Yokwe Dri-Majel Liner Notes
Dri-Karere Ran began as a song, and turned into a band. The song was written in 1982 by Robert from Skatem Le, and Marc LaPlante, a Peace Corps Volunteer. I (also a PCV) and Jikky Jawej, who was in another band called Purple Aces, also became members of the band. Shortly after, the group started performing as Dri-Karere Ran.
In the picture above, you see the members of the original Dri-Karere Ran performing at Majuro High School. From left to right are Arun, Torin, Robert, Marc, Jikki and Stephen. Prior to the performance, there was a discussion about matching uniforms, but clothing options were extremely limited in Majuro in 1982. We did what we could. In the end, we looked like what the name of the band said we were: different kinds of people that come together.
We made some good music, but it didn’t last long. To this day, I don’t have a clear understanding of why the band broke up. All I know is that there were some creative differences regarding what the band should do next. The Dri-Karere Ran name stayed with Marc, Jikki and me. It took a couple of months, but we eventually added two new members. Larry Muller, and Killean. They both played guitar and sang. Marc and Larry wrote the songs and shared lead vocals. Jikki was the lead guitarist. Killean and myself sang backing vocals. Marc played an electric piano, and our only percussion was created with the Mexican bongos I brought with me from the States.
We put in some serious hours to pull together enough songs to record for WSZO’s Top 40 contest. My memory tells me that we didn’t win the contest, but I’m pretty sure we were in the top three. Our music was well known throughout the islands. Oddly enough, the band only performed live twice. There weren’t that many venues, and there wasn’t much time. Truth is, Dri-Karere Ran existed as a band for less than one year.
Marc sitting next to the tree. Jikki wearing number 16. Below: Stephen with bongos.
The pictures here were taken when Marc, Jikki and I were hanging out at the Majuro Weather Station about June 1983, shortly before the band members went their separate ways. One month after these pictures were taken, a serendipitous event occurred. A music professor from the College of Fiji appeared in Majuro. His name was David Fanshawe, and he was travelling with some really nice (for the time) portable recording equipment. We wouldn’t have had any idea he was there, but he happened to hear us play and asked us if he could record us. We jumped at the chance.
We had time for one last practice session before the recording session with David. WSZO management graciously allowed us to use their studio, but David did not want to use any of the radio station’s equipment. The entire session was recorded with his Swiss made Stellavox recorder, and the four microphones he brought with him.
The real reason he was there was to preserve the musical heritage of Pacific-island cultures. The Music College of Fiji provided a grant to fund his recordings of traditional songs, chants and dances of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. The Marshallese music he recorded was published in 1995 as Spirt of Micronesia. It’s still available at Discogs.com. The Dri-Karere Ran recording was included with the traditional Marshalese recordings in the music archives of the College of Fiji and the national archives of Australia.
We all arrived at 6:00pm for the session. 15 songs, and 12 hours later, we stumbled out at 6:00am. 12 straight hours of playing instruments and singing takes a physical toll. The guitar players all had bloody fingers. The singers were all hoarse. Marc and I also had sore hands. In my case, that included multiple bruised veins.
What is in the download are 9 of the songs from the session, and the original Dri-Karere Ran (with Skatem Le) version of the band’s namesake song. That song was digitized from a 40-year-old cassette tape. The songs in the digital download were remastered with a Pre Sonus Studio One DAW.
In the picture above, from left to right: Killean, Jikki, Marc and Larry
The picture above was taken when Marc visited Majuro in 2010. Since I wasn’t there to be in the picture, the least I can do here is add one of myself in 2010. At that time, I was just beginning to record music with a band called The BOKS of ROCK. The picture of me in 2010 is from a photo shoot for the BOKS record Thinking Outside Of.
I titled the digital download Yokwe Dri-Majel for three reasons. Yokwe can mean hello, goodbye, and love. The hello is for all Dri-Majel who don’t know anything about Dri-Karere Ran. The goodbye is because at some point in the not-too-distant future, the Marshall Islands will sink beneath the surface of the Pacific as climate change raises sea level. The nation will live on in a rapidly expanding Marshallese diaspora. Love is what will hold the nation together.
I hope you enjoy the music, and for those of you that are old enough, I hope the music helps you remember Majuro and the Marshall Islands as they were. My experience there, with and without the band, continues to influence the music I make. Three of the songs on infinitwav’s Song Yin Song Yang record are about my time in the Marshalls. They are PCV, Woman Warrior and Living In The Third World. In addition, the first versions of A Call To Mind and Cosmically Connected were written while I was in the Marshalls.
The record also includes a song titled He’s A Batman, which is the theme song for the Microwave Films production of Batmon vs. Majuro. infinitwav has composed music for other Microwave Films including Jilel: The Calling of the Shell. Most recently, infinitwav created the theme song for the newly released Majuro 5-Oh. The show uses the instrumental version. You can hear the vocal version by clicking the music player at the top of this page.
Yokwe im kommol tata aolep Dri-Majel; those still in the Marshalls and those here in the States.
Stephen Latin-Kasper
Dri-Karere Ran, The BOKS of ROCK, infinitwav