You may be stuck in a hot and dry Colorado summer, seemingly a world away from lush and tropical Hawaii, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some Aloha spirit.Hawaiian music group Hapa plays Friday at Stargazers Theatre and Event Center. The Maui-born band creates music that reflects a contemporary fusion of Hawaiian lyrical traditions, chants and dance.The group was formed by singer-songwriter Barry Flanagan, a New Jersey native who transplanted to Hawaii and fell in love with the local culture. Hapa later welcomed Hawaiian musician Ron Kuala’au, and the pair work as the creative duo behind the band’s content.The word “hapa,” says Flanagan, means “half” and is “used to describe people of mixed ethnicity, of which there are many in Hawaii.” The name is a term of endearment in Hawaiian culture.Here, Flanagan talks about the band’s roots, their musical influences and his love for Hawaii.

The Gazette: How did the group get started? What brought everybody together?Barry Flanagan: Hapa started in 1984 on Maui. It really had to do with the amount of work for duos on Maui at that time, which was huge. Before we knew it, we were performing 400-500 times a year. That was an amazing time, as it went on for nine years before we started releasing CDs and touring outside the state. We really defined our sound with those many opportunities to perform early on.Gazette: You are not a Hawaiian native, but you seem to feel a special connection to the place. What does Hawaii mean to you?Flanagan: Hawaii is such a beautiful place. It seems everywhere you look, you are surrounded by beauty. Not that much different than Colorado, in a way.Getting to know the culture and local people of Hawaii is something very special for me. I think it adds to the appreciation of the place. When you mention the word “Hawaii,” people immediately change, as if recalling a beautiful dream they once had or a place they visited once in their lives that they loved. That’s very cool. I think it’s safe to say it is a shared feeling with Ron and myself — that Hawaii, not unlike Colorado, is a “state of mind.”Gazette: Your music strikes me as sort of representation of Hawaii. What parts of Hawaiian culture, specifically, do you draw from?Flanagan: Yes, true. Hapa’s music is very evocative of modern day Hawaii. We are, I guess, what you would call “modernists,” since the music is very contemporary. Although we have a sound that is very contemporary, we still make sure the overall feel of our shows and recordings have the cultural aspect of Hawaii stamped on them.We have drawn on as many influences as possible over the past years, which our eight CDs since 1992 hopefully reflect. I would say our biggest influences, Hawaiian-music wise, are probably the late ’70s recordings of Ry Cooder with the legendary Hawaiian slack-key icon Gabby Pahinui.Gazette: How do you branch out? What other influences, aside from Hawaii, contribute to your music?Flanagan: Contemporary-music wise, Simon and Garfunkle still to this day really define the most inspiring duo music of all time. What better duo with a couple of guitars is there?Though most of our CDs and concerts feature original music, we’ve been inspired to cover and interpret songs from Bob Marley and U2 to John Lennon and Matisyahu. It seems any music from the heart that either grabs you or touches you is inspiring to us as a duo.Gazette: Finally, what are your live shows like? Do you try to impart a Hawaiian “feel,” beyond just the music?Flanagan: Our live shows are very lively and up-tempo, and I think, a lot of fun. We definitely enjoy bringing Hawaii and the Hawaiian “feel” to places like Colorado, especially in the winter shows we’ve done there. I believe we are getting pretty close to 10 years of performing in Colorado, and we can’t get enough of the place. Colorado, like Hawaii, is a very beautiful and endearing place.

Photo by Courtesy of HAPA

Photo by Courtesy of Stargazers Theatre and Event Center