What strikes a chord in Hawaiian hitmaker Jeff James?
Published On: March 25, 2015, 10:58 AM
According to Jeff, he found the purpose of his music in the Philippines.
By CHERRY SUN
Hawaiian hitmaker and GMA Records artist Jeff James or Jeffro launched his music career in the Philippines for over a year now.
In an intimate conference with bloggers and members of the Kapuso network, he recalled how he started and fell in love with our country.
“Being a singer in Hawaii is fun but it has, sometimes it can feel like you’re always playing Reggae music… Compared to here, it’s more fun here because people have a wide variety of music to listen to,” Jeffro said.
He also noticed, “All the Filipinos, they love music. When you go to a bar, it’s always music, music, music. Even on the streets they’re always singing karaoke machines, or something like that. Everybody’s singing!”
In October 2014, he released a 12-track album titled ‘Go go go’ under GMA Records.
“It’s a mix between like R&B, Pop and Reggae music. Just for fun, we freestyle rap but I don’t have a rap album coming out,” he described.
“Out of twelve songs I wrote ten of them. The two are from Hawaii and there are other Hawaiian songs that I remade. Not only do I write the songs, I produce most of all the music on it. I play the drums, the bass guitar, the keyboard, the singing, and I do the mixing as well. I’m a sound engineer,” he added.
Jeffro also gamely shared how he grew fond of the Pinoy food like balot, lugaw and other street food, how he fervently learns the Filipino language and other local dialects, how the sunny temperature reminds him of home and how he is getting used to the almost unmanageable traffic in the metro.
According to him, he also found the purpose of his music in the Philippines.
“I don’t wanna just go on TV shows and perform in like Eat Bulaga or Show Time. That’s the goal of mine, I want to, but I have a bigger goal. I want to make people aware of problems that are here in the Philippines.. I’m not just a normal musician trying to be famous. That’s secondary to having a purpose,” he claimed.
Jeffro is an advocate to the less fortunate. He aims to “help fix corruption, help people learn more about their own culture.”
“I have a broader mindset that with my music I wanna also educate people,” he said.
“I’m not telling people to riot but you know if there’s something going on, people need to stand up for what they believe in. It’s bigger than just singing love songs, because love songs, there’ll always be love songs. I want to be a role model, so that’s my biggest goal that I’m trying to accomplish – to make it famous so I can encourage people to do the right thing," he concluded.
PHOTO BY BOCHIC ESTRADA, GMANetwork.com
Hawaiian hitmaker and GMA Records artist Jeff James or Jeffro launched his music career in the Philippines for over a year now.
In an intimate conference with bloggers and members of the Kapuso network, he recalled how he started and fell in love with our country.
“Being a singer in Hawaii is fun but it has, sometimes it can feel like you’re always playing Reggae music… Compared to here, it’s more fun here because people have a wide variety of music to listen to,” Jeffro said.
He also noticed, “All the Filipinos, they love music. When you go to a bar, it’s always music, music, music. Even on the streets they’re always singing karaoke machines, or something like that. Everybody’s singing!”
In October 2014, he released a 12-track album titled ‘Go go go’ under GMA Records.
“It’s a mix between like R&B, Pop and Reggae music. Just for fun, we freestyle rap but I don’t have a rap album coming out,” he described.
“Out of twelve songs I wrote ten of them. The two are from Hawaii and there are other Hawaiian songs that I remade. Not only do I write the songs, I produce most of all the music on it. I play the drums, the bass guitar, the keyboard, the singing, and I do the mixing as well. I’m a sound engineer,” he added.
Jeffro also gamely shared how he grew fond of the Pinoy food like balot, lugaw and other street food, how he fervently learns the Filipino language and other local dialects, how the sunny temperature reminds him of home and how he is getting used to the almost unmanageable traffic in the metro.
According to him, he also found the purpose of his music in the Philippines.
“I don’t wanna just go on TV shows and perform in like Eat Bulaga or Show Time. That’s the goal of mine, I want to, but I have a bigger goal. I want to make people aware of problems that are here in the Philippines.. I’m not just a normal musician trying to be famous. That’s secondary to having a purpose,” he claimed.
Jeffro is an advocate to the less fortunate. He aims to “help fix corruption, help people learn more about their own culture.”
“I have a broader mindset that with my music I wanna also educate people,” he said.
“I’m not telling people to riot but you know if there’s something going on, people need to stand up for what they believe in. It’s bigger than just singing love songs, because love songs, there’ll always be love songs. I want to be a role model, so that’s my biggest goal that I’m trying to accomplish – to make it famous so I can encourage people to do the right thing," he concluded.
