6
Perspective:
"I said, 'You know, it looks like you’re facing something—perhaps it’s your future. Maybe that’s the name of the album: Facing Future.' And he went, 'Wow, that’s cool.'”
practically filled that notebook up with wonderful ideas about the music he wanted to make. So he really got into the preparation and brainstorming involved in making an album, which was part of putting as much decision-making in his hands as possible. He would be the first to say, “I’m not doing this alone,” but I was really trying to just steer him in the right direction rather than tell him what to do. Our mantra was “Keep it simple, keep it Hawaiian,” and we pretty much accomplished that. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time.
WC: Where did the name Facing Future come from, and what did it mean to Israel?
JM: At that time I had a house and a studio up in Palehua, about 6 miles above Makakilo, above what
is now the Koʻolina resort in forest reserve land. It was at about 3,000 feet above sea level; looking down on Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head is like a postage stamp. On a perfect day you could count the islands all the way to Hawaiʻi because of the height. It was 10 degrees cooler up there, and it was just a great place to release creativity.
Israel stayed up there with me for about a week to do some recording, and one beautiful, sunny day in the middle of the week I said, “It’s time to take some photos for the album cover.” So I had him do all the classic poses and looks for album covers: I ended up taking 87 different photographs. If I knew then what I know now I would have taken 887 photographs, but this was before digital cameras were available, so 87 felt like a lot of photos to
classic poses and looks for album covers: I ended up taking 87 different photographs. If I knew then what I know now I would have taken 887 photographs, but this was before digital cameras were available, so 87 felt like a lot of photos to develop.
So about half way through the shoot, I had this giant pahu—and it is giant. I can’t lift it; I had to roll it around. It’s probably 3 feet across at the head, 3 and a half feet tall—looks like a little drum when Israel would stand next to it, but it was a big pahu drum. I had him pose with it, and while he was playing the pahu, standing around it, just trying different things, I told him to turn around and face Diamond Head and took about six different shots of him from behind at different angles.
Once we got the film developed, we started looking at what we had. And we had some beautiful photos of him. His skin was this beautiful shade of brown because he spent multiple hours each day in the pool getting as much exercise as he could. An absolutely gorgeous tan, and these 87 photos captured that
and one beautiful, sunny day in the middle of the week I said, “It’s time to take some photos for the album cover.” So I had him do all the classic I ended up taking 87 different photographs. If I knew then what I know now I would have taken 887 photographs, but this was before digital cameras were available, so 87 felt like a lot of photos to develop.
So about half way through the shoot, I had this giant pahu—and it is giant. I can’t lift it; I had to roll it around. It’s probably 3 feet across at the head, 3 and a half feet tall—looks like a little drum when Israel would stand next to it, but it was a big pahu drum. I had him pose with it, and while he was playing the pahu, standing around it, just trying different things, I told him to turn around and face Diamond Head and took about six different shots of him from behind at different angles.
Once we got the film developed, we started looking at what we had. And we had some beautiful photos of him. His skin was this beautiful shade of brown because he spent multiple hours each day in the pool getting as much exercise as he could. An absolutely gorgeous tan, and these 87 photos captured that
tall—looks like a little drum when Israel would stand next to it, but it was a big pahu drum. I had him pose with it, and while he was playing the pahu, standing around it, just trying different things, I told him to turn around and face Diamond Head and took about six different shots of him from behind at different angles. we started looking at what we had. And we had some beautiful photos of him. His skin was this beautiful shade of brown because he spent multiple hours each day in the pool getting as much exercise as he could. An absolutely gorgeous tan, and these 87 photos captured that