Life & Work with Jamison Aweau of Orange County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamison Aweau

Jamison, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Summary: Jamison is a creative artist and producer that took on music production less than a year ago. Through his interest in DJ’ing to now deep-diving into Electronic Music Production, Jamison hopes to carve out a path in the EDM world and be one of the few Native Hawaiian artists to hit the main stages of festivals.

History:

Before I was born, my father worked in the entertainment industry setting up stages for massive artists and his primary focus was on lighting and pyrotechnics. After I was born, I spent a good portion of my youth traveling with him on tours during the summer months or attending local concerts and seeing the inner workings of “behind the stage” for these large events. This experience was a foresight into the future of the interests I would discover as a music producer and artist.

I was raised in Hawai’i and being a Native Hawaiian, there was a word that we used often and it resonated with me through-out my life: Kuleana. It essentially translates to ‘responsibility’ or ‘privilege’ it’s a deep-rooted term that generally is used for taking care of the land or people. I used to always think about how generations of natives would take on their version of entertainment through hula or ukelele. The older I get and the more I learn about music production, the more I feel that this is my Kuleana or calling.

Prior to getting into music production:
During highschool, my favorite thing to do was to design band flyers and cd covers for local artists. I love being involved with other artists and it always felt good to see my designs come to life whether they were taped to a wall with a showtime date or if the design came to life on a CD or on band merch.

After highschool I joined the military and worked in an entirely different field outside of anything creative, but was focused on having the military pay for my college after my contract as up. I enrolled in an Art + Design school on the east coast and my primary focus was in Visual Arts with a focus on architecture. Although my focus wasn’t in music some of the courses in Art school could later be applied to my role as a music producer.

After graduating, I joined a company working as a mechanical engineer but was extremely unhappy with the typical 9-5 cubicle job. And nothing personal, but it wasn’t something that made me feel fulfilled at the time. I decided to start a clothing company where I scaled and opened 3 stores across the US. My final store prior to selling the business was opening in the Arts District of Downtown LA. This is what brought me out here and I decided to stay!

After selling the clothing company, I created a branding and design agency that focused on helping small and large businesses find their identity. I worked on everything from TV commercials for fashion labels to ad campaigns for tech products and everything in between.

Last year, my significant other saw how passionate I was about music and purchased a DJ Controller as a gift. Everything pretty much stemmed from that point on. I was engulfed in the world of active-listening to all types of genres to DJ small sets for the experience.

As amazing of a feeling that you get from DJing I was most interested in creating works from scratch. My focus has since been in Music production using DAWs like Ableton. I get so much enjoyment from searching for new inspiring sounds out in the world and turning it into full length tracks. I am heavily inspired by Producer, RL Grime but more so, his record label: Sable Valley which seems to house some of the most talented producers in the world.

My sound is inspired from nostalgic moments of listening to Techno to my high school days of going to small venues and listening to hardcore punk bands. I love everything in the genre Trap or Techno and venture off into other areas that wouldn’t normally work with those two genres but try to pull all types of sounds from wherever I can.

Here is how a previous article described my sound:

“KANAKA is carving a unique path in the electronic music world, drawing heavy inspiration from the boundary-pushing sounds of artists like Jawns, RL Grime, and the powerhouse roster of Sable Valley. With a seamless blend of Trap, Wave, and Techno, KANAKA delivers music that’s both cinematic and hard-hitting, combining intricate basslines, haunting melodies, and high-octane drops.

With a focus on building atmosphere, KANAKA creates tracks that transport listeners into dark, ethereal worlds before dropping them into gritty, bass-fueled chaos. Their music is a testament to the evolution of trap and wave, pulling from the festival-ready energy of their influences while injecting their own creative twist.”

Moving forward:

My goal is to produce a full LP at this point and push it out to labels that make the most sense for me and share the same visions. I love created collaborative tracks for other artists and hope to focus on more in the near future.

My upcoming album will be a strong mix of Trap, Drum and Bass, Melodic EDM and some trap sounds.

I am looking to build out a small OC based studio in the near future which will allow me to have a dedicated space to create more tracks.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Learning production can be really challenging. Especially for someone who hasn’t taken music classes or Music Theory. I struggled to learn many of the tricks of production tools and always felt like I hit a wall.

Taking time to discover your “sounds” and make collections of it has helped. Organization is crucial for production.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My focus has since been in Music production using DAWs like Ableton. I get so much enjoyment from searching for new inspiring sounds out in the world and turning it into full length tracks. I am heavily inspired by Producer, RL Grime but more so, his record label: Sable Valley which seems to house some of the most talented producers in the world.

My sound is inspired from nostalgic moments of listening to Techno to my high school days of going to small venues and listening to hardcore punk bands. I love everything in the genre Trap or Techno and venture off into other areas that wouldn’t normally work with those two genres but try to pull all types of sounds from wherever I can.

I am most proud of creating tracks that people are interested in playing in their own DJ sets. It’s a huge feeling to witness that live.

My music isn’t entirely unique but I love to take some of my earlier childhood musical interests and utilize some of those traits into songs. For example, growing up and listening to hardcore music, they focus heavily on strong builds and breakdowns and I try to carry that over into electronic tracks.

What matters most to you?
What matters is that I discover my “calling” or my identity through music and provide people with sounds that they can appreciate. What also matters is being a Native Hawaiian and putting myself out there into the world as we are a very small minority.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kanakasound
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kanaka-sound
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kanakamusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qIR8dtPEPQDmCeqX3Mie2?si=EZL2ni-ZQR-X9vcBgybpzA