ManoaDNA.com » Alex http://www.manoadna.com Order Your Copy of EVOLUTION! Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:21:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 ALX Blog – Back from Vacation http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/23/alx-blog-back-from-vacation/ http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/23/alx-blog-back-from-vacation/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:04:31 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=6320 [READ MORE]]]> Hey Everyone!

Today marks the day that ManoaDNA get’s back to work! We took a little more than three weeks off to relax and recharge for this year. We relaxed for the holiday season and then took a trip to Las Vegas and San Francisco. It turns out that our trip to the mainland wasn’t too relaxing because we partied a lot and got up early to do a lot of sightseeing. Even though it wasn’t too relaxing, it was definitely worth it and stress-free!

We have a fun year ahead of us that consists of a new ManoaDNA CD, tours to the mainland US and Japan, and hopefully a Christmas CD. Also, if there is time in between, I’m hoping to release a solo album and open a recording studio. Where will we find the time?!?!

It’s kind of funny that our year starts now because it’s Chinese new year and I don’t like chinese food!! HAHA how ironic!

Well, stay tuned for more info this year and some cool new stuff coming out!

MAHALO!
ALX

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/23/alx-blog-back-from-vacation/feed/ 0 Great New Year and Great Birthday! http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/04/great-new-year-and-great-birthday/ http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/04/great-new-year-and-great-birthday/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:58:38 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=6233 [READ MORE]]]> The last couple of days were pretty fun and exciting for me. First, it was new years eve and the start of the new year, which was different than every other new years holidays. Usually on new years eve our family goes out to dinner and then we go out and drinky drinky, but this year we had a homemade chili dinner with just our immediate family, which turned out to be OK because we had brunch with our whole family the next day. After dinner I went up to my friends house and although we had beer and champagne we didn’t really drink too much. It turned out to be a good thing because the next morning I woke up at 5:30 to watch the sunrise at Sandy Beach – a first for me. Waking up was terrible, but once the sun started to rise it was totally worth it. All these new things for me might be a good sign for the new year??

On the second day of the new year I was able to celebrate my birthday! It was also my grandpa’s birthday so we went to visit his grave at the veterans memorial at punchbowl. It was a pretty relaxing day filled with good food, fun in the sun, and great friends. At night we had a good homemade lobster mac n cheese dinner followed by a night of wine with friends. All around it was a great way to celebrate my birthday. Thank you to everyone who wished my happy birthday!

Have a good one!
ALX

First Sunrise of 2012

My Wonderful Birthday Cake!

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2012/01/04/great-new-year-and-great-birthday/feed/ 0 The Eve of 2012 http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/31/the-eve-of-2012/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/31/the-eve-of-2012/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:59:31 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=6193 [READ MORE]]]> Happy new year to our friends in Japan and to the rest of the world who entered 2012 already! Here in Hawaii we are getting ready to party tonight to celebrate a great year and to welcome this new exciting year. I have a couple of good new years resolutions that I hope to keep up for the whole year, but they usually die out within the first month so I tried to make them easy haha!

One of my resolutions is to get my recording studio up and running with professional quality equipment and software. I already started this resolution this month and am looking forward to expanding more. We’ll see how it goes but I’m hoping to be up and running within the first 3 month. Pretty bold goal huh??

My other resolution is to exercise 4 times a week. That means doing anything that gets my body moving and grooving – so I could do one day of p90x, one day of running, one day of playing basketball, and one day of paddle boarding. Whatever it is I need to get my blood flowing more often these days to keep in shape. That also means I should eat better food and drink a little less. Phew this is going to be a hard year!!

Last night I played at Lulus without the DNA boys. Playing 3 hours with only my voice and guitar pushing the train is really tiring! Good thing I had our good friend Seann Carroll backing me up on percussion or else I might have passed out! We had a special guest come to jam so music too last night. My cousin Pono Nu’uhiwa came and played a couple songs which was pretty awesome. He was even able to stick in some Bieber into the medley he played. I think he has the fever…

Hope all of you have a wonderful New Year! See you in 2012 and best of luck to you in this new year.

Aloha!
ALX

Pono sitting in

I'm all alone!! Haha!

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/31/the-eve-of-2012/feed/ 0 Solo at Lulus Tonight http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/30/solo-at-lulus-tonight/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/30/solo-at-lulus-tonight/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:02:38 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=6185 [READ MORE]]]> Woah! What?!?! Alx has blogged two days in a row?!?! AMAZING!!

Haha yeah I’m trying to keep up with Dad’s blogging but he’s like a machine!!

I woke up earlier than usual this morning because our yard men came to cut the grass today which makes our house look so nice and clean! Thanks guys! I could’ve gone back to sleep but I started to think about my gig tonight at Lulus. I’m playing by myself tonight – meaning no DNA boys – but I’ll be joined by our drummer Seann Carroll. I’m kind of nervous even though I’ve done it before, but for some reason I feel a little more nervous this time. The good thing is, when I’m nervous I practice more and get better at certain things, which makes me more ready when tonight comes around.
This is the last gig of the year for me and the last gig till the end of January which gives us good time to relax and work on some new stuff. Speaking of new stuff, I’ll be playing a couple of new songs tonight to try them out – a couple of originals and a couple of covers. Maybe that’s why I’m nervous! I won’t have the luxury of drinking my nervousness away tonight because I told myself earlier this week I wouldn’t have a drip of alcohol until new years eve. So tonight is the true test of musicianship!

I hope you all have a great new years and if you can, come down to Lulus tonight and have a great time!

Aloha!
ALX

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/30/solo-at-lulus-tonight/feed/ 0 ALX Blog – I’m Back!! http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/29/alx-blog-im-back/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/29/alx-blog-im-back/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:17:02 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=6180 [READ MORE]]]> Wow…I don’t know what to say…
I’m sorry…I’ve been a terrible blogger!!
It’s been so long since I’ve blogged and the longer I waited, the less motivation I had to start it up again. If you’re reading this, THANK YOU FOR READING AND I’M SORRY FOR NOT WRITING SOONER!!!

It’s the end of the year and things are kind of settling down. Even though we are taking a “vacation” in January, it feels like everything else in life is making up for not being busy with music. I think next time we say we’re going on vacation I’ll shut off all email and phones and go somewhere where no one will find me so I can just relax and not worry about anything!

I have a solo gig tomorrow night at Lulus and our percussionist Seann Carroll will be joining me. Today I’m in the studio practicing some songs and getting some new songs ready for live performance. I figure I should just try the songs out live to see if they work and hope for the best! So if you’re in town tomorrow night and want to come hang out and listen to music, come by Lulus in Waikiki and have some fun from 6-9!

Thanks for reading, and again, I’m sorry it’s been so long! I really need to get in the habit of writing blogs more often…
Take care everyone!
Happy new year!
ALX

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/12/29/alx-blog-im-back/feed/ 0 ALX Blog – Concert Slideshow http://www.manoadna.com/2011/10/05/alx-blog-concert-slideshow/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/10/05/alx-blog-concert-slideshow/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:45:14 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=5861 [READ MORE]]]> Hey everyone!
We just got back from our tour in Japan and we had a great time! I am jet lagged as always, but that doesn’t take away from the great trip and great people we met! At our concerts we played a slideshow of personal pictures of us while everyone arrived to their seats. We wanted to give our fans a chance to see us in a personal setting so we added a lot of personal pictures to the slideshow and let it run for all of our fans to see. I never thought of posting this to the public but one of our fans asked me to do it so I figured why not?!?!

I hope you enjoy it!
Aloha,
AK

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/10/05/alx-blog-concert-slideshow/feed/ 2 ALX Blog – Single Minded http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/14/alx-blog-single-minded/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/14/alx-blog-single-minded/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:22:02 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=5749 [READ MORE]]]> Hey everyone!
It’s another beautiful morning in Manoa Valley! It’s so nice to wake up in such a great area.
Yesterday I met with a friend who kind of gave me the swift “kick in the ass” to keep working on my music. I have to be focused on music 24/7 and keep working to make sure my music evolves constantly. I am taking his advice and going all out with music this week to get myself in to some sort of rhythm so I don’t ever regret anything later.
It’s always good to have someone tell you what to do and to give you the wake up call. This means that the music for Japan will be extra good!!!!!

Thanks for reading! I’m trying to write something short for my blog as often as can even though I know I am terrible at keeping it up haha! Thanks!

ALX OUT!!

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/14/alx-blog-single-minded/feed/ 0 MDNA Blog – Thumbs Up Sold Out! http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/13/mdna-blog-thumbs-up-sold-out/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/13/mdna-blog-thumbs-up-sold-out/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:52:27 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=5746 [READ MORE]]]> Thank you everyone for selling out our concert at Thumbs Up in Yokohama!! That is so awesome! Our fans are so great and we really appreciate all of the support you’ve given us. Our show at Moon Romantic is still open so please tell all of your friends to come see us there. We have something great planned for the people that come to see us at Moon Romantic and more details will come soon.

From today till we leave I will be working on our Japan trip 24/7 to make sure our shows will be great! Take care everyone, and hope to see you all soon!

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/09/13/mdna-blog-thumbs-up-sold-out/feed/ 0 MDNA Blog – Great weekend! http://www.manoadna.com/2011/07/24/mdna-blog-great-weekend/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/07/24/mdna-blog-great-weekend/#comments Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:29:22 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=5548 [READ MORE]]]> Wow what an awesome weekend at Aloha Yokohama Festival! I first want to say thank you to everyone who came out to support us and to all the people who contributed to a great event. It looked like that was the most people at that festival that I’ve ever seen over the last 4 years!
We had 1 show yesterday on the rooftop stage, which was followed by the 1000 person hula. I was telling everyone after the show that that could’ve been the first time that we did the 1000 person hula actually with 100 people or more! It was crazy! We signed CDs after and hung out with our friends before heading back to our hotel to grab some food and drinks.
Before our first show I went to Osanbashi early because I jumped on stage with Vance K Band to jam the song “Summer Again”. He let me sing some parts to that song on his new album so it was really fun to jam it live with them. If only I could remember the words…dammit..sorry Vance!
Last night we told our friends, the Kase’s, that we would meet them in Zushi to listen to Hawaiian music and relax so after we had some dinner and drinks we made the long trek to Zushi. All in all I think it took us around a total of an hour and a half to travel there and back but we made it safely! I immediately showered and passed out on my bed from exhaustion…
I was so happy that I could sleep in this morning and was looking forward to it so much last night. I woke up, turned over my phone to see what time it was…it was 6:30am…damn…still jetlag. So I’ve failed to get more than 5 or so hours of sleep a night this whole tour, which is not a good thing so I better start taking it easy or sleeping more!

Tonight is Thumbs Up so I hope that we see a lot of you there tonight! Please take care and thanks again for reading!
ALoha,
AK

]]> http://www.manoadna.com/2011/07/24/mdna-blog-great-weekend/feed/ 0 MDNA Blog – Busiest day is finished… http://www.manoadna.com/2011/07/23/mdna-blog-busiest-day-is-finished/ http://www.manoadna.com/2011/07/23/mdna-blog-busiest-day-is-finished/#comments Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:03:21 +0000 Alex http://www.manoadna.com/?p=5546 [READ MORE]]]> Phew!!! ….the 4-performance day is finished….YEA!!
Yesterday we had 4 performances that were all back to back with barely anytime to eat in between! After the first show at Bay Quarter I knew we were in for a long day. While we were signing CDs there my aloha shirt became almost see thru because of all my sweat! After Bay Quarter we had to rush to perform for an FM Yokohama event at Marine Tower, which turned out to be a pretty cool event. They recorded us performing and will broadcast it later on FM Yokohama radio. After that we rushed over to Colette Male for another HTJ promotion. Our fans were already in place during sound check so we decided to play a familiar song for them – The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson. That gig was interesting because behind the people watching us play were politicians yelling through a bull horn so every time we finished a song you could hear people yelling. Kind of weird but it was OK! Finally, after Colette Male we went to the main stage of Ohsanbashi. IT WAS PACKED!! I couldn’t believe how many people were there! I had so much fun at that stage and after we signed so many CDs it was great!
I want to say thank you to our informal “Fan Club” who always is there at every gig yelling “MANOA D-N-A!” THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!! I think it might be time to get an official fan club together so we can say thank you to these people who are coming to our events. Thank you so much!

Off to breakfast so I’ll see you all soon!
Aloha,
AK

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