David Yamasaki
In A Christmas Wish, Hawaiian guitarist David Yamasaki joins Robert Shinoda and Shoji Ledward to reimagine holiday classics through intimate acoustic arrangements, blending warmth, musical friendship, and heartfelt tributes.
1. Your new album, A Christmas Wish, offers a warm and intimate interpretation of beloved holiday classics through the interplay of three guitarists. What inspired you to create a Christmas album centered around acoustic guitar, and what did you hope to bring to these familiar compositions?
Christmas in Hawaii doesn’t look like the Christmas cards — no snow, no fireplaces. It’s warm evenings, family, good food, people you love. I wanted a record that sounds like that: intimate and unhurried. And the guitar is my voice. Three guitars together can do everything — melody, harmony, rhythm — while staying personal and close. These are songs everyone knows, so I tried to play them honestly, without dressing them up too much.
2. You recorded the album in Honolulu alongside guitarists Robert Shinoda and Shoji Ledward. How did this collaboration come together, and how did each musician’s individual style contribute to the arrangements and overall atmosphere of the recording?
Robert Shinoda and Shoji Ledward are both wonderful players, well known in the guitar world. We got together through organized jams I put together at the Musicians’ Union — just players getting in a room and playing. What I love about the trio is the conversation. With three guitars, nobody has to carry everything — the melody stays out front where it belongs, and the rest is listening and answering. Robert and Shoji each bring their own touch, and you can hear that give-and-take across the whole record.
3. The title track, composed by Aaron Aranita and featuring vocalist Rachel Gonzales, explores themes of absence, longing, hope, and peace. What drew you to this original composition, and why did you feel it was the right piece to open the album and give it its title?
Aaron Aranita was a dear friend of mine who passed last November, and “A Christmas Wish” is his song. Recording it felt like the right way to honor him — and the song says everything the album is about: missing someone, but also hope and peace. Opening the record with it and naming the album after it just felt right. Rachel Gonzales sings it beautifully. Her voice has exactly the tenderness that song needs.
4. The tracklist moves between playful selections like “Frosty the Snowman,” reflective pieces such as “A Child Is Born,” and timeless melodies like “Silent Night” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” How did you approach arranging these songs to preserve their emotional character while giving them a fresh musical identity?
The melody is the boss. Everybody knows these songs, so if you lose the melody, you lose the listener. I kept every tune singable and let the harmony and rhythm do the coloring around it. “Frosty the Snowman” gets to be playful because the song is playful; “Silent Night” and “A Child Is Born” need room to breathe. The freshness really comes from the trio itself — three guitars in conversation is a texture people don’t expect from Christmas music, so even the most familiar melody lands a little differently.
5. Throughout your career, you’ve worked with remarkable artists including Tito Puente, Wayne Wallace, Sheila E., and the Pete Escovedo Orchestra. How have these diverse musical experiences influenced your approach to guitar playing, and which elements of that background can listeners hear in A Christmas Wish?
Those years taught me about feel — how a groove breathes, how to lock in with percussion, when to play and when to leave space. Tito, Wayne, Sheila, the Escovedo family — that’s a deep school of rhythm. Even on a quiet guitar record, it’s there in the time feel, in the way the three of us move together. And Latin music carries so much warmth and joy — I think some of that spirit found its way into this album.
6. With A Christmas Wish arriving just ahead of the holiday season, what do you hope listeners will feel when they experience the album? And beyond this release, are there any new collaborations, recordings, or musical directions you’re particularly excited to explore?
I hope it makes people feel warm — like they’re right there with the people they love. Christmas music is really about togetherness, and if this record becomes part of someone’s holiday, that’s everything to me. Beyond this, I’m looking forward to playing these tunes live this December, and I’m exploring a vinyl pressing of the album. The guitar community here in Hawaii is full of wonderful players, so there’s always something new brewing.