Basic Folk 133 – Paula Fuga

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Paula Fuga is a magic person. The Hawaiian singer/songwriter has lived through some of life’s horrors. When she was young, her living situation was extremely unstable for several years. She lived with her mom, who suffered from addiction, on the beach around a pretty shady crowd of people. She accounts her survival to her dream of being a performer. That dream would manifest itself into visions Paula would experience. As a young person, she had no idea what the inside of a recording studio looked like, but would have these tiny peaks into her future where she would see herself recording a song or see herself on stage performing. She was actually able to place her very first vision of a live performance at a specific venue: Red Rocks. Paula still has not played Red Rocks, but she plans to get there and she plans to headline.

One fateful day Paula and her band were performing at a kickball tournament. One of the players happened to be the extremely famous and influential singer/songwriter, Jack Johnson. From that day on, Jack has been one of her biggest supporters and dearest collaborators. She talks about what it was like to meet and then become close friends with Jack, who actually appears on her newest album, Rain on Sunday. She and Jack perform his song “If Ever,” which he wrote about the death of his father. Sadly, Paula’s father had recently passed away and she shares how she processes that kind of grief through making music and how the song helped. There are one million quotes in this interview that I want printed on t-shirts! Get to know and enjoy Paula! Aloha!

The official video for “If Ever” (featuring Jack Johnson)

Paula’s new album Rain on Sunday