Traci Toguchi |
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| Track Listing: (click links for audio samples) | |||||||||||||
1) Feel the Breeze |
9) Over the Rainbow |
Product Description
Vision and passion.
Cultural roots.
Self empowerment.
Live your potential.
These are terms former Miss Hawaii Traci Toguchi uses
to describe her debut album Feel the Breeze
and mission in life. According to Toguchi, a professional singer since age
9, the album is "not only a
demonstration of finally making my dream a reality, but has also served
as an incredible turning point in my
spiritual, personal, and entrepreneurial growth." Her dream of releasing
an album has been one for
a long time. She said, "I never had an 'expiration date' or a 'price
tag' on it. I just knew I would
someday record and release my songs in a way that I felt proud of."
Toguchi's journey of making that dream a reality has required persistence
and drive that can only come
from a person so passionate about life and her bigger purpose. After years
of pounding the pavement to
break the national market in New York City and Los Angeles, and having given
thousands of dollars
to a music producer "with not even demo to show for it," Toguchi's
journey continued when she relocated
back to her roots, Hawaii. During the last 4 years, there have been 3 album
attempts because things
"just weren't working out" until months ago, when all those years
of hard work finally started
to pay off, and everything started falling into place.
How Toguchi paid for the album was a large part of her journey. After her
hopes moved up and down
as sponsors promised to fund the project but didn't follow through, Toguchi
took things into her own hands.
She worked several jobs while working on the album. In 2003, she coordinated
a fundraiser to cover
album costs, and later expanded her entertainment company Traci Toguchi,
Inc. by creating
a Marketing Division. Toguchi is also a student in college. She served as
producer, songwriter, and
vocalist (singing all vocal parts), among other roles on the album.
She says she considers the process "a living example of what it means
to live our potential. It's pushing
the envelope and aiming high to be the best we can be, by being true to
our inner light." Toguchi digs deep
into her soul, and doesn't hold back in sharing her personal stories on
her "journey" both in her songs
and liner notes. The 20 page liner notes is filled with what Toguchi refers
to as "Traci's Tips & Tidbits."
Topics range from choosing to live an enjoyable life, valuing yourself,
living with your heart and not your ego,
having and giving hope, letting go, knowing where you came from, and living
through fear. She sites resources
including Oprah, Anthony Robbins, and Deepak Chopra.
Besides Toguchi's desire to create "self-empowering mainstream songs
that have positive, encouraging,
self-reflective and self-expressive lyrics," Toguchi was also conscious
of incorporating Hawaii's cultural
roots found in the music and values she grew up with having been born (a
yonsei or fourth generation)
and raised in Hawaii.
Toguchi says "Feel the Breeze" is not just about the literal meaning,
but also about "being in a state of mind
so nothing can keep you from your own happiness." The music and messages
in Feel the Breeze help listeners
and readers do so as they move along their own journeys.
Cultural influences in the songs and arrangements:
Track 7: Hiroshima band member June Kuramoto is featured
on the koto in "Come Back To Me,"
an R&B song, which features Japanese lyrics in the background vocals.
Track 11: Hawaiian lyrics can be heard in the background
vocals of the Gospel song "I Surrender."
Track 12: "You & I" is comprised
of just Toguchi's vocal and a Slack Key Guitar, while
Track 10: "You Make Me Feel So Beautiful"
is comprised of Toguchi's vocal and an Ukulele.
Track 3: In "Let Go," Toguchi
plays the Okinawan Sanba (a percussive instrument) in an Okinawan
rhythmic pattern amidst electric guitars and a bluesy rhythmic section.
Track 1: The album's title track "Feel the
Breeze" features the Ukulele playing the hook throughout the
song.