Kauai vocalist John Rivera has been involved in the local music scene for most of his life and made a number of transitions over the years to continue living out his dream. Most recently Rivera began a new chapter by
Kauai vocalist John Rivera has been involved in the local music scene for most of his life and made a number of transitions over the years to continue living out his dream.
Most recently Rivera began a new chapter by branching off from island music band, Aloha Breeze, and creating a new one called The Greenstone Project.
The five-piece band features Rivera and four other main players: drummer Ariki Foster, bass player Pali Carbonel, guitarist Jerry Jona and keyboard player Bart Skrbec.
“We want to move forward and we want to get bigger and grow our sound and we want to work bigger gigs,” Rivera said. “We’re not mainstream yet but maybe doing work in the corporate area will help us move down that stream a little bit.”
To help kickstart that effort, the group, along with five new members, including UnderRated Band female vocalist Mary de Thouars and award-winning guitarist Brion James, filmed their first music video on Aug. 17 at the Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center.
The 7-minute production, spearheaded by Stephen Watkins of Omnireel Cinema, features songs that spanned several decades of music styles beginning in early- to mid-1970s.
“The medley the band has put together shows a wide range of musical styles to meet the needs of a wide range of audiences in a corporate environment,” Watkins said. “That’s really great to have a band that has that wide of a scope.”
Rivera said one of the band’s unique characteristics lies in the idea of keeping everything local. The band’s first music video, shot on the stage of the performing arts center, even featured local dancers and production crew members Kent Tanigawa, Leo DuBois and Edwin Sawyer.
“When you have a band that’s trying to make it go anywhere, there’s so many people feeding the band,” Rivera said. “We have to work on the music but that’s only one dimension — that’s one note in the whole song.”
To view the music video, visit the Greenstone Project Entertainment YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGo8kSOYja02DhiR6UmCP8A.
For more information, contact Rivera at 645-1847 or naniokauai76@hotmail.com.
