Courtesy Pacific Records

“Some of the new songs are so good that when we practice them, we all get chicken skin.”

Slack Key Ohana didn’t intend to release a live album. But the mahalo groove (aka the Hawaiian spirit of gratefulness for everything) held sway in the end. The slack key guitar band’s new full-length Live at Tiki Oasis started out as a gig they laid down at the city’s most recent tiki-themed festival, described by Ohana co-leader Kamaka Mullen as “Like Comic-Con, but for hardcore tiki fans and island culture [fans].”

“We record all our live shows, so we can listen back [and] see where we can improve as a band,” elaborates co-leader Brian Witkin. “When we listened to this one, the sound and vibe were so exciting that we wanted to share it. We had our hula dancers with us the entire time, and for one song, a celebrity in the hula-dancing world, Nani Maka, came up and danced with us. She was there for a seminar at the festival. We tried to fit all those moments into the liner notes of the CD as best we could. For me, the toughest thing came after the fact, being comfortable with some of the imperfections in the live performance, and having to work with what we delivered live. We made the decision to release the album consisting of our entire concert. The CD [and eventual vinyl] versions also include Kamaka’s stories in between the songs.”

The two San Diego natives, who met when Witkin began taking slack key lessons from Mullen, both have music in their blood. Recalls Witkin, “My father was the original keyboard player of Sha Na Na; he played Woodstock in 1969 right before Jimi Hendrix’s iconic performance. Both my parents also played in oldies cover bands when I was growing up, so I was born into a very musical family. As a kid, I was a huge Beatles fan and heavily into the Beach Boys. Pet Sounds was a particularly inspiring record for me in my early childhood. My family would sing four-part harmonies to Beach Boys songs in our living room, and it really stuck.”

For his part, Mullen recalls, “One day, I was singing a Beatles song in my grandpa’s master bathroom. When I came out, he was right at the door. He said, ‘Do you want to be a rock star when you grow up?’ I responded, ‘Is this a trick question? Of course I do! It’s what I always wanted.’ My grandpa stated, ‘Then you will be a rock star. With that voice, you’re going to be a rock star.’ But to be honest, my first musical loves were Beethoven and Mozart; they were the ones that got me to play music.” The elder relative got Mullen started on an instrumental path as well. “It was my grandpa who really inspired me to learn slack key. I listened to ‘Nahenahe’ by George Kuo. I told my grandpa, ‘It’s too hard, I’ll never figure it out.’ He said, ‘Try it, you’ll figure it out soon.’ He always had a vision, and was like a Jedi Master to me. I carry him with me, like a Force ghost, by my side.”

Slack Key Ohana recently shot a video for their original composition “Ku’u Lei Nani Mai ‘Oe,” directed by Steven Tavares of Kiwibird Studios out of Ramona. For the required Hawaiian color, they shot the entire thing at La Mesa’s Luau bar, where the band maintained a Saturday residency for much of last year. In addition, says Witkin, “We are working on a new studio album — all-original songs that we will be releasing in the first half of the year. The plan is to do it right in studio to tape, and really get as organic as possible with the instrumentation. The new songs on that upcoming album reflect some of our best songwriting in my opinion, so we’re really excited to share them. We also have some upcoming festival dates out of town, which we can’t announce yet, that we are very excited for as well, along with plans for a couple of singles and [another] music video in between now and the studio album release.”

According to Kamaka Mullen, “With every release, we make it a point to raise the bar. Some of the new songs are so good that when we practice them, we all get chicken skin. The hardest thing about it is that we have to keep the songs hush-hush until we are ready to publish, because I can’t wait to hear the audience feedback. The songs really rock.”