As a kid growing up in Ohio, Trent Prall was bullied for his Hawaiian heritage.
“It was sort of something I was ashamed of,” says the 24-year-old musician who went to high school in Verona and graduated from UW-Madison in 2014. “But it became something I wanted to celebrate.”
Last month, Prall released his debut EP, Bloom Lagoon, under the name Kainalu — a Hawaiian word that roughly translates to “the flow of ocean waves.” A six-track tribute to his island roots, the release is a beautifully lush, frequently funky, piano-driven foray into a genre that Prall has dubbed “Hawaii-fi.” “I wanted to put someone on a beach,” he says of the vibe.
The first track, “Welcome to the Bloom Lagoon,” takes you there immediately — and literally. The song opens with the sound of singing birds, recorded by Prall on his iPhone while visiting family in Hawaii. He layers sparkling piano runs over conga drums, adding a funk bassline and minimalist vocals. Prell grew up listening to artists like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, but his composition style is more similar to modern chillwave and psych-rock outfits like Tame Impala or Washed Out. “I wanted to fuse [classic funk] with psych-rock,” Prall says.
The record has a subdued energy, equal parts danceable and introspective. The second track, “Love Nebula” highlights a driving rhythm section and bouncy synth; the more downtempo “Older Than I Am” is reverb-heavy with shimmery guitar. The aptly named “Sun Soaked,” the only all-instrumental track on the record, is downright trippy to listen to, particularly with good headphones. The understated “Girls,” an ode to indecisive women, has a stripped-back Flight Facilities feel, while the final track, “Wasting Away,” is a soulful slow jam, complete with jazzy saxophone. It could be cheesy if it wasn’t so dope.
On first listen, Kainalu sounds a bit like the bands that cool kids listened to in 2010 — there are hints of Toro y Moi, maybe even early Ducktails. But Prall, a pianist, puts a refreshingly fun spin on the genre by fusing old and new — he’s got retro-funk basslines on the low end, plenty of well-placed melodic accents and futuristic, ambient-electronic production as the icing on top.
Prall first dabbled in music production as a high school student in Verona, which offers a studio tech course that introduces recording equipment and software. He later studied music composition at UW-Madison, but he didn’t much care for the program’s philosophy, which he says places emphasis on traditional style and enforces strict rules of music theory. “If you want to be a classically trained violinist, [UW-Madison] is great,” he says, “but if you want to make Hawaiian funk music, it’s not so great.”
He graduated with dual degrees in music and genetics and is now working in a lab and making music in his spare time. But he hopes to someday make his passion project his full-time career. He’s working on another Kainalu EP and has put together a band to perform the music live around Madison starting this fall.
“I love this city a lot,” Prall says. “Madison is a great place to experiment.”