Page 2 - MidWeek Kauai - Feb 16, 2022

2 KAUA‘I MIDWEEK FEBRUARY 16, 2022
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Teruya, also a member of Studio 808, is no stranger to the entertainment industry. He was a finalist for an in- ternational artist audition for a K-Pop mega group, but it was show tunes and weight loss that set him on this path.
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“I became inspired to sing when I saw my first Broad- way musical,” he recalls. “I love the drama of the songs and the dynamics of the sing- er’s vocal abilities. I got into to dance because my mom involuntary made me take dance class to lose weight, and I ended up falling in love with it.”
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Hawai‘i’s very own boy band, Crossing Rain, kicks off its West Coast tour — “Nice To Meet You!” — at Blaisdell Concert Hall this month.
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It’s been less than a year since Crossing Rain made its debut, and already the Hawai‘i-based boy band is making waves across the islands.
Morgado — the group’s other choreographer-minded member — has experience with Kāne‘ohe-based 24-7 Danceforce, and learned how to dance thanks to his sister, who would take him to all of her classes.
Wyatt “Monarch” Kaneshiro, Jorden “J” Kealo- ha-Yamanaka, Evan “Haru” Doria, Devin Teruya, Asher Morgado and Shotaro Takasawa performed to a packed house in November during their debut concert, and they show no signs of slowing down. Since first meeting each other in March 2021, they have been prac- ticing and rehearsing, eventually releasing their first full-length album, DREAMS, in December. It was a lot of hard work and long hours, but well-worth the effort as evidenced by the large following they’ve already garnered.
troupe to Korean pop groups, they’re anything but. The six members (ranging in age from 13 to 21 years old) perform in styles from pop and ballads to a little bit of rock, hip-hop and rap. So, there’s some disso- nance to classifying them as a K-pop-esque group.
dance that was instilled into them at young ages. They have proven that grit and determination, coupled with passion, can lead to some- thing great.
ha-Yamanaka, a lot of inspi- ration comes from his family (his dad is award-winning lo- cal musician Mark Yamana- ka), but he notes that The KingofPophadalottodo with it, too.
“It’s my favorite way to communicate,” he explains.
Due to COVID, Crossing Rain hasn’t been able to meet with fans as much as they’d like, which is why the guys are excited to take advantage of any opportunity to interact with the people who have shown them so much support over the last year. Known affectionate- ly as “XR,” the group will take to the stage once again Feb. 26 at Blaisdell Concert Hall to kick off its West Coast “Nice To
“We don’t like to label what genre we do because we don’t want to box ourselves in. We explore many styles and want to always be evolving as art- ists and performers,” the group says.
“Through our journey, we want to motivate others to work hard and be positive,” they say.
“Michael Jackson inspired me to pursue music and dance as a passion,” he says.
Takasawa, a native of Ja- pan, moved to O‘ahu four years ago and started taking dance classes — “I fell in love with it,” he says. The decision to enroll wasn’t out of the blue, though, as his dad was a J-pop star in a band called TOKIO.
Meet You!” tour. While some
“She raised us (me and my siblings) on shows like So You Think You Can Dance,” he recalls.
“From that point on, I fell in love with the expression and movement,” he says. “The art of dance brings out my cre- ative and emotional side.”
compare this up- and-coming
For lead vocalist Kealo-
SEE PAGE 4
Kaneshiro, Kealoha-Ya- manaka, Doria, Teruya, Morgado and Takasawa are natural-born performers, and all share a love of music and
Group leader Kaneshiro — the expert in hip-hop and rap — produced and wrote music in high school, and got intro- duced to dance thanks to his mom (a ballerina).
Doria’s experience, mean- while, is in the realm of cho- reography, and the Studio 808 dancer happened upon the art form “on a whim,” to hear him tell it.
Those looking forward to the Feb. 26 concert can take a listen to DREAMS on Amazon Music, Apple Music or Pan- dora. The nine-song album harmoniously blends some original compositions — Ke- aloha-Yamanaka penned Wa- ter and Not My Type, the latter
BY NICOLE MONTON
PHOTO BY LAWRENCE TABUDLO
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