Hawaiian Hitmaker Jeff James Conquers PH Music Scene with Album ‘GoGoGoGo’
Hawaiian native Jeff James is a reggae recording artist who is now making a splash in the Philippine music scene. He recently released his debut single “GoGoGoGo” under GMA Records.
This award-winning multi-talented artist from Hawaii has great appreciation of the Philippines, its culture, its music. The newest Kapuso recording artist is currently residing in the Philippines and is promoting his 12-track album under GMA Records.
During the blogcon for his album “Go, Go, Go” I personally heard him sing his songs including OPM and a Visayan Folk Song. It is impressive because while other artists (local artists even) would do their best to imitate and simply do cover for their respective fave foreign artist, wherein there’s really nothing wrong with it, it is more admiring for me to meet someone who strives to be different and go against the norm.
How It Started
Jeff James is someone we can call as “may pusong Pinoy” as he himself would like to encourage people to listen to local music and local artists. Proof of this is how GMA Records and Jeff James sealed their partnership during one of the OPM concerts.
“I’m a part of the OPM and I saw Sir Teddy Sanchez, he is of GMA and he introduced himself, and I said ‘I have this album and I’m from Hawaii, and my manager Diana set everything up, and they’re really easy to talk to,” Jeff narrates. He also pointed out that GMA was very good to work with… “Not like some other companies where you have to undergo a lot process where you need to talk to this guy from that guy, and you need to take this guy out for lunch and another, you know how it works. But with GMA it was so simple. And they have the name GMA so it made sense.”
And the story goes, GMA signed him last year and now produced his album “Go, Go, Go” under GMA Records, where James has been covering some ballad songs, continuously doing his radio tours and guestings, sings at gigs at bars too. There are also planned mall tours to promote his album and music, to promote this a “breath of fresh air” kind of music?
The Man and His Music
Jeff has done lots of music, even while he was still in Hawaii. His famous song “Hawaiaan Girls” made him a household name in the said Polynesian state especially when it shot to the top of the charts in less than a week.
When asked, what type of music artist he is, he describes his music a combination of pop, R and B, and the very beachy-music Reggae. His latest album “Go, go, go, go” is proof of his versatility, however asked if he does rap, as seen in his video, he smiles and respond, “Just for fun. I don’t have any rap albums or completed any songs that are purely rap. “A lot of songs that I do have that Reggae-or beachy vibe, parang Bob Marley feel.”
One Man Band and Exploring Collaborations
In his album “Go, Go, Go” he composed most of his songs, most of them are Hawaiian songs where he does the mixing, the acoustics, the drums. Pretty amazing huh?
Aside from playing his own music, Jeff would love to collaborate with local stars including Yeng Constantino, whom he found really good. According to him, she has already taken the Philippines and said it would not be surprised that she will take on the world. He would also like to have some song with Bamboo, whom he admits that he really likes among the country’s artist. He also impressed with KZ Tandingan, whom he met before. She finds her incredibly young and talented. and says that she has this energy like no other.
Jeff James “GO GO GO GO” album from GMA Records is now available in all Astroplus, Astro Vision, Odyssey and SM Music & Video outlets nationwide. You can also download the single on iTunes, Spinner, Deezer and other digital music streaming websites.
Jeff James singing the Tagalog version of Pharell Williams’ “Happy”:
Jeff James singing his debut single “GoGoGoGo”:
Jeff James singing the romantic ballad “Buqo”: