LOS ANGELES (Major Hana Records Official Website) - "
Somewhere" Striking International
Digital Chord with iTunes and MySpace.
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow", by Kaulana Kanekoa, and ukulele ace, Vince Esquire, of the Maui band, Kanekoa, finds digital fans in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Italy, and Switzerland, 14 months after release.
December 14, 2006 - 14 months after it's internet release on iTunes, the song, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", off the debut release from Hana, Maui, based, Major Hana Records, "Ohana - Volume One", by Maui's own, Kaulana Kanekoa and Vince Esquire, continues to gain international momentum, recently breaking into the Folk charts in Switzerland and Italy. The 'Ohana Compilation is a rare Hawaiian release in that it combines the finest in traditional Hawaiian music with some of the most fresh, exciting, contemporary, Hawaiian material, from some of Maui's most talented bands and vocalists.
"When we put out the 'Ohana Compilation Record, last September, it instantly topped the Pop Compilation Record Charts in 12 or 13 countries, we ruled that Pop Compilation Chart for 4 months", says, Major Hana Records, Chairman, Jonathan Block: "It was still early days in terms of the iTunes technology and I think we pioneered that Pop Compilation Record chart, we had six to ten songs from the record perform in the top 5 in a lot of countries, but "Somewhere" was number 1 everyday in the US, Canada and Australia. Then, out of nowhere, Apple abandoned the chart. Poof, it was gone - I was never able to really find out why they did stop tracking the Compilation chart from any of the people I know at Apple - but sure enough, they stopped it, I think their internal tracking program changed then, and it will continue to do so as time goes on, and they continue to upgrade, tweak, and fine tune their hardware and software to keep up with the rapidly changing technology." "Somewhere" was beating out songs on that chart from various other Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock, Classical, Children's, and Pop Compilation Records, as well as a record featuring Super Hero Theme songs. "It was funny to be battling it out with Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and The Green Hornet on a daily basis". According to Block, "About that same time, the powers at be at iTunes changed the category of our 'Ohana Compilation from World Music to Folk Music; the song had done marginally well on the World Chart up to that point in the US, Canada, and Australia, but nothing to speak of. When it was changed to Folk, the song began to resonate with more people."
Vince Esquire, 21, is a guitar and ukulele phenom who has amassed an impressive career and National attention, playing to audiences throughout the Hawaiian Islands, The West Coast, and Mid West, for the past 7 years with his own, Vince Esquire Band. Esquire has openned up for Willie Nelson, Los Lonely Boys, and most recently has been jamming with Mick Fleetwood on Maui. His electric guitar playing skills cause people to compare him to some of the greatest guitar heroes in history, everytime he performs. "The comparrisons are an honor to me, basically I have my own style, but I'm influenced by a lot of great players who I studied during my childhood." Esquire's role in the band Kanekoa is to sing background vocals and rip the electric ukulele like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jerry Garcia, and Jimmy Hendrix. "The guys in Kanekoa are like my older brothers, we began playing in a coffee house on Maui when I was like 10 or 11 years old. We didn't really mind when iTunes changed the 'Ohana Compilation from World to Folk because the root of Hawaiian Music is Folk music based, at the same time it transends cultures and falls naturally into World music audiences, as well. Our version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is not indicative of the sound of our band, many nights, we'll play for hours and the crowd doesn't stop dancing the entire night, but it does show our diversity." The band has been called the Hawaiian Grateful Dead and their sound has been compared to that of, the Dave Mathews Band, Ben Harper, and Jack Johnson.
Maui native, Kaulana Kanekoa, the band's rhythm ukulele player and lead vocalist, agrees, "Exactly, our music has always and I think will always inspire people to dance. After 10 years of playing together we know eachother so well personally and musically, every night is like another journey. Vinnie and I play the electrified ukuleles and Kanekoa is the first band that has taken this instrument, which esentially is one of the cultural cornerstones of our Hawaiian history, out of the traditional Hawaiian sound and into a more, contemporary style of music that everyone enjoys."
After seeing the band play live in Los Angeles, director/producer, Peter Farrelly ("Dumb and Dumber", "Something About Mary", and "Kingpin") put it this way, "Kanekoa played the best live show I've seen in 15 years, I'm their new, biggest fan." Farrelly since casted and filmed the band in San Francisco, and will feature them, and their original music in the Farrelly Brothers next comedy, "The Heartbreak Kid", starring Ben Stiller, for Dreamworks.
Nicole Dionne, founder of Primal Scream Music in Los Angeles, agrees. "Kanekoa's sound is totally infectious, that was the best live show I've seen in a long time. These guys are real stars, and their music is so uplifting."
By the end of January 06, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" went to number 1 on the iTunes Folk Chart in the US andCanada. In February, it went to number 1 in Australia, as well.
"We have been able to send a lot of MySpace users to iTunes and have been able to pinpoint certain trends in certain countries, and by utilizing the internet from a global perspective, we can get into different countries and make an impact", Block says. "I've really taken the last year and a half to learn the MySpace and Apple iTunes technologies and have developed a technique consisting of Bulletins, Blogging, Classified Ads, Group postings, high traffic page postings, and the like, and have been able to see instant Chart movement on iTunes. It's funny, I was so hands off the MySpace thing for a long time. I would see Vinnie and Monyca, a 16 year old sufer/singer/actress I work with, at my house, both glued to MySpace. I thought it was strictly a kids thing and didn't pay much attention to it. Now I realize that it is one of the mosti mportant marketing forums available to our entire society. The other day I read that 40 percent of MySpace users are 35 and over. I remember when Vinnie first suggested that I get a MySpace page, I told him I didn't have time for MySpace. I'm now about to start recruiting college kids from around the country and world, to start working our many MySpace pages for us. I think in the digital age we are now in, tools like MySpace, iTunes and other creative, social networking, 2.0 sites are the portholes to entertainment and they really are the future and as the internet becomes more and more wireless, the ways of delivering content to consumers is going to change at an even faster rate than it has in the last decade." Block continues, "A perfect example of this happened this past Tuesday, until that point, the most movement I've seen from my MySpace and internet based marketing has been seeing our song go up 50 chart positions overnight on the US iTunes Folk Chart. I thought that was pretty cool and that I would never be able to top that jump. Last Tuesday, I woke up to find the song had jumped from not even being on the top 100 on the Australian Folk chart to number 9. On the UK Folk chart, "Somewhere" had never broken into the top 60, last Tuesday, it jumped from 89 to 5. I couldn't believe it. In the US it went from 29 to 3 and in Canada it jumped from 26 to 6. On top of that, it broke into the top 5 in Italy and Switzerland, two markets we had never been able to penetrate the top 100 in, prior to that time.
Today, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is number 8 in the US, number 9 in Switzerland, and oddly enough, number 12 in the UK, Australia, Canada, and Italy.
"I haven't seen a spike like this on an International level in 14 months of tracking this song, or any other song, for that matter." says Block.
For the last year, the song, in the US, has out performed other versions by Patti LaBelle, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Tori Amos, Wilie Nelson, Judy Garland, Placido Domingo, and Phish. In Canada, the song has out performed other versions by Katharine McPhee, Isreal Kamakawio'ole, Pati La Belle, Tori Amos and Chet Baker. In the UK, and Australia, the song outpaces other versions by, Isreal Kamakawio'ole, Patti LaBelle, Tori Amos, Willie Nelson, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, and Placido Domingo.
Block says, "We look forward to releasing 7 awesome albums and 3 singles in January 07. Our principal photography is completed on "Major Hana" the movie and we are now in editing and post production. We continue to utilize 2.0's such as, MySpace, iTunes, YouTube, and iFilm, for our bands and will soon start to incorporate sites, such as, YouTube, iFilm, and MajorHana.com to build awareness and anticipation for the movie. We will work aggressively with the Feed Company, who are by far, the industry leaders in the promotion of video transmissions in the most recent and fastest growing visual sectorof the internet. We will work these platforms hard for the next 11 months. The highly anticipated, 28 song, double soundtrack album will be completed next week. This record will blow people away - it's amazing and will be mixed and mastered a full 11 months prior to release. We won't release the full double album until it makes sense to do so in support of the film's release. Major Hana Productions will soon launch a massive, worldwide internet contest awarding 2 airline tickets, hotel accommodation, and tickets to the premiere of "Major Hana" in London, to the first person who posts the entire 28 song album line up on our page at https://www.myspace.com/majorhanathemovie. After the contest is announced, which will happen prior to the end of this year, look for the first of many clues - it will be highly interactive, a lot of fun, and the winners will embark on an experience they will never forget." Major Hana Records is due to release records by Kanekoa, Vince Esquire, Funk music legend, Fred Wesley, The Submission Soundtrack, The Mighty Invaders, a Hawaiian Children's record, and singles by, Uncle Boy Kan'ae, Christopher "Boom" Helekahi, and a blues classic from Vince Esquire.
Kanekoa recently completed filming "The Heartbreak Kid" the Farrelly Brothers next comedy, starring Ben Stiller for Dreamworks, and "Major Hana", former AFI/Sony Award winner Block's directorial debut. The band will be featured in, and has original music featured in both films. Both films are slated for Fall 07 releases.
for more info:
contact Peter Monroe
VP Publicity, Major Hana, at:
[email protected]
or,
https://www.majorhana.com
https://www.myspace.com/majorhanarecords
https://www.myspace.com/majorhanathemovie
https://www.vinceesquire.com
https://www.kanekoa.com
https://www.fredwesley.com
https://www.myspace.com/theblazebrothers
https://www.monyca.com
https://www.myspace.com/getiTunes
https://www.myspace.com/asshairhat
https://www.asshairhat.com
