What are you reading?

First, I'm reading reports by Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission on everything from wahi pana to archaeoastronomy — just getting involved in the politics there. But my favorite book, which is like 10 years old, is Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories." ... Since I moved back here, the information I gather is all oral. In Hawai'i, it's a less-literate pathway to knowledge.

How did you discover Rushdie?

I was teaching literature in Oregon at a seminary, so I'd teach the Bible as literature, and I'd make my students read things that would open up their minds. Most of the people in that course are also evangelical and could use a wider world. ...

What keeps you coming back to "Haroun"?

I like that it describes culture, really, in a lot of ways. It's the same here in Hawai'i as it was with church academia — there's always this fight between the traditionalists and the new, contemporary thinkers. He frames it in a way that is real entertaining, and actually there's a lot of beauty to what he's writing. ...

Do you try to address that tension between traditional and contemporary approaches in your solo music and work with Kaukahi?

In Kaukahi, we create and play innocuous music that's pleasurable but not too radical or out there. But where I'm trying to go with my solo music tends to be subversive. I'm singing music to challenge the way so-called Hawaiian culture, that's really Western, looks right now, because we have to deal with the real issues and reality. The more radical side of me comes out in my solo music.