Meet James Kahu from New Zealand

James Kahu Inside Outside album cover created by Blondiepie.com

James Kahu’s single Inside Outside. The Single’s cover above is a reflection of how much thought goes into his music and how much he loves his bass guitar.
James Kahu is was previously signed with Starlight Entertainment Group and records. Cindy Conroy does an awesome job at managing many great artists careers and puts her whole life into for the love of the musician and the music they produce.
Read the story of James below.
You can hear Jame’s and vote on INSIDE OUTSIDE here: http://www.theaudience.co.nz/james-kahu/inside-outside/

About James Kahu

James Kahu was born in New Zealand. When James was one month old he was put in a foster home. His name was changed and then at the age of three, he was adopted by the same whanau (family) that took him in. I grew up in a loving family of seven.

Being a New Zealand Maori, and Maori being the people indigenous to New Zealand, it was important to James to feel the love, pride and honour of a family. Throughout my life, my passion and intrigue for music grew. James remembers his dad introducing him to the recorder at a very young age. That and swimming seemed to be the only thing he was good at. Music and performing brought meaning to his life.

As a teenager, James started playing the drums but on the first day of High School he was told there were too many drummers, so he tried the spare Bass Guitar in the corner. James remembers taking this old thing home, and his parents telling him to play it right-handed even though he was totally left.

So James played the right-handed bass guitar left-handed with all the strings upside down, until he met Bass Tutor Ken Pearson. He looked at James and asked, ‘What are you playing at!’ So he managed to get his totally supportive parents, to buy him a left-handed, Vester bass guitar, and hi was set.

James’ passion for music and the bass guitar grew immensely through his High School years. James was introduced to ‘Jazz Music’ by his school’s Music Director, Russell Brooke, who really pushed him to achieve and he is so thankful to him because he was able to play with some of the USA’s top Jazz musicians including Bobby Shew at the age of 16.

When James finished school, he went on to study at Christchurch Polytechnic Jazz School. It was the best and hardest three years of his life. Upon completion James joined the Royal New Zealand Navy Band. james joined the band purely because it was based in Auckland where my family were. He learned a lot about himself in the military – self respect, discipline, pride and honour and he learned how to master both the left-handed six string fretted & fretless basses and to conquer the double bass, even bowing it. James also had the privilege to play with some more of the USA’s top Jazz musicians including Bob Sheppard – Saxophone, Jon Papenbrook – Trumpet, John Fedchock – Trombone and even a ‘one on one’ with Dwayne Pate – Bassist from Robben Ford’s Band.

During this time of James’ career, he sat down with a guitar Luthier and had a neck made for his first custom made left-handed, six string bass. He made the body out of Walnut. James had always been known as the ‘freak’ (nice, I know) because he played left-handed and a six string bass. James sat down with the Luthier and said, well let’s make something freaky. So he had a ‘fretless’ neck made to go with the body. It had a terrible sound and an eerie feel to it, so naturally it sat in the corner gathering dust while he used a six string fretted bass.

Toward the end of James’ military career, he had a fellow sailor carve a moko (tattoo) of Tangaroa, God of the Sea and other features to represent his military life into the body. He named her ‘Kahu’, meaning ‘peace’ in Maori.

In 2006, James had the moko re-done and she sings now like he can’t believe. She finally feels as if her mana (pride), kaha (strength), and aroha (love) has come back to life. Her spirit is so warm and she’s the most amazing bass I’ve ever played! He guesses she just needed a name and a chance like he was given when he was young.

Kahu and James were given a second chance at life from birth. In a way they actually seem as though they were both made for each other. They are currently writing, recording, singing, playing & planning to get our music across the world. We want the world to enjoy listening to our music, as we will equally write & record every track with the ‘spirit’ that it should have to bring ‘it’ alive.