Chauncy Bermodez was born and raised in Mililani; he graduated from Mililani High School. In 1999, Bermodez decided to enter the Frank B. Shaner Hawaiian Falsetto Contest just to see how he’d do. The contest was Hawaii’s most visible falsetto competition and attracted Hawaiian falsetto singers from outside Hawaii — and he won. The win earned 21-year-old Bermodez a recording contract with Hula Records and a place on two Na Hoku Hanahano Award-winning compilation albums. However, when a compilation album wins a Hoku, the award goes to the producer or producers of the project and not to the artists.
Bermodez continued to sing and play music for several years as a member of local quintet, Ko‘u Mana‘o. The group released an album, “My Hawaiian Girl,” in 2004.
Sixteen years later, Bermodez, 42, and the father of five, returned full force as a solo recording artist on Tuesday when Revive The Live released his new download-only single, “This Place We Call Home.” For more information, go to facebook.com/ckbmusic.
Congratulations on the new project. It is a beautiful song, and you and your producer/engineer Kapena De Lima do a great job with it.
Kapena is an amazing engineer, and I’ve always wanted to record. I’d been steadily playing music in the Waikiki scene and at private parties ever since the contest, so recording now is all about timing.
The lyrics speak for many Hawaii residents — “No matter where I am, I know one thing — this place we call home is Hawaii.” I think they also speak for people outside Hawaii who love what they imagine Hawaii to be even if they have never been here.
It all comes from feeling and memories, especially the second and third verses. When I was younger I used to go to Waimea all the time, catch waves and jump off the rock, and when me and my wife were starting our family we were living in Moanalua. Every morning you wake up, you hear the birds chirping. But because the elementary school was literally right down the road from where we lived, when the kids were there we could actually hear the school bells ringing. That’s part of my inspiration for putting it in my song.
What’s next?
I wrote a song for my daughter a couple of months ago. She’s 9 months right now, and I really like it, so I think that’s the next one.
What are you looking forward to doing when the lockdown is no longer necessary? I’m guessing that having a baby luau for your daughter is on the list.
(laughs) We were trying to plan one but this COVID came on us, so, yes to that. I would love to do a single release party, and depending on how long this (lockdown) prolongs, I might have three singles. And before COVID I was playing every Wednesday night at the Edge of Waikiki Bar in the Sheraton Waikiki with Keoni Ku, so that’s three things.
Going back to the falsetto contest. It’s 1999. You really didn’t think you’d win?
I just wanted to enter a contest with me and my group at the time — Ko‘u Mana‘o. I didn’t think I was going to win because when we were rehearsing we’d hear all the contestants, and they all were good. It was pretty exciting to win. I think I was the youngest guy on stage.
I think that when a compilation wins — at the Hokus or at the Grammys — the artists should receive awards along with the producer or producers because a compilation album is newly released music, like new singles, and not a collection of old recordings that are being re-released as an anthology. That’s not how it works, only the producers get the award, but if it did, you would have won two Hoku Awards as well as winning the contest.
That would have been lovely.
