After thoughts ….

Good morning, my friends!

It was quite an eventful weekend for my family … Alex & Sarah’s engagement, Nick’s return, Alex’s final Friday night at Lulu’s, MDNA’s awesome jam Saturday night at Gordon Biersch, and an all-day gathering of family & friends at Kaimana Beach on Sunday. There’ve been so many major happenings in our lives lately, sometimes I’m not sure whether I’m coming or going!

However, I need to make one thing clear before I go on … there’s been a lot of confusion as to what’s happening to MDNA and I’d just like to say that we are NOT DONE by any means! Alex has a wonderful opportunity to expand his skills and experience as a musician in LA and he’d be nuts not to take it. We are all very supportive of his move, so MDNA will take a “sabbatical” of sorts … which only means that we have discontinued our regular weekly gigs and still plan to perform at certain special events during the year whenever Alex is in town. So I’m excited to see what the future holds for all of us … and whatever it is, I know it’ll be awesome. Why do you think I always say, “Stay tuned”?!

While standing on stage at Gordon Biersch last Saturday night for what would be our last performance together for a while, I was suddenly struck by how much my boys have grown since MDNA started 9 years ago! I felt such a tremendous sense of pride and joy for what they’ve accomplished and the people they’ve become … I can’t even begin to describe it!  It was like a feeling of being re-born with a sense of a new beginning … and of very special things yet to come.

Lastly, I want to again give credit to those guys who have always been there to support us .. to the best musicians and friends anyone could ask for. To Mark, Seann, and Scott – thank you so much for making us sound so good! Mark has been with us since the early E&O days and he and I were with C&K and Cee & Kompany prior to that … he and I have been through the “wars” and he’s like a brother to me … even though he did go to Iolani! :-)  Also want to send a special mahalo to Ronnie … a true friend who’s always there for us whenever we needed his trusty bass. A truly great, great bunch of guys … and I look forward to many more performances with them in the future!

Aloha, “D”