Jake Shimabukuro – An Xperience Interview – by Liam Sweeny.
He won’t call himself a virtuoso out of respect for his heroes, but the world doesn’t have that problem. His work on the ukelele brings the instrument to the inner sanctum of rock music. Welcome Jake Shimabukuro.
RRX: You were an amazing musician just playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and suddenly it’s viral and you had no idea. And everything just skyrocketed and you know, we all wanna get big, but it’s kind of like the dog chasing the cars, what happens when they catch one? Were you mentally prepared for that?
JS: Oh man, no, I mean, I feel very, very lucky. I feel like I was very lucky, just in the right place at the right time, and truly grateful for that video because it opened so many doors for me. I got to, through that video, you know, meet Jimmy Buffett and Mac McAnally because they had seen that video and early in 2006 after that video went viral, they invited me to go out on the road with them and made me an official Corey for a band member, and I toured with them for a pretty solid like 6 or 7 years, and then off and on after that. But yeah, Jimmy really took me under his wing and opened so many doors for me. And I always tell people that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for his support.
RRX: Did your life feel like it suddenly was moving faster or was it already moving that fast, but it changed quality? How did that feel? Did you feel shock or anything like that? Was there any kind of feelings like that?
JS: Prior to the video going viral, I was doing a lot of performing, but it was mainly in Hawaii and Japan. I had my first band just out of high school but then in 2000, I signed my first record deal with Sony Music in Japan.
So from 2000 until that viral video in 2005, 2006, for those five or six years, I was spending about maybe half the year in Japan just doing concerts and doing shows and even doing radio shows and recording albums, but it was a seven album contract. It kept me pretty busy in the studio. So then when that video went viral, that’s what opened up the doors to opportunities outside of Japan and outside of Hawaii and so it’s been such a blessing.
But yeah, you’re right, it was a total whirlwind, but at the time, you’re so young. I was young, I wasn’t married, I didn’t have kids, it was a really exciting time and I tried to be a sponge and absorb as much as I could and try to learn as much as I could from other artists and people I was touring with and still to this day. All the collaborations that I’m grateful for, I feel like I learned so much from those experiences.
RRX: People might think the ukulele is like that novelty and then they think of Tiny Tim and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. kind of simple songs, but you rock the stuffing out of the ukulele to the point where it’s forgotten that that’s what it is. Like why don’t we see that instrument more mainstream?
JS: I love hearing the ukulele in all these different contexts. That version of Over the Rainbow that Israel recorded years ago. Oh man, that’s legendary. It’s so beautiful and then to just to hear it that way, to reimagine a song that truly is a standard, the classic and to to reimagine it in a different way and for a lot of the younger generation that’s the only version they know. I grew up with the Judy Garland version, right? But that version just blew my socks off. But then you have bands like Train that did “Hey Soul Sister” a while back and that was huge. That was a number one song for I don’t know how many months on the radio and that whole tune from beginning to end is driven by the ukulele.
I remember the first time I heard that on the radio, I was driving, I was driving my car and I heard the ukulele, and I was back home in Hawaii, so I heard the ukulele, so I was saying, ‘oh this must be a new local band that just released something,’ and I’m hearing ukulele. Then I hear the vocals come in. I’m like, wow, who’s this singer? This guy’s awesome, right? And then the arrangement rates keeps building and building. So midway through the tune, like I’m losing my mind. I pull over on the side of the road because I’m like, ‘man, I gotta find out. You know what band this is, right?’ Then after the song was done, the DJ comes out and said, Oh, it’s a new band, a new song by the band Train. “Hey Soul Sister,” and I was like, ‘What? That’s Train, and they’re using the ukulele in their song.’
I couldn’t believe it. It just blew me away. So I love hearing stuff like that. The album Eddie Vedder did, I think it was called Ukulele Songs or something like that, but oh man, that’s such a killer record. The voicing of chords that he’s using on the instrument. You don’t hear stuff like that, and especially with his voice like that was, oh my God, that was amazing. So I’m so thrilled to see more and more people utilising the ukulele. Even Dave Matthews has been using the ukulele. Jimmy Buffett was using the ukulele in his shows. Icons like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish using that. So I think they’re introducing the instrument to a whole new audience, and I think it’s inspiring so many people to pick up that instrument.
RRX: It just has a very, very distinct sound. It sounds great and it’s very distinct, you know. It has that other-earthly quality that when you hear it.
JS: I love saying that the reason I love the ukulele so much is because you don’t feel like you have to be a musician to play it. I’ve seen firsthand people who have never played an instrument and now they’re retired and they’re like ‘oh, I wanna do something’ and they’ll pick up the ukelele,
They’re always so surprised because they’ve never played an instrument before and they always thought they didn’t have any musical talent, but suddenly they’re playing an ukulele and they’re playing with some ukulele club. A senior group, you know, that gets together once a week and plays and the joy that that they experience through that sense of community is really awesome. It’s the only instrument that I know where you can play full chords with just one finger. You can play full songs with just one finger.
So I think there’s something so simple about it, and I think people aren’t intimidated by it, which is another thing that I love so much about the instrument. The other thing that, when Tiny Tim did that, Tiptoe Through the Tulips on national television, that introduced that instrument to so many people, right? Some people felt like it wasn’t a serious instrument, but I love that. When you’re first picking it up, it doesn’t have to be serious. tt doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be intimidating or scary. It should be fun, like when you get your first tricycle. I just want to jump on it and ride it.
That’s the feeling. I wish every instrument had that kind of feeling, like if you see the cello, ‘oh, that looks like fun,’ or the trumpet, ‘oh, that looks like fun. I want to try it. Sometimes there’s a little bit of a, ‘oh, that looks hard’ ,‘oh, the piano,’. ‘oh, that’s so hard,’ But with the ukulele, it’s like ‘oh, that looks like fun,’ I think that’s what I love that about the instrument,
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