Hilo Town Song
Updated: Sep 29
The Story Behind “Hilo Town”
Earlier this year, my wife Amy got a three-month travel assignment at the hospital in Hilo.
Of course, Hilo is just a plane ride away from Honolulu about a 35- to 45-minute flight
so I knew I’d be going back and forth sometimes to visit, bring our daughter over to see her mom while she was working, and things like that.
What I didn’t expect was that Hilo would end up inspiring me to start writing music again.
The first time I came over was with Amy to help get her settled into the place where she was staying. As soon as I stepped off the plane, it was raining.
Of course.
It’s Hilo. That’s kind of expected.
I remember basically telling myself, Well, that’s just how it is on this side of town.
I had spent a lot of time in Kona when I was younger and even worked over there for a couple of years, so that’s actually where the whole “this side of town” idea came from.
As I spent more time in Hilo, though, I started noticing other things.
Hilo is obviously much smaller than Honolulu, and things move at a different pace here. That actually took some adjusting for me. Everywhere I went, people seemed to be moving at their own pace.
It wasn’t a bad thing at all. It was just something Amy and I weren’t used to.
Whether it was picking up food, driving somewhere, or just going about your day, everything seemed to move a little slower. Even the people on the road seemed more courteous.
At first, I had to adjust to it.
But somewhere in that process of slowing down and learning to go with the flow, something started changing.
“Forced” probably isn’t the right word, but the lifestyle here almost makes you slow down. Things are a little more laid-back and a little more chill, and it gives you time to process things and think a little differently.
Some of that probably just comes from being somewhere different, too. Whenever you travel or change your environment, it can change your mindset a little bit.
But while I was here, I started learning not to be in such a rush. Not to rush through traffic. Not to worry so much about how quickly everything was moving. I just started going with the vibe of Hilo.
The friends we were staying with happened to have a bunch of guitars at their house. I hadn’t brought mine with me because I was only planning to stay for about a week, and I didn’t want the hassle of traveling with it.
So I borrowed one of theirs.
I really only picked it up to pass the time. Amy was working, I had that week off, and I figured I’d play a little guitar.
I wasn’t planning on writing anything.
Actually, I hadn’t really been writing songs at that point. I’ve never liked forcing that process. If the creativity isn’t there, I don’t try to make something happen just because I think I should be writing.
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But one day I randomly picked up that guitar and started writing about what I had been experiencing in Hilo.
The song was simple.
The lyrics weren’t incredibly deep or overly poetic. They were pretty self-explanatory. I was basically writing about the things I had been seeing and experiencing around me.
Then this reggae beat popped into my head.
And it became one of those songs that almost writes itself.
Within about five minutes, most of it was there—the melody, the lyrics, the chorus, the feel of the song.
That became “Hilo Town.”
I like songs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, though, and interestingly enough, I didn't actually finish “Hilo Town” while I was in Hilo.
I wrote the final verse after I went back to Honolulu.
When I stepped back onto that plane to go home, I felt a little different somehow.
I felt more connected to that side of myself again—the part of me that writes music. I was excited about writing songs again and excited to get back into that process.
So in a way, “Hilo Town” ended up being about more than just Hilo.
It came from slowing down enough to notice where I was, what was happening around me, and what that place was bringing out of me.
Hilo was inspirational for me in that way.
And it turns out “Hilo Town” was only the beginning.
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