To Belong: Conversation with Isabeau Waia'u Walker

In this episode we speak with Portland based multicultural Kānaka Maoli singer songwriter, Isabeau Waia'u Walker. Originally from Wailuku, Maui, Isabeau is a firm believer in the power of stories shared through song and aims to address the mind and heart in everything she creates. Her voice, her lyrics, her melodies and harmonies are both raw and refined, intimate yet relatable, memorable and haunting. In this conversation Isabeau shares her relationship to place—how growing up on Maui surrounded by music through family, school and extended community impacted her own style of songwriting and shed light onto her originality and different way of approaching the craft. She shares about moving off island to Portland Oregon and her experiences of balancing being a teacher and a recording artist. We talk about the various themes in her two albums to date, her first full length album, Body, and her most recent record, Heavyweight, which was released in October of 2025. We end the chat with some solid tips for the creative toolkit and she shares with us the phrase “con placer” or “with pleasure”, a sentiment imparted to her by one of her musician friends and a reminder to always enjoy the process of creativity. Isabeau reminds us that success is subjective, and urges artists to always follow your own map of what success means for you.Featured song: Wahine by Isabeau Waia'u Walker from the album HeavyweightMore about the latest album, Heavyweight:Heavyweight is personal; the soundtrack for a heavy heart shored up with gratitude and tenderness. It is a gentle hand over yours, a head resting lightly on your shoulder, a mutual scream into the abyss. Isabeau writes to satisfy an internal tension. Her music is Bright Gloom, joy adjacent songs and stories from The Land of Broken and Demented Toys. Recorded by Ryan Oxford at The Center for Sound, Light, and Color in Portland, Oregon, Heavyweight owns up to flaws, admits to confusion and confesses failure but it is not a surrender. In contrast to her previous LP, Body, these songs are her individual bout with love, sacrifice and loss.  It is the wily smile and bruised cheekbone still standing in the next round; the bottoming out and a heartfelt, heartfull return. Heavyweight marks the first time Isabeau has recorded a project with a band, with her band of weird and talented brothers. Having the whole gang present throughout the process made room for real time collaboration. Her songs found their most mature form in her band community. Ryan and Isabeau have carved out a new groove in their artistic alliance and their friendship hosts a safe space to orchestrate songs as they mean to be. She is a lyric forward songwriter with stories reminding that while the worst has happened it didn’t take you out…if anything, it emboldened your heart, your love, your resolve. You are now sharper while more tender. Heavyweight is personal, but for all who have met grief. Heavyweight is hers, but also yours. These songs can hold your weight. “Take your heaviness / and give it back to the earth’s own weight / the mountains are heavy, the oceans are heavy.” - Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Poetry of Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus