Maoli has devoted years honing in on his unique sound that seamlessly blends the rich tradition of Hawaiian music with the heartfelt storytelling of country music. He has gained recognition across the Pacific islands and beyond but is now ready to take his career to new heights and showcase his pride for his culture across the globe.
The rising star is a native of upcountry Maui on the island’s northern shore, where he was raised on cattle ranches and pineapple fields. He found that this way of life resonated closely with the catalogs of country music greats that his Grandma loved, such as Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and George Strait. The songs of these icons were influential in guiding Maoli to solidify his talent for his rhythmic storytelling and breezy melodies and continue to inspire him today.
“My father’s side is very musical, but I wasn’t raised around them…One of my uncles was one of the musicians from Motown,” he shared with Country Now.
His musical passions led him to nearly 15 years of recording and touring. Along the way, he’s racked up nine independent albums, over a half a billion global streams and several viral singles, including powerful covers of hits like Brett Young’s “Mercy” (18+ million Spotify streams) and “In Case You Didn’t Know” (10+ million Spotify streams). His stand-out vocals caught the attention of Young, and the pair ended up collaborating on 2024’s “Broke Heart Break.”
Maoli is currently working on upcoming project produced by Dann and David Huff that aims to introduce a new, but authentic, country voice to the genre. Fans can now get a glimpse of the collection with the release of the title track, “Last Sip of Summer.”
Written by Jim McCormick, Noah West and Cooper Bascom, “Last Sip Of Summer” celebrates the magic of a summertime romance and the longing to preserve memories of warm-weather drives with the top down and late nights beneath breathtaking sunsets.
Keep reading to learn more about Maoli’s musical background, his surging career and his upcoming releases.
What made you decide to take your passion for music one step further and pursue it as a career?
It was probably back in high school when I won my first Brown Bags, they used to call it, the band competition. And then I kind of felt that I had a talent. As I got older, I thought I would just take a shot at it. I thought I was pretty good at it and when I released my first album, it kind of took off in the Pacific, in the islands, and I was like, ‘yeah, maybe I can do something with this’ and just kept going with it.
Where did your passion for country music, specifically, stem from?
Well, I come from the countryside of Maui, and I grew up in a place called Haiku. Up there in the country it’s super country, so a lot of my uncles and my grandpa, they were all cowboys. So I kind of grew up in the lifestyle, I grew up in the lifestyle of country living and cowboy living and just listening to Tim McGraw and George Strait. I heard George Strait back in high school, but growing up in the country, it’s like once I heard that music I’m like, man, I can really relate to this. And it kind of got me from there. I love the storytelling and the lyrics and everything and I was like, man, they’re talking about my lifestyle here and it kind of grew on me. I’ve just been that type of country lover ever since.
You started to gain recognition for your talent by posting covers online, including a few of Brett Young’s hits. What was it like later getting to collaborate with him on your first Nashville single, “Broke Heart Break”?
It was a friend of mine that hit me up and he’s like, ‘man, you should listen to this song. I think you could do something with it.’ I was like, okay. He sent me Brett Young’s song, “In Case You Didn’t Know” and when I first heard that I was like, ‘man, I would love to remake this and just make it my own.’ And in Hawaii there’s a lot of OG musicians here that have been doing that for years where they would grab country songs and turn it to this island style…I just kind of took it to another level I guess. But it was then where I recorded “In Case You Didn’t Know” in this island style version. We released that, it did really well in the South Pacific, then I also did “Mercy,” his other song. After I finished both of those, it got a lot of recognition here and Brett hit me up one day on Instagram and he’s just like, ‘man, I’m a big fan of what you’ve done with everything and let’s snake up.’ And he came to Maui, he was doing a show in and we had dinner one night and he said, ‘man, we should do something.’ I was like, ‘you let me know, man.’
Can you talk about your experience recording in Nashville vs in Hawaii?
I just recorded my latest album coming out. That was my first time. First time I did that with the Huff Brothers, Dann Huff and David Huff… It was great. I wasn’t used to the whole, everyone being in the studio vibe and recording in one take, that was pretty amazing to me. But I got to sing with a band and do a one take thing and it brought a lot of good energy into the music. So yeah, that was the first time for me. Usually how I do it in Hawaii, I would just send tracks and everything like that, but that was a cool experience and Dann and David are just masters in the craft, so that made it even more fun.
The title track to your next album, “Last Sip of Summer” is out now. How did this song end up in your hands?
Well, David Huff brought this song up to me from one of the publishers he was working with, and I listened to it and I was just like, man, I was blown away by the storytelling. And I think everybody can relate to that song where you might have, not everybody, but I know I can where it is a song about someone falling in love or having a thing during the summertime and them leaving and then reminiscing about it. And I thought it was a cool story, and I immediately chose that, and I took it to David and Dann and said, ‘man, we got to do something with this.’ And that’s how it came about. Dann did his thing on it, and this is the version you guys are going to hear.
The music video capture in Hawaii looked so beautiful. What was your experience like filming those clips?
It was great. It was kind of easy because the one who filmed it as my good friend and that’s my fiancée in the video, so it’s really easy to be very natural.
This forthcoming collection will mark your 10th studio album. How will this project compare to your previous releases?
It is just going through life and where you are in your life and just kind of letting it all into the music. Every album that I did had a different experience and as I grow older, I definitely went through things in life like we all do and I kind of just wasn’t afraid of letting that be in the music. And as you listen to the first album up to the 10th one, you’re going to see the growth of not only musicianship or vocals or anything, but the songwriting, the emotions, the vocals, all that stuff just kind of grew with life and time.
What do you hope listeners take away from hearing to these forthcoming songs?
I just want them to see that there’s so many sides of me. I’m just a lover of music. I’m in the genre of music, whether it’s reggae or country, it doesn’t matter to me. I just hope that they like it and know that it came from my heart, and I gave a lot of me into it. I just hope they enjoy it.
Will there be any other collaborations on the album?
On this project I kind of decided to just do the Brett Young thing, but as far as the future, oh yeah, man, I really want to. There’s several collabs that I want to do, especially on the country side. Always wanted to do something with Zac Brown and maybe another one with Brett. I did a song with Lee Brice, in fact, I’m going to go have lunch with him right now. That might be a collab or something, but I’m just into two people coming together and having a great time and good energy and whoever that is, I just go with that.
In August you’re going to be doing your first arena tour in the U.S. What is going through your mind looking ahead to that performance?
Oh man. That that’s a dream come through for me. That was one of my goals, my dreams from when I first started was to do the T-Mobile arena in Vegas. I have a lot of family and friends, and a lot of Hawaiians ended up moving there, so it’s almost like another island to us. And when I first went to Vegas, I seen that arena and I was just like, man, hopefully one day I can do that. And the first time I’ve ever seen a concert in the T-Mobile Arena with George Strait and that point on, when I seen George Strait play, I was just like, oh my God, I really hope that’s me one day…That performance inspired me so much and I told myself one day I’m going to be there. And to see that coming up in August, that’s just amazing and a dream. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t even know what to say. I can’t believe it’s happening.
What are some of the first songs out of your catalog that fans should listen to if they want to get to know you as an artist?
One would be “Every Night Every Morning,” that’s kind of a country storytelling lyric song and mixed with a little bit of reggae music. And then the second one would probably be a song like “Shoot Down” where it just fully shows my reggae side and especially the two people that I sang that song with. They’re really big in the reggae scene too.
The post From Maui’s Countryside to Nashville: Maoli Shares His Journey Into Country Music [Exclusive] appeared first on Country Now.
