The History of "Feel No Way"

Five times. Five times. That is the number of times my mom has asked me the same question: "James, what does "Feel no way" even mean?" Every time I hear it, I smile, casually turn my head to face her, and say, "Mom, it means "No worries"." Of course, my mom is referring to the name of my eight member island/reggae band Feel No Way, of which I am the lead singer.

This band began back in April of last year, 2007, when my good friend Phil enthusiastically came to me with his idea and plans for a new band. In other words, Phil was the scout, and he recruited myself and all of the other members of the band, which was and still is made up of eight sophomores at Punahou School. These eight are: Phil, who is our guitarist and leader; St. John, who plays ukulele, sings, and plays keyboards; Geoff, who sings and plays ukulele; Ryne, who plays the drums; Kainoa, who plays the bass; Dylan, who plays the saxophone, keyboards, and sings; Thurston, who plays the bongos; and myself, James, and I sing.

After just a couple of "Jam seshes" consisting of playing songs we liked, eating, talking story, and fooling around we realized that we weren't that bad, but we were not very serious, and it seemed like just a fun activity to do every month or so. Then, we were invited to play at two parties, and after both of them were successes, Feel No Way had taken off, and officially hit the music scene. Thurston's sweet sixteen in the summertime was the first time we played in front of about fifty of our best friends. It wasn't the smoothest show, but the kids danced and for only having played together three times before, we did a good job.

Sadly after that however, Feel No Way was quiet for a very long time due to football and basketball practices, and heavy conflicting schedules between group members. We could never find the time to jam together again until December...five months later. Our dream was to follow our predecessors, Auana, a band made up of seven members of the Punahou Class of '07, and play at the Punahou Sophomore Luau for our peers in March. After that one December jam session, we had none in January. Sophomore Luau was getting closer, and I was becoming afraid that we would never be able to play, or even worse that we would never be able to play WELL. I'm not the most confident person in the world, and as for singing in front of my entire grade--I was terrified. I was not thrilled about getting up on stage with barely any band practice and not too much confidence in us. However, we pulled our act together throughout the month of February, refining our songs and headed into the luau full speed ahead with a full tank of gas!

March 1st was a night that I will never forget. That fateful night of Sophomore Luau was Feel No Way's greatest performance to this date, and one of the best nights of my entire life. We all arrived early to help set up our equipment in the cafeteria. We were set to play at 7 pm, after Manoa DNA played for an hour in the gym from 6-7. The deans didn't expect too much from us, and expected us to play a few tunes while the kids ate. They thought wrong. Feel No Way rocked the house, and shook the cafeteria for the full hour time slot we were allotted. The kids ate, they danced, they sang along, and many of them fully participated, which added heavily to the level of our performance. Everything seemed to come together for the band, seeing as how we were relying a lot on luck without too much practice time. St. John, Geoff, Dylan, and I sang well; Phil played his guitar solos with ease; Kainoa was solid on the bass; Ryne nailed his drum entrances; Dylan glided thru his saxophone solos; Thurston did his thing on the bongos. Everything turned out perfect!

Feel No Way has become the talk of the Sophomore class as far as music goes, and has received a lot of recognition since their performance at the luau. They now have three more shows already lined up for the summertime, including a big opening for Natural Vibrations, an extremely popular Island/Reggae band in Hawaii at a graduation party. It's amazing to think that this has lasted almost a year now, and we have already done so much more than we ever would have thought. Performing is truly a wonderful experience, and the adrenaline that builds up can't be matched by many things in this world. "Feel No Way" has even more of a meaning behind it to me, because when I think of the words, I know that that is how I like to live my life. I try to be smooth, easy-going, not complain so much, and just be as happy as possible. I want to spread joy everywhere I go, just like Feel No Way spreads its joyful music and melodic messages at each performance. In the wise words of Steel Pulse: "Life without music, I can't go..."