Justin Young plays 'ukulele and sings 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' with Colbie Caillat, drummer Michael Baker and guitarist Tim Fagan, a Punahou grad, at the recent Diversity Harmony Peace concert. All of Caillat's band members have Hawai'i ties, including Caillat, whose family has visited Kaua'i once or twice a year since she was 12. Caillat even worked at Bubba's Burgers on Kaua'i. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola

Ka Wai Ola Cover Story

Justin Kawika Young went from near obscurity less than a year ago – playing gigs in Los Angeles bars “for four hours a night for, like, peanuts, and people are watching the Lakers game over your head” – to touring with The Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse as part of platinum-selling artist Colbie Caillat's band.

No doubt life on the national stage has its share of perks, like VIP seats at Madison Square Garden, shooting the breeze with John Mayer at a party and hanging out with Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould (Young is a self-described “huge Chicago Bears fan.”) But life on the road also has its realities: Time for friends is rare, and days off, usually Sundays, are spent catching up with e-mails, phone calls and chores. “That's the exciting thing, when you actually have clean laundry,” he says.

Caillat and her band performed for the first time in the Islands recently, spending several days here in between gigs on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to showcase her latest hit, Realize, and in Japan at the MTV Video Music Awards.

On stage at the Sheraton Waikīkī, the band headlined the Diversity Harmony Peace event – a follow-up to the previous night's popular lantern ceremony at Ala Moana Park put on by Nā Lei Aloha Foundation – bringing together Hawaiian music heavyweights like Amy Hānaiali'i Gilliom, Keola Beamer, Raiatea Helm and Natalie Ai Kamauu.

Justin Young shares the stage with Colbie Caillat at the recent Diversity Harmony Peace concert at the Sheraton Waikīkī. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

On stage, Young, wearing dreadlocks, a button-down collared shirt and jeans, sang back up and played his Gibson J45 guitar – a “modern classic” of which he now has two thanks in part to Gibson's sponsorship of Caillat. In the middle of the set, he grabbed an 'ukulele to debut the band's newest version of Bob Marley's Turn Your Lights Down Low.

“We always warm up to Turn Your Lights Down Low,” Caillat says after the show, sitting in a meeting room with an ocean view. “It's cool 'cause having him sing on it, the crowd they go nuts – his voice, his style of singing, it's the whole reggae style and it fits the song and people dig it.”

Caillat describes Young as “the cutest thing ever – his voice is gorgeous.”

Colbie Caillat says of Young, “I love how his voice is just so soulful and how he can play the 'ukulele and bring the whole Hawaiian acoustic, laid-back style to my songs 'cause that's what my music needs,” she says. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

“I love how his voice is just so soulful and how he can play the 'ukulele and bring the whole Hawaiian acoustic, laid-back style to my songs 'cause that's what my music needs,” she says. “And the fact that he and (guitarist) Tim (Fagan) are from Hawai'i and they can add that to my music it's just great.”

Best known among his Hawai'i fans for hits like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” Young's roots have been musical from day one. His mom, Jan, had classical music playing at his birth. And when he developed his own musical tastes, the “first music I remember learning and playing was Hawaiian music,” says Young, who moved to Los Angeles in 1999 to pursue a solo music career. “I used to go to sleep with 1420 AM KCCN. So few stations actually play traditional Hawaiian stuff – I love that.”

More than contemporary island music, it's the traditional music of Hui 'Ohana and others, he says, that “touches a special place and brings a lot of memories back for me.”

After the Sheraton Waikīkī concert, Justin Young checks messages on his cell phone while girlfriend McKenna Maduli talks about their hectic schedules. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

His girlfriend, McKenna Maduli, can attest to that. “I used to travel with Justin and dance hula while he was promoting One Foot on Sand,” his Hawaiian-language CD featuring many originals, she says. “He doesn't get to play as much Hawaiian music as he wants to, but when we're at home that's all he sings. He's with his Darren Benitez and Dennis Pavao songs and Mākaha Sons.”

Maduli's father, Kata Maduli, produced One Foot on Sand, released on the Tropical Music label in 2003, after hearing Young perform “I Kona” at a CD release party. “I never knew he sang Hawaiian until he went on stage,” Maduli recalls. “When I heard that, my executive (Lea Uyehara) and I looked at each other: 'Wow, he's got a strong falsetto.' ” With some urging by McKenna, “we decided to go for it,” Maduli says. Collaborators on the project included John Cruz, Barry Flanagan, Cyril Pahinui, Jeff Rasmussen and Ilona Irvine. Kama Hopkins of Holunape provided most of the translations, and Puakea Nogelmeier also translated. Some of Young's songs were used by Kamehameha Schools in its annual song contest, Maduli says.

Young with fans Kanani, Kawena and 'Alohi Bikle, at the Sheraton Waikīkī. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

Young got to revisit his Hawaiian music roots the night of the Waikīkī performance with a concert with friends and fellow musicians like Kata Maduli and Ernie Cruz, at Anna Bannana's. Young's most recent release, All Attached, is the product of two years of writing and recording “on my computer in an empty bedroom.” The CD, which describes the interconnectivity of things, came after a promising recording project fell flat.

“I had finally been doing showcases, meeting with record labels, flying out to New York, recording tracks with some really great musicians with Ed Tuton who was producing it,” Young says. “It felt like everything was finally happening, but after about one-and-a-half years of this exciting feeling – like I was on the verge of something – everything kind of dissipated. I was left with some great experiences and some nice songs recorded, but nothing going on. I spent a lot of money traveling out to New York, and so I just didn't know what to do. It took me awhile to find my way back.”

Show over, Colbie Caillat can relax and be herself. Caillat describes Justin Young as “the cutest thing ever – his voice is gorgeous.” Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

At around the time he completed All Attached, in 2007, Caillat's debut CD Coco, was released, launched with the help of 100,000 friends on MySpace. Young knew Caillat and the members of her band before she was famous – a mutual friend had told Young after hearing him perform, “You have to meet my friend (Colbie), you're like the male version of her.” So when the band was looking for a guitarist and backup singer, Tim Fagan, the band's guitarist and a Punahou graduate, called Young. Three auditions later, Young became the band's newest member. “Within a week of getting that phone call I was pretty much on the road up until now so it was a pretty quick, drastic change, but it's great, and I love it,” says Young.

The band starts a national tour with John Mayer next month. Young, a songwriter and a singer at heart, is planning on using some of his time off in August “to do something different and get into a real studio,” says Young, whose musical influences include Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight and soul singer Donny Hathaway. “I'd like to get a couple players together that I like, probably some guys in the band and record at least an EP (extended play), if not an entire album. Something with a different sound than the last album, more live, a little more soulful stuff.”

As for his message to aspiring musicians, he says, make a leap of faith. “A lot of people want to do a lot of stuff, but they get really comfortable. Have faith in what you do if you love doing it. There's going to be that leap of faith when you start questioning, 'I don't know if this is a good idea. I don't know anybody in this town.'

Young relaxes with his Gibson J45 after the show, at the Sheraton Waikīkī. Click for a larger view. Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

“I think the best writers are the bravest, like willing to reveal the most, which is scary,” he says, adding that even he and Caillat get nervous and have to overcome stage fright. “If you can imagine your worst fear, whatever it is and agree to face it every day, that takes a lot of courage. … Have faith, be comfortable with walking into fear, and do it anyway.”