“South Pacific pocket soul meets Motown revival” is one of the ways Stephen Henderson describes his music. The singer-songwriter hails from Hāna, Maui, and brings a perspective to his music informed by family, love and grief.
Henderson is one of the artists featured in HPR’s Live From the Atherton Celebrate808 concert series, which kicks off this weekend and runs through November.
The Conversation spoke with Henderson after he performed a new song, “Where’s the water flowing?”
As a young kid, Henderson learned how to sing in falsetto and yodel from different family mentors. He told HPR that he understood what music meant from his father, who managed a band, The Jets, in the '90s.
"It was really a model, I think, for me, to really learn what it felt like to pursue music with people you love, and also the challenges that can come along with that as well," Henderson said.
"I think probably the last big formative thing for me, their musicianship was like, just unbelievably high, and so they were always practicing. So it was a very, very inspiring time for me as a kid to just learn what that felt like."
Over the last few decades, Henderson has explored new genres and drawn influence from different artists, continuing to tell stories through his music and songwriting.
"A common thread is always story, and for me, like, especially stories that are are unique to my life and unique to the perspectives that I have as a Native Hawaiian, as a middle child, someone who's lost two parents to cancer, who has two kids, who the third on its way, who's felt what it was like to grow it up in Hawaiʻi, be Hawaiian, go away, come back," he said.
"All of those themes, I think, show up very deeply in my music, and in a lot of ways, are my ways of being able to just journal, archive some of the most precious moments and deeper learnings that I have as I'm experiencing them in real time."
Henderson will be performing in HPR's Atherton Studio on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. Find ticket information here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Nov. 13, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
