Dennis Muth played drums when he was growing up in Los Angeles. He continued playing drums after he moved to Hawaii with his family in the mid-1990s.

These days Muth, 52, is a Realtor and one-fourth of the refreshingly nontraditional Beatles tribute group Beat-lele. Muth (Ringo), Sonny Aquino (John), Alastar McNeil (George) and Nolet Quiason (Paul) sing and and play as much like the Beatles as possible but they play ukulele and cajon (a box-shaped percussion instrument) instead of guitars, bass and drums.

The quartet released its first CD, “Beat-Lele: An Ukulele Tribute to the Beatles,” in July and performed for an audience of Beatles fans during International Beatle Week in Liverpool, England, in August.

JOHN BERGER: How did Liverpool respond to a tribute group that doesn’t play guitars, bass and drums?

DENNIS MUTH: They had no idea that a group playing ukuleles and cajon could duplicate the music of the recordings as authentically as we do. Every little Ringo (drum) fill — even though I’m on a cajon — I’m imagining how Ringo would play it on cajon.

JB: You guys started out as a traditional Beatles tribute group. How did you become Beat-lele?

DM: We started Day In The Life about eight years ago. When Alastar and I were tapped to be part of the Forever Fab tribute show in Waikiki, that put our group on hold. But while we were doing Forever Fab, Nolet discovered the ukulele.

Being that there are so many Beatles tribute bands throughout the world, we thought we’d do something that had never been done before to our knowledge. That’s Beat-lele.

JB: Where would you like Beat-lele to be five years from now?

DM: Touring and playing. We’re considering doing a “Live at The Cavern” album, and if we can get in touch with the right people we’d like to have a recurring show in Waikiki.

JB: Is there something that might surprise people who know you as an entertainer?

DM: I’m not a writer, but I wrote a book, “Mother Mary Comes To Me,” a Beatles-inspired conversion story. I went to Liverpool in 1989 with a friend for the Beatles tour — that’s the only reason we went there — and I had a conversation with a priest about this place in what was then Yugoslavia where these Marian apparitions had been occurring.

I went there a couple of months afterward and the experience stayed with me ever since.

“On the Scene” appears on Sundays in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.