JPG: Obviously, all successful musicians have to have some degree of this but it sounds even more so in your case that you must have patience and the ability to seek things and discover things and not be frustrated as you’re trying to discover them.

JS: Patience is so important in music not just when you’re performing but when you’re practicing. I feel very grateful the way that I got turned on to music because there was no…goal. I wasn’t learning a method where I needed to finish this method book by the end of this month and whatever like when you’re learning the piano or when you’re learning the violin. There’s a method and you have all these steps that you need to take to get to the next level and then to get to the next level. When you get through so many levels then you have your first recital. Then, you have so many recitals then, I don’t know, maybe your dream is to play for one of the big symphonies somewhere.

With the ukulele there was really no goal. When I was a young teenager, I never thought to myself, “I want to be a touring solo ukulele player.” (slight laugh) So, I basically had all the time in the world to just play. I wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere because I had no idea that I would be doing what I’m doing. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I thought I was going to be a school teacher or a politician (laughs). In the meantime, while trying to figure all this stuff out, I was playing my ukulele all the time. I never really thought of it as practice. I just loved playing. Every time I had a free moment I would pick it up and I’d be strumming tunes or trying to come up with new ideas. It was just fun. It’s probably the equivalent to playing video games. I never played any video games when I was a kid or even playing sports. I was horrible at sports. I never went to the park to play basketball with my buddies. Nobody wanted to play with me because I was so terrible. (slight laugh) So, I would just sit at home and play my ukulele. That was what I loved doing. A lot of kids do that. They play sports. I don’t think necessarily all of them have dreams of being the next Michael Jordan or Joe Montana but they play and they love it and they have a great time. That’s how I always approached the ukulele.

*JPG: I would imagine that the documentary on you, Life On Four Strings, deals with that since it chronicles your life from childhood to present day.

JS: Definitely. It talks about all of that. How I started out. My mom was my first teacher, and she’d teach me basic chords, playing traditional Hawaiian music. It also goes into how I discovered the electric ukulele sound and my experimentation with amplifiers and distortion pedals and things like that and then coming full circle, back to getting rid of all the effects and going back to learning my instrument again, appreciating the natural sound of the ukulele and learning to use my hands and my fingers to manipulate the timbre and the tonal qualities of the instrument.

JPG: Was this something director Tadashi Nakamura came to you and wanted to do or was this something that you put feelers out because you wanted to tell your story?

JS: What happened was there’s an organization called CAAM, the Center for Asian American Media. They produce a lot of films for PBS. One of the producers at CAAM, his name is Don Yong. He wanted to do this documentary on me. He talked to the executive producer of CAAM who said, “Yeah, sure let’s do it.” They got a budget together and all that and then they approached me and they said, “We want to do this documentary on you, would you be interested?” I said, “Oh yeah. Definitely.” That’s when they contacted Tadashi Nakamura because they told me, “We know this really young filmmaker in L.A. and he’s amazing and I think you guys would work well together.” So actually, they contacted me before they contacted Tad. When Tad expressed interest in doing it that’s when they put us together.

JPG: Does it show how you’ve changed the perception of the ukulele and then you see people like Eddie Vedder and Paul McCartney and others using the instrument?

JS: Unfortunately, they couldn’t really get any interview time with Paul McCartney or Eddie Vedder. (slight laugh) which would have been really cool but they do go back to the history of the instrument, even how it was popularized in the States. He goes through the whole thing with Tiny Tim and all of that. It’s really interesting.

JPG: Have you met either one and talked shop and they pick your brain about playing the ukulele?

JS: Oh my gosh, I would love to meet them. I would love to just take Eddie Vedder out to lunch and talk ukulele with him. (slight laugh)

JPG: You being such a Beatles fan, being with Paul McCartney, being in his presence…

JS: Oh yeah. Paul McCartney definitely. I’m sure everyone wants to take Paul McCartney out to lunch. (laughs)

JPG: I see on your website that you have tour dates going through the first portion of summer. You’ve been pretty consistent with releasing an album over the past two years. Are you already planning for something or see what happens?

JS: Yeah, see what happens. I love taking things one step at a time. I’m just enjoying it all now. I definitely want to see where all of this leads. There’s gonna be a lot of things happening with the film. I think in May it’s going to air on PBS national in primetime. That’ll be really great. So, we’ll see what’s coming up then. Right now, I’m just having a blast touring on the bus.

JPG: I’m looking at your tour schedule and I see some open time where you could return to Bonnaroo.

JS: Ohhhhhh. That would be cool. Hopefully. I would love to go back there. I really enjoyed that festival. , I love the festival circuit because everyone there is so excited to be there and they’re just so passionate about the music. To be in that kind of environment it’s inspiring. It fuels you. You feel great after it, and they’re always so pumped up and so supportive. It’s always a nice feeling. True music fans.

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