Hoku Aki plays drums, upright bass, keyboards, ukulele, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and acoustic guitar. He sings, composes, produces, records and mixes tracks.

He doesn’t call himself a one-man band, though. “I’m a one-man army,” he says.

Aki’s name is probably familiar to you. In just a bit, I’ll remind you why. But if he has his way (and this is a guy who is sweetly low-key but iron-willed, so he tends to make his plans happen), his name will be known as a recording artist and the owner of a record label.

Aki, 31, grew up on Kauai and worked in Hilo after high school. He played with a band called Island Harmony in his teens and early 20s, opening for big reggae acts that came through town. The band’s habit was to switch instruments, so Aki learned to play every part. He also learned by watching more established bands perform. The more he learned about music, the more he wanted to know.

He left Hawaii for Minneapolis to attend the Institute of Production and Recording, where he got his associate’s degree in audio engineering and audio production.

“It seems like Minneapolis was calling me, “ Aki says. “I thought of California, but there would be too many distractions there. In Minneapolis there were amazing, inspiring teachers who had worked with big artists, and the school was open 24 hours a day to record.”

He now owns a studio in Minneapolis called Ranking Riddims and has produced tracks for other artists. He has amassed a collection of his own work and is releasing his first album later this month. Aki describes his music as a blend of R&B, reggae and hip-hop with vocal influences of Shaggy and Sean Paul. (To me — and I am no music critic — his songs are like something Jesse Pinkman would listen to on “Breaking Bad” — songs that made me jump off the couch, look up the soundtrack and download the single.) The album will be available in all the usual places — iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and on his website ranking riddims.com.

“I first came to Minneapolis to learn how sound works and how to get good recordings,” Aki says. “I’m ready for this now.”

It was a sacrifice to leave the ocean for the cold, but the music scene in the Twin Cities is so rich, though Aki thinks he might possibly be the only shark attack survivor in Minneapolis.

Ah, now you remember.

In March 2002 Aki was a 17-year-old senior at Kauai High bodyboarding at Brennecke Beach on spring break. He had the presence of mind to gouge the shark’s eye to get free. He made it to shore, where a tourist who happened to be a nurse started working on him immediately. Aki lost his left leg below his knee. He had been homecoming king before the accident and — on crutches — was May Day king afterward, undeterred and smiling.

“It comes up every day. Sometimes it’s annoying,” he says. In Minnesota he usually wears pants so no one notices his prosthesis, though they might notice a limp.

“The majority of the time, though, it works in my favor,” he says. He was hired to tend bar in the city and got to know his co-worker and his customers without them knowing the story. Several months passed before he wore shorts to work.

“They were like, ‘What the heck?’ And so I tell them about the shark, and they go, ‘Wow! Crazy! I had no idea!’”

Aki likes it when people get to know him before they hear what happened.

“It’s OK, though. If anything, it shows I don’t give up. I keep doing what I need to do to keep going.”

And by the way, the name of his EP is “The Show Must Go On.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.