The New Experience

From the sleep, country town of Waialua, Oahu emerged a group whose music was simply defined as “funky”. Unlike the great sophisticated and well polished sound that many of the “town” bands produced, their music was raw and powerful; and at times took it to the limit thus giving their audience a “New Experience”. Who in their right mind would wear a black “skull and bone” T-shirt for a uniform? They did and with pride.

The New Experience, like many bands at that time “paid their dues”. Dating back to 1974, the band first started to perform at local weddings, birthday parties and social gatherings for many of the local high school dances. They soon made appearances at military clubs in Schofield, Fort Shafter and of course Fort DeRussy not realizing that they were at the edge of Waikiki, the entertainment capital of the Pacific.

It was only after Mr. Blake Nuibe discovered the group were they given opportunities to perform in Waikiki at night clubs such as-The Sting, Tiki, Hula
Hut, Hawaiian Hut, Duke’s, the Magic Mushroom, Point After, the Infinity, Spats and finally the night club no one wanted to perform in, except for The New Experience, Beef-N-Grogg. The group soon adopted “the Grogg” as “their home”.

What Mr. Nuibe’s “entertainment conglomeration” did not have was group of guys committed to playing each musical note with feeling and with soul. The New Experience played music that required their inner emotions to be expressed as well as songs from groups no one ever heard of or attempted to learn-the Commodores, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, Earth-Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, the Stylistics and Kool & the Gang just to name a few.

The group introduced the term “groove” to the music scene with their syncopated rhythms created between the guitar, bass, drums and the Hammond organ. What brought the group over the edge was the addition to their music the percussive sounds from an instrument called the Clavinet. This was a turning point for The New Experience as they were soon labeled as the “funkiest band on town”.

The original members attended the same elementary and high school and spent their childhood playing beneath the “Waialua Sky”. It was each individual’s musical gift that contributed to the creation of the band’s sound. With no formal training they soon developed their “sound”. The foundation of their groove came from the rock steady playing of Rex Baccay on Bass and Darrell Alvarico on Drums who was not able to make this year’s reunion. Bucci Canencia, the charismatic guitar player with his soulful playing added the edge and funk rhythm. Wade Kuroiwa and Malcolm Galbiso were the individuals called upon to musically fill in between the syncopated rhythms with additional guitars, keyboards and woodwind. Edwin Ramones added the keyboards whether it was the Hammond Porta-B, the Fender Rhodes, the Clavinet or the Arp String Ensemble.

In the later years, The New Experience music expanded with the addition of vocalist Ms. Rachel Gonzales whose “jazzy” style of singing lead the band to soon learn and perform, “funk” female songs from artist such as Chaka Kahn, Lydia Pense from Cold Blood and Gladys Knight to name a few. She to came from the country, the town of Hilo, Hawaii and also had the same philosophy about music; play and sing with feeling, from the heart and with soul.

30 years have since past when each went their own ways not knowing how music would influence their future. However The New Experience returns to reintroduce their style of music with hopes of “jogging” the audience’s memories of yester-year. No one knows the future so let’s all enjoy the moment, reminisce about the past and look to tomorrow and seize “The New Experiences” of life.