Facing Future was followed with the release of another five remarkable recordings, E Ala E (1995), N Dis Life (1996), IZ In Concert: The Man and His Music (1998), Alone In IZ World (2001) and Wonderful World (2007). The production focused on Israel’s stunning voice and launched his incredibly successful solo recording career. Our first release was his remarkable solo CD Facing Future. Our relationship blossomed and for the rest of his life, I was IZ’s producer, confidant and musical mentor. IZ felt that my track record as a producer and the strength of the Mountain Apple Company organization perfectly suited his needs. IZ made it known that he wanted a solo career and wanted my help to chart this new course in the music industry. Our meeting would set the stage for the rest of Israel’s career. He reached out to me because of my success as a producer of contemporary Hawaiian music giants like the Brothers Cazimero, Brother Noland, Rap Reiplinger and many more. In 1993, following a successful run as one of the members of the Makaha Sons of Ni‘ihau, IZ decided to venture out on his own. The Makaha Sons went on to record 21 albums, win many Na Hoku Hanohano Awards and change Hawaiian music history. The chance encounter of two truant schoolboys (Israel and John Koko) at the beach was the beginning of a band everyone would soon know as the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau. In Makaha, he would form a band that would rock the islands. Israel had no idea, nor could he have ever known, how the move to O’ahu’s Wai’anae Coast would cause fundamental change in his life.
Israel, now in his early teens, resisted a move to the country. For now, they called him “the kid with the ‘ukulele.” All the musicians thought Israel was something special.
Israel won the admiration and praise of his elders. As early as 10 years old, they would call him up onstage with his ‘ukulele. He got to meet everybody and spend time with Gabby Pahinui and the Sons of Hawai’i. His first taste in performing was at Steamboats in Waikiki, where his father was a bouncer and his mother was the manager. This native son was a rare breed, an almost pure Hawaiian of unusual lineage he could trace his ancestral roots to an island that even today remains the most Hawaiian of all, the so-called “forbidden” island of Ni’ihau. In Hawaiian his last name translates “the fearless eye, the bold face.” Tiny and Evangeline would spoil Israel far more than his brother and sisters he could do no wrong. They named him Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole. His proud parents knew he would be special even before he emitted his first bold vocals. He was the third child of Evangeline Keale Kamakawiwo’ole, a Hawaiian woman born on Ni’ihau, and Henry “Tiny” Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwo’ole, a part-Hawaiian born on O’ahu. On May 20, 1959, in the final days of Hawai’i’s territorial era, three months before the Hawaiian Islands would become America’s 50th state, a baby was born in Honolulu’s historic Kuakini hospital whose voice would unite the Hawaiian people and be heard all over the world.