INhonolulu Magazine Issue #16 - April 2014 | Page 30

From page 29
material over the years, as far as
writing style and the structure of
the tunes.”
I have to agree about writing
style. What I really want to ask
Beam about is where his lyrics
come from. He sings in surreal
whispers about ghosts and trees,
birds and lovers, conjuring up images that melt into new forms.
“They all come from different
places,” he says in response, “Some
of them come from your life, from
your experiences, a story you read
… a lot of it’s just pure fantasy.”
I ask him about his process and
Beam says he writes the music first,
letting his lyrics come afterward.
He doesn’t write the other way
around. “[It’s] more of a process
of discovery. Surprises are nice. It’s
rare that I go in having something
to get off my chest. …[I do more]
exploring what I mean after I say
it…you see what trouble you can
throw your characters into.”
Later it occurs to me to ask
about poetry. He says, “I read a
lot more poets than I read anything else, [and] take a lot more
information from them than from
song writers.”
At another point I push him
further on the whole art question.
He’s an artist, so what does he see
his job as?
“I’m not sure what people pay
me for… you know to be honest, I
feel like I have the luckiest job on
the planet,” he says. ■
Iron & Wine will be performing at the Republik on April 14.
His first show ever in Hawai‘i will
be solo and acoustic—how Iron &
Wine fans like it—and will feature
a mix of old and new work. Beam
plans to take requests.
Page 30

METRO
Feature / Kona Brewers Festival

When in Kona...

beer, and the creatives who spend
their time crafting it, was a major event held at the beach front
Will Caron
of the King Kamehameha Hotel
“When in Kona, do as the in historic Kailua, the feel of the
festival was rooted in the slowKonans”—Rob
er-paced, friendly atmosphere of
or someone like me—born the small town and its surroundand raised amid the hustle ing countryside.
and bustle of city life in Ho“Since its creation, the fesnolulu—the neighbor islands have
tival has raised more than
always felt like a totally different
Hawai‘i. Visiting the Kona region
$650,000 for a variety of
of the big island for the first time
charitable organizations, all
a couple weeks ago, I felt this same
while promoting craft brewrelaxed, in-tune, sensible way of
ing in Hawai‘i and encouraglife permeating everything we did
ing professional collaboraand surrounding us wherever we
tion between brewers, chefs
went. It was a more-than-welcome
break from the insanity of city life.
and distributors.”
I was there for the Kona Brewers
Festival, along with my friend—
This is not to say that there
and fellow media-industry work- wasn’t anything about Kailua (and
er—Rob. While the celebration of the rest of Kona) that reminded

F

me of Honolulu. The southern
stretch of the town hugs the shore
of Kailua Bay and is packed with
touristy restaurants and shops that
look a lot like a miniature Waikīkī.
The Kona Brewery itself (at least
on a Friday night in the middle of
the festival) was also very touristy.
Kailua and the rest of Kona
(ostensibly, all of Hawai‘i island)
are still in the same danger of
becoming developed that windward, north shore and ‘ewa areas
of O‘ahu are in. Kailua is home
to both a Walmart and a recently constructed Target, as well as a
sprawling warehouse and light-industrial zone northeast of the old
airport. On top of this, the town’s
businesses and workforce are almost as poorly integrated as they
are in Downtown Honolulu or
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