Streetlight Cadence came together in 2010 when Jonathon Franklin (violin), Jesse Shiroma (accordion), Brian Webb (cello) and Chaz Umamoto (guitar) started playing for tips on the streets of Waikiki. Their unusual instrumentation and an eclectic repertoire that embraced underground alt-rock hits and classical melodies with equal fervor set Streetlight Cadence apart from all the other street entertainers. They were also a hit playing for First Friday audiences downtown and then as a paid attraction in local clubs.
The next step was recording. After releasing their debut album, “Thinking of You,” in 2013, Streetlight Cadence went on to win
Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for best alternative album of the year in 2015 and 2016 for “Kalakaua Avenue” and “Beyond Paradise,” respectively.
The band moved to California in 2016 to test themselves in a bigger market — where they survived as street musicians and then as club musicians. Ben Chai replaced Umamoto in 2017.
In 2018, they produced and starred in a TV reality series, “Will Play for Food,” which was broadcast weekly on Hawaii’s KFVE. The episodic travelogue followed the band members through the various cities including Tokyo, Las Vegas and New York, garnering them an Emmy nomination in 2019.
At the start of 2020, Streetlight Cadence was on the verge of their biggest-ever national tour. Then COVID-19 shut things down.
Shiroma moved back to Hawaii in November; he’s been enjoying a day job at Hungry Ear Records in Kakaako, along with gigs as an accordionist. Webb returned home in July; he hopes to soon buy a single-family home.
Chai and Franklin are flying back to the islands to join them for two shows on Aug. 21 at the Blue Note Hawaii. For more information, go to streetlightcadence.com.
Webb and Shiroma sat down for coffee in Kakaako on Tuesday. Chai answered questions by phone from his home in Houston. Franklin, who still lives in California, could not be reached due to a scheduling conflict.
What made this month the time to play shows here?
Webb: We’d been speaking with Blue Note Hawaii, ran through a few dates and late August came up.
Chai: Hawaii’s home. The band started there. Most of our fan base is there, and Brian and Jesse both have moved back to Hawaii, so it is kind of a homecoming. It felt right.
Taking one step back, what did you do when COVID-19 shut the tour down?
Webb: We did a fair bit of songwriting, we did remote work, Zoom work and one or two live YouTube videos. … And we released one (four-song) EP, called “Seeds,” back in November.
You started out as street musicians in Waikiki. This time you’re returning to play a major nightclub. What are your thoughts on that evolution?
Shiroma: It just feels great. It’s fun, it’s serendipitous and kind of bittersweet to walk past these spots (where we used to play) heading over to Blue Note. We’ve always been a band that is very goal-oriented. Whether we’re on the sidewalks or in a club, our goal is just to put on a great show and have fun.
Did you always plan to get off the street?
Webb: No, actually. The plans to get off the street didn’t really happen until one day someone found us on the street and said, “You guys shouldn’t be on here, you should be over there,” and they started working with us and then we were playing at Hard Rock Cafe. And then someone else found us and said, “You shouldn’t be here, you should be elsewhere,” and started working on booking us to go to Okinawa. These things sometimes would literally fall into our laps.
Two of you now live in Hawaii and two are on the mainland. How does that work for you?
Webb: We’ve got full commitment from everyone in the band to fly together, live together, stay together and keep waiting it out for better days to come back. It’s always the four of us. It’s violin, accordion, cello, guitar.
Chai: Part of the reason I’m in Houston is (because) all of my family is here. But at the same time, if you split the country in half at the Mississippi River, and you look at the top 100 music markets in the country, 87 of them are on the east side of the Mississippi. Previously being based in Honolulu and then Los Angeles was really discouraging to try to book anything on the East Coast, just because of logistics. Knowing what we know now, part of the strategy of me coming back to Houston is to make connections to be able to expand into these markets and do a cross-national tour in areas we haven’t really explored before, so that when the time comes we are ready to go.
Any plans to play a street-corner gig while you’re here for old times’ sake?
Shiroma: We did entertain the idea of busking, but at the same time walking past our old spots in Waikiki, (the area) has changed so much that a lot of our places have unfortunately taken a turn for the worse.
What’s next for Streetlight Cadence? Do you have plans to record again?
Shiroma: Absolutely. We’re all chomping at the bit to get back in the studio. We love performing live, and I would say as a band our live sound, our energy, our friendship, is a permanence in our sound. When it comes to recording, that to this day has always been a kind of a quest to perfect our studio game. You can listen to our records from one to the next, and as you hop along you will hear very different soundscapes, very different arrangements, and I’m excited to get back in and give it another swing because we are getting closer and closer to what I think we’re trying to capture but have yet to really encapsulate.
Webb: I think part of this trip for all of us was the desire to work together again on music, in the rehearsal context (and) in the show context, but also on songwriting and maybe an on-island (recording) production, so definitely expect new recorded music, maybe sometime early next year.
