Biography
From: http://koreionz.com/about-2/At a 2007 music showcase at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West
Seattle, while doing a solo cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,”
Hawai’i-born singer-songwriter Daniel Pak felt a
mystical energy from a man standing in the audience who had performed
earlier that day with Senegalese master drummer Thione Diop. Ahkeenu Musa
introduced himself to Pak, asking if he performed with a band. Pak said
he was working on a project called Kore Ionz, and that they were
looking for a percussionist.
Half-hour Revolution was self-released at Neumos in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in July 2008, with the addition of Brendan DeMelle on bass, a recommendation by local drummer David “Davee C” Carpenter.
A few months later, Pak received a call from Bali by Franklin Joyce, a
former mentor for The Service Board and founder of laptop sleeve design
company ElectricBaby: ”I made some new stickers for TSB,” Joyce said,
“and I’m sending them to you with Teo…Teo Shantz.”
Upon delivery of the stickers, Pak asked Shantz, drummer for
internationally renown steel drum band Bakra Bata’ since age fourteen,
if he wanted to sit in with Kore Ionz at their slots for
Eek-A-Mouse and the Original Wailers. Shantz continued to sit in through
2009, performing with the band at Bumbershoot, Seattle Weekly’s REVERB,
the King County Juvenile Detention Center, and a short tour through
Eastern Washington and Idaho, ending the year with a permanent seat as
the band’s drummer.
Right after Bumbershoot, Pak made a call to longtime friend and collaborator Kiley Sullivan,
originally from Kailua, Hawai’i, to the band on the keys. Having
performed professionally together in college, the fit was natural and
the Kore Ionz lineup was complete.
With Owuor Arunga and Izaak Mills on trumpet and tenor sax, and Mark Oi and Thaddeus Turner on lead guitar, the band ed forces with Mell Dettmer (Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band) at Aleph Studios in April 2010 to record the next album.
Since 2008 Kore Ionz has performed with The Wailers, Third World,
Katchafire, Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band, and Eek-A-Mouse,
as well as opening for two-time Grammy award winner Common.
Seattle, while doing a solo cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,”
Hawai’i-born singer-songwriter Daniel Pak felt a
mystical energy from a man standing in the audience who had performed
earlier that day with Senegalese master drummer Thione Diop. Ahkeenu Musa
introduced himself to Pak, asking if he performed with a band. Pak said
he was working on a project called Kore Ionz, and that they were
looking for a percussionist.
Half-hour Revolution was self-released at Neumos in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in July 2008, with the addition of Brendan DeMelle on bass, a recommendation by local drummer David “Davee C” Carpenter.
A few months later, Pak received a call from Bali by Franklin Joyce, a
former mentor for The Service Board and founder of laptop sleeve design
company ElectricBaby: ”I made some new stickers for TSB,” Joyce said,
“and I’m sending them to you with Teo…Teo Shantz.”
Upon delivery of the stickers, Pak asked Shantz, drummer for
internationally renown steel drum band Bakra Bata’ since age fourteen,
if he wanted to sit in with Kore Ionz at their slots for
Eek-A-Mouse and the Original Wailers. Shantz continued to sit in through
2009, performing with the band at Bumbershoot, Seattle Weekly’s REVERB,
the King County Juvenile Detention Center, and a short tour through
Eastern Washington and Idaho, ending the year with a permanent seat as
the band’s drummer.
Right after Bumbershoot, Pak made a call to longtime friend and collaborator Kiley Sullivan,
originally from Kailua, Hawai’i, to the band on the keys. Having
performed professionally together in college, the fit was natural and
the Kore Ionz lineup was complete.
With Owuor Arunga and Izaak Mills on trumpet and tenor sax, and Mark Oi and Thaddeus Turner on lead guitar, the band ed forces with Mell Dettmer (Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band) at Aleph Studios in April 2010 to record the next album.
Since 2008 Kore Ionz has performed with The Wailers, Third World,
Katchafire, Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band, and Eek-A-Mouse,
as well as opening for two-time Grammy award winner Common.