Born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, PONO’s story began as his mother only 16 and father only 15 years old brought him into the world. PONO is of Filipino, white, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, and Pacific Islander/Hawaiian decent. PONO moved around Hawaii attending a variety of schools until his mother and stepdad decided to move to Southern California so PONO could have a better education. During PONO’s upbringing, his passion for music started to grow as he sang in church each weekend and his love for soul and R&B began. New to Westlake Village, PONO befriended his neighbors Anabel and Jackson Englund. Through their friendship, PONO learned to play the piano and began to understand how to express himself honestly through music. During 8th grade, PONO met Luke Hubbard who also happened to be extremely passionate about music. As fate has it, Anabel Englund as well as Luke Hubbard (Christopher), PONO’s first friends in California, have made music their profession as well. During 8th grade, PONO’s family moved to Singapore and PONO moved in with his stepbrother in Westlake. High school began and PONO moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents, he then moved to Hong Kong to live with his mother and step-dad and then back to Southern California (Laguna Beach) to finish high school. After graduation, Luke called up PONO out of the blue to start working on music together. Without hesitation, PONO moved into Luke’s house the day after graduation. As they started working together, PONO began producing and engineering for Luke. PONO continued working with Luke even when Luke got signed to a major label. PONO performed on stage as Luke’s hype man and together they created the TMRW Gang. Realizing he wanted to make music his career, PONO attended the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. He graduated in 2013 with a degree in Audio Engineering, mixing and mastering. PONO is currently focused on creating his first mixtape while producing and engineering other talented artists projects on the side. Through PONO’s rocky upbringing and constant moves around the world, he learned a lot about himself, found inspiration in each place he lived, found love in each person he met, and found music to be his greatest form of expression in this hectic world.