The Opihi Pickers - Hoku Garza, Imua Garza, Kahale Morales and Kevin Okimoto - have become a local musical treasure whose music has, over the course of five albums, conveyed positive messages of love, happiness and joy. For their new studio album, the Opihi Pickers continue doing what they do best make upbeat island contemporary music but with a welcome added maturity both in their approach and their musical sound.
OP VI, their sixth album, to be released by GO Aloha Entertainment, features12 original songs - majority composed by group leader Imua Garza, with the addition of one song composed by cousin Ramon Garza, writer of such Opihi Pickers hit songs as Old Fashioned Touch and Victim.
The lead song,
Beautiful Ladies (Beautiful Girls), destined to become an island classic, is the first song to be produced into a music video from the project. Directed by Jay Hanamura, who also did Imua Garza and Kamu Sing's Wake Up music video, the Beautiful Ladies video is already garnering rave reviews following its December statewide television debut on Oceanic OC 16’s Overdrive Live, the most popular local music program in Hawaii.
The
OP VI compact disc package includes images culled from the making of the Beautiful Ladies music video, directed by Jay Hanamura. Recorded at GO Aloha Studios in Honolulu, produced by Imua Garza and Brett Ortone, and mixed and mastered by Frank Rosato at Woodcliff Studio in Los Angeles, OP VI leads the listener down a pleasure path of audible delights from island reggae to Latin instrumental, from four-on-the-floor island pop to a tender love ballad, with a large dose of fun thrown in the mix for added measure.
The music industry can be a hard one to survive in. The Opihi Pickers continued ability to thrive, as a music group is a testament to their work ethic, their maturity and the solid foundation on which they stand.
They are one of the good ones who constantly try to do better, set a positive example for others, and bring some happiness and comfort to the world through their music. And there s nothing wrong with that.
