Happy Hawleydays! Fans Celebrate 10 Years of Hawaii: Part II
In 2012, Joe would tease a link to a website on his personal Twitter page: HawaiiPartII.com.
On 09/11/12, any fans who payed a pre-order on this mysterious website were greeted to a new song from a brand new project called ミラクルミュージカル [Miracle Musical], it was to be Joe’s first post-Tally Hall hiatus musical project since Good & Evil, and on this day, the website changed to an image of some text saying “Hawaii: Part II” and a countdown. It was counting down to 12/12/12…
If you clicked through, a pre-order would open up, allowing you to pre-order something called “Hawaii: Part II (Musical)” for $7.77. and the song that you would get, was Variations On A Cloud.
When the big day rolled around (literally), on 12/12/12, Hawaii: Part II by ミラクルミュージカル was released. And the world hasn’t been the same since.
Later, the album would be re-released on digital streaming services, as well as two other projects: Hawaii: Part II Part ii, an album of instrumentals and demos from the original album.
As well as ‘Hawaii partii‘, a chiptune version of the album, which was released alongside a standalone indie game based on one of the tracks!
Today, a decade since it’s initial release, fans the world over are still paying tribute to this project and it’s album.
Fellow Hidden In The Sand author Caitlin Hsu undertook a mighty project titled ‘Hawaii: Part X‘, which is a multimedia website showcasing fan art, music, and words of how the music had inspired them. It’s a fantastically curated online multimedia museum! I highly suggest you give it some of your time:
In 2020, a group of likeminded fans got together to pay tribute to Hawaii: Part II by covering the album in full, in various genres, styles, and instrumentations. The project was titled Keep It Coming Back. Spearheaded by musician ‘Demofield‘, the project was undertaken completely online, making use of file sharing websites and communication via Discord servers. All proceeds were to go to Coz’s Heart Fund. The project was a testament to the power of the interconnected digital world, coming together to achieve something for a greater good. The project launched on 12/12/20 with my own cover of Time Machine being submitted (The cover had just previously won a contest put together by Joe Hawley, and the winner was announced on Tree Town Sound).
Today, 2 years later, another video was uploaded to the Project’s YouTube channel, titled And Coming Back. This would contain Instrumentals, demos, and other extras from the project:
Tally Halloween was an artwork-a-day project spearheaded by Bek, which inspired and produced Tally Hall related fan-art every day throughout October! And today she uploaded a beautifully haunting cover of Stranded Lullabye, akin to a siren song:
Lighthouse Anthology are a production team specialising in manga and comic dubs, however, through sheer love and passion for the album, the team got together and covered Hawaii: Part II in it’s entirety, including ‘Variations on a Cloud’! Their cover project happens to share the same name as Caitlin’s aforementioned multimedia project, though they are unrelated. Great minds think alike! 🧠
There are far too many passionate and creative endevours that are inspired by, or make reference to Hawaii: Part II, to list here. I’ve retweeted a number of them over on the Hidden In The Sand Twitter, and every single one has been crafted with admiration for a project that has only gotten bigger and better in the decade since it’s release.
But the story does not end here!
Earlier this year, on Good Friday, SoCal Jesus came to us, and delivered confirmation that Hawaii: Part II would be re-issued on vinyl!
And tonight the ミラクルミュージカル Twitter announced that they were working on making lenticular cover art for a double disc edition, of Hawaii: Part II:
Disc ii [sic] is confirmed to have instrumentals, as well as ‘Variations On A Cloud’
We don’t know yet if the discs in question will be CDs or Vinyl! Though a vinyl repress is confirmed, we don’t know when!
What do you hope it will be?
Leave a comment!
Banner art by: @m0regano
absolutely thrilled to frame the new cover art when it’s out
wow ten years old and still holding up today