary. When Kamehameha III contracted the
Spanish vaqueros to come over, they brought over
their ponies and their saddles, and they also
had guitars. And at the end of the day, they
would play some music around the campfire, which
also helped calm the cattle. The cattle tend
to calm down when they hear music. And the Hawaiians
were mesmerized. They had never seen a guitar
before. left some of the guitars behind and the
Hawaiians they would all have this one instrument
how can we make it sound like a whole band with
one instrument so they would slack some of the
strings down to create different tunings and
that way they could play bass and melody and
everything at the same time and all the different
families would have their own different tunings
their own sort of family recipe and it eventually
spread to the other islands and but for many
years it was only ever just played at home it
was back porch music it wasn't something you
would perform and it wasn't even really officially
recorded until the 40s i think gabby probably
knew he put out the first slack key commercial
record in 1946 and then during the 70s it got
rediscovered and and you started seeing slack
key albums being produced but but it's got a
long history like i say it's probably older than
the blues that's an incredible story actually
it's and it is I've got to say, some of the most
calming music I've ever listened to. Yeah, it's...
You turn that on and you'll be the most zen guy
on the road, I'll tell you. It's true, yeah.
I do the same. Sometimes if I'm on the freeway,
I'll put on, not one of my CDs, but I'll put
on some other slack key and it just calms you
right down. It's a beautiful... It's one of those
kinds of music that sounds like the place. When
you're in a really beautiful part of Hawaii and
you hear slack key, that's what sort of drew
me into it was the feeling that it represented
the place so well, especially rural Hawaii. And
where I was staying out in Hana, Maui, it was
a small town, one gas station and two little
stores and lots of horses and cattle and chickens
and very lush. You had a lot of streams and waterfalls
and things like that. And that music just really
described the place. That's what sort of made
me fall in love with it. Yeah. And you fell so
in love with Hawaii that you spend several months
a year there, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Yeah.
As I'm more busy, I spend less time there, but
I'm usually over there about four times a year
and sometimes to perform and then sometimes just
to relax. So I have a long... a long relationship
with Hawaii in general. And I will probably eventually
move there full -time, back there full -time
at some point. And so you moved to L .A. in the
early 80s, and you started going to Hawaii in
the mid -80s. How much did your personal playing
kind of change when you left Tampa and moved
to L .A. and started visiting these other places
and hearing these other types of music? Coming
to L .A. was a great thing because all of a sudden
you're around so many fantastic musicians. I
remember the first band I was in, we went out,
we were rehearsing one day, and we went out one
evening to hear some musicians, and these guys
were all like the best players I'd ever heard
in my life, and it was inspiring. It was sort
of... intimidating as well, but it was inspiring
to see the level of musicianship that we had
here in L .A. And then, of course, when I went
to Hawaii, the Hawaiian slack key guitar and
Hawaiian music in general was a new discovery
for me. And for many years, I'd like to just
listen to it before I ever tried to really play
it. I just like to listen to slack key. And it
gradually just crept into my life. But you're...
At this point, you're playing with Al as well,
and you're being challenged to play all kinds
of genres of music that I imagine some of it's
not even things that you were listening to at
the time. Right. What was it like to try and
emulate some of the guitar sounds that were so
precise, and especially stuff that you weren't
necessarily a fan of before it being brought
into the world that you were playing? It's always
a challenge. It's kind of like being a sonic
detective. If we were doing a parody, the job
would be to try and recreate it as faithfully
as possible. And so that would mean listening
to try to, sometimes you'd have a song that might
have six guitar parts. So you're going through
the song bit by bit and trying to figure out
what each part is and make notes about the sound.
And so it's like a craft. It was something you
just learned to do. Later on. As a lot of pop
music started having less and less guitar, I
started doing some of the programming, the actual
keyboard parts and things like that, because
I had a lot of experience with that, working
as a composer for TV and film, like White and
Nerdy and things like that. I would do all those
keyboard parts and stuff like that for those
kind of tracks. But yeah, it's like being...
a sonic like i say a sonic detective you're just
trying to find these parts nowadays they have
ai stuff that actually isolates tracks which
would have been very helpful back in the day
but i also think like you your ability to recreate
those sounds live and everything like that has
gotten easier for you your rig has gotten a lot
less complicated when you play live And you've
been able to take it, and not only that, I think
the show itself as a whole has really, over the
years, morphed with the technological advances
and the ability to incorporate more multimedia.
Sure, yeah. Yeah, I work at getting the sounds
as close as I can. I don't go overboard, but
I use what I have and try and do the best job
I can with what I have. One of my favorite stories
is... about the Beverly Hillbillies. Because
Mark Knopfler ends up playing on the actual...
But I've read that... I'll say at one point that...
Jim's was... It sounded more like the original.
Because at this point, Mark had gotten just so
used to playing it freely, and it didn't sound
quite as... And of course, the Mark Knopfler
ones was used, but... I think that was just,
that story always stuck with me. It's just like
a testament of your ability to recreate all these
legendary guitar parts. Yeah, Mark was, I think
probably from playing it live, like you said,
he had probably made some little changes to it,
but I tried to get it as close to the record.
But when I heard that he was available to do
it, of course, we all wanted that. That's great
to have him do it. And also he got the sound
more accurate because he had the same guitar
and the same amp and all that stuff. He was able
to nail the sound better than I was. But yeah,
it is a funny story. So at what point did you
accept that you were part of something that was
going to be more than just a band? In the early
90s, there's the TV show and the tour gets more
and more theatrical. At what point did you realize
this was going to be something that you were
going to be doing for probably a long time? In
the beginning, none of us thought it would last
more than a few years because it's kind of a
novelty thing. And we thought if we can get three
years or five years out of it, we'd be very lucky.
So none of us expected it to have this kind of
longevity. But yeah, as the show gets bigger
and bigger, Also, we, as a band, become more
visible and known to people. I was even portrayed
by an actor in Al's movie. That was kind of takes
it to another level. But yeah, it's like I say,
we never expected it to go to have this kind
of longevity. And it's been an amazing ride for
sure. And you've talked about How fortunate that
you are to get to play music for a living. But
at the end of the day, it is still a job. Can
we talk about some of the monotony of the day
-to -day, of being on the road? What are some
of the things that you've done? The road can
kill people. The boredom alone. What are some
of the things that you've done over the years
to make sure that you've stayed healthy and happy
on the road? Let it overtake, you know, your
psyche and that sort of thing. You're right.
It's the same thing every day. The hotel room
and going to the venue and all that stuff. Now,
on previous tours, not this last one, but on
a lot of previous tours, I would carry a folding
bike with me. And I would take that around during
my free time and explore. Sometimes on days off,
I'd rent a car and put it in the trunk and go
to a park or a national park or something like
that. That was one thing that I did on previous
tours was having this bike with me. Now on this
tour, I really missed it because we had extra,
a bigger band and we didn't have room on the
bus for the bike. So I missed it this time, but
I try and get out and if I have free time, I
try and... get out in sight see if this time
i had to just do it on foot but get out and walk
and see see the neighborhood or whatever and
do whatever i can i don't like to really sit
in the room and watch tv some people do that's
or be on the internet all day i like to get out
out of the room and do things and so i still
do that it's just not quite as much fun with
without the bike the band has been together for
so long most bands change members or maybe someone
doesn't take care of themselves and something
happens to them or they can't stay or they unfortunately
pass on there's been such a longevity to this
group that is out of y 'all's control for one
i think just everybody's still with you and able
to do it but what are the things that you guys
think are were within your control that has kept
a band like that together for so long that's
i think there's a lot to be said for that that's
not easy to do yeah it's a good question i think
there's overall there's a level of professionalism
amongst us all where we know that we're there
to do what al needs of us as opposed to inflicting
our own take on everything We're there to support
him. And I think the general consensus is that
amongst all the band members. And so just knowing
what your job is, first of all, is good. Because
you could have a player who just wants to change
everything up and do everything his own way or
whatever. And that could be uncomfortable for
Al. And I think having that consistency and that
support gives him a nice... foundation that he
can be very sure of he's got that consistency
that he can rely on every night and as opposed
to things that change up all the time and you
could throw you out of your concentration and
you forget a lyric or something but i think that's
the main thing is that we just all agree on that
yeah that that is so important i i also i wonder
how much Your input goes into the non -parody
songs. Do you guys tend to work on your own parts
in any way, or is that more of a you're playing
a part that Al has already written? Mostly we
come up with our own parts, but he'll give us
examples of the kind of vibe he's looking for.
He might give us five or ten different song examples
of the kind of and you can key off of those examples
sometimes. But then we always have the freedom
to come up with our own parts, as long as it's
something that he likes. Every once in a while,
he'll have an actual melodic line that he wants,
and I'll figure out a way to do that and make
it. He could have played it on a toy piano, but
I'll figure out a way to make it sound right
on guitar. But we do have some freedom. on coming
up with lines and things like that. So there's
definitely some contributions there on the non
-parody songs. And I think those are the best
songs, in my opinion. And I think the real fans,
and I don't mean the real fans in terms of trying
to gatekeep anything, but the fans that listen
to more than just the music videos and things
like that, the fans that dig a little deeper
end up loving those songs more than... yeah any
of the parodies for sure i agree yeah and that's
why the uh why those tours were so successful
the uh the what they call the vanity tours the
stripped down tours or almost all his originals
yeah i saw both tours that was they were it was
amazing it was i think it was what the the hardcore
fans had wanted for years and years so yeah and
it was nice that we were doing that what were
some of your favorite songs to play on a tour
like that or Just over the years, the non -parody
songs, what are some of your favorites? Oh, gee.
I always like rockers. Anything that's just rockin'.
Gee, so many different ones. There were a couple
where there were Aerosmith -y sounding tunes.
But basically anything that really rocks was
what I would gravitate to. You make me comes
to mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that was a
good one. Yeah. You make me, that's a great one.
Yeah. Stuck in a closet with Vanna, stuck in
a closet with Vanna White was always fun. Y 'all
weren't expecting the longevity. And I think
the roles have changed. How have y 'all grown
into what it's become over the years? Cause I
think that's a big part of something that y 'all
have had control over, over the years. is whenever
new challenges for the group came, all stepped
up to them. What were some of the tricks to that
and some of the ways that you overcame some challenges
there? Yeah, you know, I've been doing this for
so long that I never look at anything really
as a challenge. Obviously, when we're working
up a new tour, we have a lot of homework to do.
And sometimes it's a bit of a chore. it's okay
and i've got to research this tune and then also
not only learn all the guitar learn the music
but learn all the good the singing parts too
so i think for me the biggest challenge is i
don't really worry about the music too much it
comes very easily but the singing singing parts
are what i have to concentrate not only in when
i'm learning the songs but when i'm on stage
i never really think much about the playing i'm
always focusing on trying to make sure i'm singing
in tune and in the right tone and not forgetting
lines and things like that i really focused on
the vocals so to me that's the biggest challenge
was really just singing and on those vanity tours
i tended i was the one member of the band that
had to do the most backup singing and a lot of
the parts were high even above out some nights
it was quite a challenge but i didn't to keep
being able to sing those parts with that intensity
and, of course, play the guitar behind it. You
mentioned it briefly earlier, but I'd really
like to talk about your composition work for
film and television and how you got into that
and just some of the things that you've done
over the years on that side of your career. Yeah,
I'm not doing as much of that anymore. I went
through a period of... probably in the late 80s.
I've always written music and I've always written,
you know, instrumental music. And at a certain
point, probably in the late 80s, I was thinking
I'd really maybe like to get into film scoring
because I always listened to the music in films
and TV shows and stuff. And sometimes I would
play along with the score, a guitar, just like
jam along with what the composer had written.
And in the early 90s, I... I had a friend who
worked at a post -production facility where they
do audio post -production, and he told me about
this possible gig that was coming up that I had
a chance to submit a demo for, and it was for
20th Century Fox. And what had happened was they
had licensed a bunch of classic movies from their
catalog to China, but they were going to have
to be dubbed into different languages, dubbed
into Chinese. but unfortunately they were missing
most of the movies were missing the individual
music tracks and the individual sound effects
tracks so whenever somebody spoke the music and
the sound effects would have to be recreated
i had a chance to submit a demo and it was a
like a war movie with a bunch of explosions going
on and a couple other people did demos but they
just did their own thing wrote their own stuff
but i decided i was going to copy the original
score note for note part by part all by hand
and using sampler keyboards and um and they chose
me because it crossfaded it flowed really naturally
it just sounded you really couldn't tell so it
was a long project of about over about a year
and a half i think 13 films and anywhere from
10 minutes to 40 minutes of music per film. It
was a great education. It was like going to film
music school because I was studying all the scores
from these famous composers. And that led to
doing a few features for an Asian company, sort
of action -adventure features. I did music for
Honda commercials, and then I did some stuff
for the Disney Channel. I did shows. A lot of
animated Saturday morning animation shows, Iron
Man and My Little Pony. My Little Pony was the
last one I ever did. I somehow got into animation.
It was just where the work was. It was fun and
I made good money doing it. It's very intense
because the music is changing every few seconds.
After a while of doing that, a number of years,
I... put it in my head that I was going to wean
myself off of the composing thing and focus more
on my original music and my own career. And that's
exactly what I did. So starting around early
2000s, I started doing less of that and then
focusing more on my stuff. And now I, yeah, yeah.
And so now that's, that's what I do. Every so
often something will come up or I'll be asked
to write something, looking for that kind of
work anymore but it was fun i enjoyed doing it
and it was a good living and i learned a lot
but just better right now to focus on my own
stuff that first project sounds particularly
both catered to you and also probably something
that that helped with your skills over the years
recreating other sounds for me especially as
music yeah from just be guitar but programming
things like white nerdy and things like that
and white nerdy is actually a good example of
some al's music being a big part of quote -unquote
nerd culture if you will and nerd culture it's
one like at this point like all the biggest movies
comic book movies and star wars and yeah But
how much of that did you relate to over the years?
Was that something that you directly related
to as Al was writing these songs? Not really.
I totally was aware of the culture and obviously
what his fan base was like. It didn't really
concern me. I was really just more focused on
the job of... getting the guitar parts right
and the keyboard parts right. And it was really
more about that, more about just the actual mechanics
of making the records and playing the parts live
and all that stuff. I will say that is a little
bit nerdy, Jim. Yeah, you can definitely nerd
out on trying to recreate stuff, that's for sure.
And over the years, Al, early on, he was... Not
as concerned with the tracks being exactly like
the record, but as the years went on, he became
more into having everything be as close as possible.
Basically, the concept is when it comes on the
radio, you think it's the other song, and then
you go, wait a minute, that's not the right words.
For me, it's the opposite. I'm just constantly
disappointed that it's not the Weird Al version
whenever I'm hearing songs. Right. What are some
of the things that you've really enjoyed over
the last 20 years with your slack key guitar
and getting into playing more solo shows? I know
at first that was something that was a little
bit intimidating for you, but now you've been
nominated for several Grammys and won in, was
it 2021 or 2020 for more guitar stories? Yeah,
21. Yeah, 2021. I'm assuming you have gained
quite a bit of confidence there, too. What are
some of the highlights for you over the years
on that front? Well, playing at the festivals,
the Slack Key festivals, like you said, when
I first started playing Slack Key shows, it was
when my first album came out, all of a sudden
I had to do shows. And I was playing in Hawaii
at things like Borders and Barnes & Noble. But
then I had to play the Maui Slacky Festival,
and there were 1 ,500 people out there. But at
those first shows, I wasn't really used. I was
used to playing in bands where there's a singer
that's getting most of the focus. And when I
started playing solo Slacky shows, it was nerve
-wracking, the first couple, because I'm the
only one, and everybody's watching and listening
to me. So it was very, I sweated a lot on those
first couple of shows. But I got used to it,
and then. Playing the festivals, those kind of
big festivals have always been a highlight. I've
also done a tour called International Guitar
Night two or three times and touring around with
three other guitarists from different parts of
the world and a very musical show. Any of those
kind of concert experiences now, they're all
fun. I do wonder what it was like returning to
Maui. to play that that slack key festival after
it was you're playing their music back for them
essentially what was that like well you know
i had been living out in hana which is one of
the most hawaiian places uh in hawaii and i had
a lot of friends and i i felt pretty um comfortable
in the culture there you know uh and accepted
and the beautiful thing about you know when i
played my first slack key festival um instead
of i was i think i may have been the only holly
white guy and the festival but instead of having
any kind of blowback from the other musicians
they were completely the opposite they were like
hey brah thanks for mahalo for helping to keep
this this art form going when they were ever
ever nothing but support as opposed to hey what
are you doing playing our music no it was completely
the opposite it was not nothing but respect and
support and it always has been That's amazing.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, yeah. So every so often
you'd hear somebody who was thinking it was some
kind of cultural appropriation, but it was never
from Hawaiian. It would always be from some other
white person. I've noticed that happens a lot.
There's a lot of that going on. Because the Hawaiians
are, by nature, a welcoming people. In fact,
they don't have any word for foreigner. The word
they use is malahini, which means guest. There's
no word with bad connotation for somebody from
somewhere else. You're a guest. So it's just
part of the aloha spirit and Hawaiian nature
to be welcoming. So I have always felt welcome.
I think it's interesting how... how much a language
like linguistically that can like sometimes point
out traits about a culture that's that's really
yeah that's yeah that's amazing what do you what
did you fall in love with hawaii i'm guessing
that's one of the reasons but what are some of
the things that made you fall in love with hawaii
in the first place other than it just being such
well i when i went over there i I did actually
fall in love with a woman. So that helped. But
she was somebody who had a long history with
Hawaii. So as opposed to just if I was a tourist
visiting, I was immediately going to local luaus
and parties. And I was thrown into the deep end
of Hawaiian culture. So I was very lucky in that
respect. So to this day. I'm still friends with
a lot of those families and it's just a long
relationship. And of course, Hawaii is, especially
out there where I was staying in Hana, it's very,
the coastline probably looks the same as it did
in the 1600s. It's wild, dramatic lava rock cliffs,
big waves, waterfalls, a lot of rain in that
area. So you get a lot of waterfalls, you get
a lot of lush jungle. It's just really an amazing,
physically an amazing place. But the culture
and the people, no snakes, no. And the culture,
the people, that's the thing. I just fell in
love with the culture. Hawaiians are so giving
and respectful and, in general, just nice people.
It's just, it felt very at home to be there.
It felt really nice. You talked a little bit.
About your hobbies and things that you do to
keep busy on the road. But when you're home,
what do you like to do for fun? I suspect get
out in nature still quite a bit is something
that you enjoy. Yeah, occasionally. Sometimes
take a drive out to Joshua Tree National Park.
There's some local hiking trails I sometimes
will drive to. There's nothing really cool that
I can walk to. Sometimes I'll just do things
like that for exercise. It's a little tougher
here because I'm in the city. But when you're
in Hawaii, there's a lot more outdoor things
you can do and a lot more options. But yeah,
I still get out and do things like that. And
I like to travel. So traveling is a cool thing.
I was down in the Cook Islands last September,
which is down near Tahiti, South Pacific. So
I like traveling. Stuff like that, and of course,
just playing around on my guitar and playing
in my studio. That's a pretty major part of it.
For sure. What are some of the things that you've
got going on right now, career -wise, that you'd
like to share with people? I was involved in
three or four different projects this year that
have been submitted to the Grammys. I guess the
nominations come out in a couple weeks, but one
of them was a project, an Indian project that
I played on. And I went to India for that. And
I recorded my parts here, but I went to India
because we were filming music videos. And that
was, there were three other projects that I was
involved in as well. But the one in India was
quite dramatic. It's called Sounds of Kumba.
And what it is, it's a tribute to the a thing
they called the Mahakum, which was happening
in February. That's when I went over. And it's
the largest human gathering in human history.
It's like a spiritual pilgrimage. And it's an
area of northern India. And every day, there'd
be 10 to 20 million people every day. And over
a 40 -day period, there were 550 million people
that attended it. A little bit bigger than Coachella.
But it's a spiritual pilgrimage where the poorest
of the poor, the richest of the rich, everybody
comes. It's loud and chaotic, but it's peaceful.
It's nonviolent. So we were there filming because
the album is a dedication to this event. So we
were filming a lot of music videos there, and
it was quite spectacular. And they created 12
music videos, one video for every song. You can
find it on YouTube. It sounds... of Kumba, K
-U -M -B -H -A. There'll be a link in the description
of the episode. I'll make sure to link it. Okay.
Yeah, it's very amazing and very high -quality
videos. They look like National Geographic specials
or something. They're incredible. Yeah, they
really are. But anyway, that was the project
that I was most excited about. What was that
experience like, traveling to India? I'd never
been before. It was like nothing I've ever seen.
I've never seen so many people. And it's, like
I say, loud and chaotic, but beautiful at the
same time. It was really unforgettable. I really
appreciate you being here, Jim. Congratulations
on all the success and everything. Oh, I appreciate
it. Thank you. Where do you see... This has been
going on for so long with Al and everything.
Where do you see... Do you know what the next
steps are? Do you know what the next thing in
the works is? Is there anything you can talk
about yet? Not really. I assume we'll be touring
some more. This last tour was quite successful.
So yeah, I'm sure they'll do want to do that
again, but I'll just keep doing the same thing
and doing my own projects and working on more
music and nothing out of the, nothing out of
the ordinary, all the same kind of stuff, but
it's all good. I've seen 10 of those tours over
the years. Oh, wow. And the first one, I was
13, and I'm 39 now. So it's been quite the...
Honestly, one of the only constants, I think,
for a lot of people in entertainment and culture.
So thank you so much for everything, Jim. I really
appreciate it. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, thanks
for having me on, man. I really appreciate it.
I'll do it. We'll do it again sometime. Awesome.
Awesome. Well, that was my interview with Jim
Kimo West. Check out all of the projects he's
got. There's still a few of his USB drives with
all 12 of his solo records available on his website.
There's links in the description. It's been a
great year. I'll probably do a little year in
review here before the year wraps up, but this
is my last interview of the year. Thank you all
so much for tuning in. Uh, next year we'll be
back with a whole lot more. So, uh, stay tuned.
I'm going to do some, uh, some edits over the
holidays, put some compilations of, of some of
the things I've already done together. Um, but
there won't be any new interviews until January
7th with Tommy Simbazo, good comedian friend
of mine and our first episode that we actually
recorded in virtual reality. So I hope you, uh,
hope you stay tuned for that. Hope you all have
a wonderful holiday. Happy Festivus, everybody.