Born Patrick Kolomona Pamatigan, in semi-secluded He‘eia Kea, just outside of Kāne‘ohe, I grew up unlike most entertainers in Hawai‘i.  I grew up in a non-musical family.  My dad was in construction, asphalt paving, and my mom worked in the cafeteria at He‘eia Elementary School.  None of my 3 older brothers or my older sister was musically inclined.  When I was young, I didn’t have even an uncle or aunty that played music.  Instead, my exposure to music was radio, a few records and an occasional party where music was played.  With no instruments lying around the house to experiment with, I spent most of my time outside of the house playing in the Kahalu‘u hills or swimming and fishing in Kāne‘ohe bay.

Once when I was real young, I was at a small family party.  I remember watching an impromptu back yard jam and the joy on the faces of everyone who were there.  I’m not sure if it was the “Primo”, the music, the good friends, the family or all of the above.  I just remembered everybody was having a good time.  Thinking back, that might have been when I fell in love with music.

If remember correctly, when I was still in elementary, my brother found a broken ‘ukulele that someone threw away.  My dad fixed it and it became the starting point of music in the Pamatigan house.  My brother, Ervin, started playing with my cousin’s Polynesian dance group and my other brother, Nat played at Paradise Park with the Paradise Park Serenaders.  Soon after, my brothers, Ervin and Nat, and I started playing music at family parties.  I quickly learned that playing music was even better than listening to music.

In 1978, when Nat was a senior and I was a freshman at Kamehameha, we played at the Senior Variety Show, a student talent show featuring seniors.  Nat played guitar and I played the uke.  We played two songs, Days of my youth by Kui Lee and Kawika by Sunday Manoa.  As Nat and I sat on stools, with the spotlights glaring, the smell of our pua kenikeni lei and the audience screaming I said to myself, “This is cool.  I can get used to this.”  And with that, I was hooked.  It wasn’t just listening to music.  It wasn’t just playing music.  It was playing good music, on stage, in front of an audience, making people feel good.

In 1981, my senior year at Kamehameha, I became a part of the Concert Glee and was a member of the ensemble that played the music for the hula dancers.  Some of my friends played music and danced for Kumu Hula Darrell Lupenui.  After graduation, I too started dancing for and playing music with Darrell Lupenui and The Men of Waimāpuna and one night after hula practice I went with Darrell to see Chinky Mahoe perform at Pacific Marina Inn.  That’s where I met Danny Naipo playing music with Chinky.

While playing music with Danny, I met and married his younger sister Sanoe and became immersed in music and performing.  My wife danced for Chinky’s Hālau Kawaili‘ulā.  Danny’s wife, Tracy, danced at hula shows in Waikīkī.  Danny’s other sister, Leo, was performing in a hula show and she married Kelly Boy Delima from the band Kapena.  My mother and father in law played music at Hawaiian Regent for over 25 years.  It seemed like everyone was performing every weekend.

In 1990, after a promising but unsuccessful regrouping of Naipo Inc., Dan and I started to put together the band to be known as Tropical Knights.  With my cousins, Ernest and Erving Chang, we explored, experimented, and then blended every type of music we could into Tropical Knights.

The first CD, The Quest Begins, included katchi-katchi music, Hawaiian, original contemporary and reggae music as well as a Hawaiian Hymn complete with organ and choir.

The second CD, Tropical Knights, stretched the group’s musical talents by including a four part a cappella original from Danny and two originals from me.  The first song I wrote, Work It, is a hip-hop number complete with rap.  The other number was an original Hawaiian lyric song co-written with Randie Fong called Kolohe Mai Ho‘i Kau.  It was written because of the memories I have of the rascal types of hula I remembered being danced at those impromptu backyard jams.

On the third and last of the Tropical Knights CD, I wrote two more songs.  One was a local style reggae song and the other was another Hawaiian.  The Hawaiian song, co-written with Ekela Kanaiaupio-Crosier, was written for a church owned property in Kahalu‘u.  It describes the natural beauty and spiritual presence I felt the first time I went there.

After the band stopped performing, I continued to perform at The Hilton Hawaiian Villages’ King’s Jubilee Hula show.  The show depicted the music and hula of the King David Kalākaua era.  Over twenty plus years, the show featured many musicians that included Bernard Kalua, Eddie Palama, Mark Yim, Lem Aweau, Clyde Lono, Kimo Bell, Ryan Tang as well as Danny and me.

Over the last few years, I have had the pleasure to perform with Nā Kama.  Danny would ask me to fill in whenever they needed someone to step in.  In 2006, as part of Nā Kama, I got to travel to Japan for the first time.  During that trip, I realized how much I missed playing good Hawaiian music.  I fell back in love with the sound of the up-right bass, twelve stringed guitars and the sweet three-part harmony of the traditional Hawaiian music.
As part of Nā Kama, I look forward extending the heritage of the group and invite everyone to come, see and experience the joy of Hawaiian Music.