THREE HOUSES DOWN
They are known as Three Houses Down, a name that represents their closeness as a band and as family members who grew up in the same neighborhood and now live literally three houses down from the house where they first met and formed their band. They are a 12 member band with an amazing brass section, which molds their uniqueness as a Tongan Reggae group based out of Otara, New Zealand, yet traces their indigenous roots to the Kingdom of Tonga. Their debut album “Dreadtown” is what they would describe as a “pacific interpretation of one of the world’s greatest musical genres—roots reggae”! They continue to win over fans from all over the world with their distinct sound, astounding performances, and their humble personalities. Recently, they won the People’s Choice Award at the Pacific Music Awards for the Best Pacific Artist! They performed for the very first time here in the United States in Anaheim, California as part of the Solkrush “Unity Amongst Our People” Concert.
Planet Tonga sits down with lead vocalist and guitarist, Charlie Pome’e for a one-on-one exclusive…
PT: Wow, that was an amazing performance you all just gave, what has the experience been like for you? Charlie: I can’t even express the way that I feel right now. I mean being able to play along groups that we have always admired like 676 and Kontiki and many others who have influenced us…groups like Mana’o company that we grew up listening to and have inspired us…and so for us its just been a wonderful opportunity to play along side all these great groups and the experience I had tonight…well it has been so overwhelming and humbling!
PT: The audience was definitely feeling your group tonight with everyone chanting “three houses down” over and over! When you are performing and creating music what is it that you want your listeners to get from your music? Charlie: We try to make music that will reach everyone from the young and to the old. Our music is about peace, love and harmony. There is so much that is happening in the world today and so we try to always keep it positive and to send out a positive message through our music…we also never forget our roots, like tonight, no matter where we go we always remember where we come from and try to represent well for our Tongan people.
PT: Speaking of your roots, how do you continue to infuse your Tonganness or Tongan culture into the music you create? Charlie: That’s a tough question and I think we bring it across in everything we do starting from our love of music which comes from my old man back home who exposed us to Tongan music when we were kids…we also sing a couple of Tongan songs because its always good to sing in your own language because so many of our languages today is slowly dying out and so for us to sing in our own language is a good way to maintain our culture…we also try to do as much as we can for our Tongan communities back home by volunteering to help out with our Tongan youth because it was our music that kept us out of trouble and so we always want to give back and I am very proud to be Tongan and I hope that shows in our music because we want to carry our culture with us everywhere we go.
PT: The theme of this concert is “Unity Amongst Our People” as a musician how do you see music uniting us as Pacific peoples? Charlie: Music should touch everyone in some way and we Polynesians we have a lot to offer to the world, for example tonight, every band that performed had heaps to offer and I am sure that we touched other people tonight who love music and maybe some of them have been too scared to make their own music and probably after tonight they will want to do something about that…we as Polynesian people are so talented and we just have so much to offer but the world hasn’t seen it yet but it’s coming and soon they will see just how talented we really are and when it hits the world, Polynesians are going to take over!
PT: What is something about Three Houses Down that you think might surprise your fans? Charlie: I think that some people may look at us and think they were are very old but we are probably one of the youngest bands out there our ages range from 21-30…oh yeah and we are all Tongans!
PT: What do you all do when you are not touring, in the studio or performing? Charlie: Sleep! Sleep! Sleep! We also love to play with all of our nieces and nephews!
PT: Thank you Charlie for taking the time to sit down with us, we wish you much success in all you do! Any final words…. Charlie: Yeah, thank you Planet Tonga for interviewing me and also thanks to Soli and Solkrush for bringing us down here and for giving us this great experience, we will never forge it!!!
3 Houses Down Bebo: http://www.www.bebo.com/3HousesDown 3 Houses Down Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/threehousesdown
Planet Tonga would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the whole Solkrush family (Soli, Bernz, Ralph, and many others) for making this interview possible and for raising the bar when it comes to Pacific Islander Entertainment. ‘Ofa lahi atu
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