Letter From The Editor

Screen Shot 2016-12-09 at 9.43.31 PMDuring the time I spent with the four members of local rock band EMKE for this week’s feature story, it was hard to remember how young they are. Kira Santos (guitars, vocals), Mari Arakawa (guitar, vocals) and Payton Sekigawa (drums) are all 20-21, and Ezri Santos (bass, vocals) is only 16.

That’s because they all seem to have the musical sensibilities of veteran rockers: During our interview, they mentioned more than once how music from the 70s and 80s often was more textured and nuanced.

But after all, despite their youth, they are veteran rockers: They have been playing together for the last 12 years — yes, you did the math right: Ezri was just 4 when they started the band.

You probably have heard of them — they’re that band of kids that was always playing classic rock songs at various community events.

But then they seemed to fade out of the public eye in more recent years. We caught up with them and found that there’s a good reason for that: They’ve been crafting what they feel is their true identity. It’s been quite the journey for the band — they spent years trying to center their music and image around commercial interests. But they ultimately turned down offers from the likes of Disney and Sony to cultivate their own sound.

Now they’re back with a new album of original music, Edit Undo, on the way.

You can read more about the band’s journey here.