The Story Behind Maybe: How the Song Came to Be

This story starts about 20 years ago, back in 2000, at a time when our music career was doing pretty good. We had a few popular songs on the radio as we toured internationally through the states, Asia, and the South Pacific.

As our tour ended, we were ready to return to the studio and start a new project. I already had enough money in my budget to fund our next album, which would be our third. Except, this time, it would be under our own label—which was a big deal to us.

Our original songs had been successful, so we planned to do more originals. We just needed to put in the work—and there was a lot of work to do. To help us, my brother-in-law, Roger Tetuanui, flew in from Tahiti. He and I recorded all the musical instruments for Vaihi, the album.

Well, one night, we were tracking and hanging out with everyone in the studio. In walks the studio’s owner along with a producer from the mainland. He introduces himself all nice and friendly and proceeds to offer us songs that he had written.

Of course, we had already written all the songs for that album, so we kindly declined. And with that gentle rejection, his demeanor completely changed. He tells us that “the problem with Hawaiian music is that you’re too busy writing songs about slippers, plate lunches, and crabs.”

Mind you, we did have songs like “Fish and Poi” and “Ama Ama Crab.” And there was one about slippers, too. So, I’m sitting in awe, wondering why he thought tha