Scott Katsura composed and performed the original “Island Man” song in January of 1993 to commemorate the 100 year centennial for the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. The song was recorded and produced in New Jersey, but debuted on KCCN FM, the number one Hawaiian radio station in the State of Hawai'i. In 1999, Scott became a transplanted Hawai'i local living in Manhattan now for a full decade – he decided to celebrate his 10 year anniversary since moving away by giving back to various communities throughout the islands back home. Scott traveled to six islands – Oahu, Big Island, Maui, Kaua'i, Moloka'i and Lana'i to perform and speak to over 60,000 students in 43 different schools. He reached grade levels that ranged from kindergarten to seniors in high school. Scott even spoke to the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. In the midst of Scott's school tour, he also performed and spoke at nursing homes, children hospitals, the Hawai'i Humane Society and to 1600 inmates at a prison, just to name a few of his charity appearances. In addition, Scott was featured in many television, radio and print media outlets - one in being a popular magazine with an interview conducted by an old friend from Scott's childhood days. As they interacted, the interviewer mentioned her likes of “Island Man” but suggested that Scott do a remake of the song to make it even better. Immediately following the interview, this old friend connected Scott to another good friend of hers – Kirk Thompson of the legendary group, Kalapana. Mackey Feary, the famous lead singer of Kalapana was promised to appear on “Island Man” if Scott agreed to do the remake with them. As they say, the rest is history. This collaboration was even sweeter in being that Mackey was always Scott's #1 singing idol and inspiration as he grew up on the islands. Kirk agreed to produce “Island Man” in addition to a cover song titled, “Don't Laugh At Me” as originally performed by country artist, Mark Wills. As Mackey was facing certain legalities during the time frame of this recording production, it was no more than one week later when he was sentenced to ten years in prison. No more than a few weeks after sentencing, Mackey was found lifeless in his jail cell at the age of 43. “Island Man” and “Don't Laugh At Me” became Mackey Feary's very last professional recordings in his music career. On both tracks, Mackey sings background vocals, while performing and arranging the acoustic guitar parts. “DON'T LAUGH AT ME” Written by: Allan Shamblin, Steve Seskin Built on Rock Music-Sony / ATV Tunes LLC DBA Publishing Co. / David Aaron Music, ASCAP Produced, Recorded, Arranged & Mixed: Kirk K. Thompson Bass: Kirk K. Thompson Featured Lead Guitar: Mackey Feary Acoustic/Electric Guitars: Jerry Steelfox Percussion: Bobo Butires Background Vocals: Mackey Feary Digital Editing: Carlos Villalobos @ The Red Room, Honolulu, HI Mastered: Tony Hugar @ Audio Resource Hawai'i, Honolulu, HI Recorded at: Spectrum Recording, Honolulu, HI SCOTT KATSURA grew up in Hawaii on the island of Oahu before he relocated to New Jersey and became housemates with Evelyn Champagne King - the legendary r&b soul singer. Eventually, Scott decided it was in his best interest to live directly in the pulse of the music business, so he moved into Manhattan and continued to pursue his lifelong dream of working in the recording industry. Living in the heartbeat of the Empire State, Scott found many golden opportunities of improving his skills as a pop vocalist, songwriter and music industry colleague. His first venture was networking his way into Prime Cuts Studio in Times Square, and collaborating with Mark Kamins, the veteran record producer that is most known for discovering Madonna. It was Mark that first placed Scott onto the 'music industry' map by producing his first pop/dance CD album titled, "Eruption". Tracks like "Penetration" received great praise from prominent music critics like Larry Flick of Billboard Magazine who wrote, "Katsura has a fine voice and writes great pop tunes." "Supernatural" followed - his second CD with an adult contemporary/pop flavor. The album was produced by Grammy recipient Cynthia Daniels, and Tony "Thunder" Smith, whose notoriety most derives from being the core drummer for Lou Reed. The title-track "Supernatural" scored Scott a #1 single in the U.K for four consecutive weeks. Latin-freestyle legend and producer Mickey Garcia of MicMac and 21st Century Records, and club dance producer/DJ Giuseppe D. of Hothead Productions used their funky beats to produce Scott’s club - dance - pop CD, “Family Jewel”, his third worldwide CD release. Scott made his mark with many club-goers as they pounded on dance floors with hit tracks like “Love & Sex”, “Single Tonight”, “Partygirl” and “Best Day Of My Life”. On his fourth album, Scott took a shot at producing himself for the very first time. He was committed to and diligent about implementing his Hawaiian island roots into his professional work. Scott collaborated selectively with people who shared the same passion for "Aloha Miles Away", musical theatre singer/composer David Velarde and Grammy nominated jazz pianist/composer Martin Bejerano. "Aloha Miles Away" is the winner of 'Pop Album of the Year' at the 2005 Hawaii Music Awards. Scott's CD, "Born This Way", was his fifth international recording. Showing the ability to produce a successful album on "Aloha Miles Away", once again, Scott had chosen to produce this adult contemporary - pop - dance - rock CD in collaboration with his musical partner, Martin Bejerano. Together, they created a lyrically 'humanistic' anthem CD that is musically crossing many borders. There was also some controversy about the CD's title when Lady GaGa had announced publicly that "Born This Way" would be the title of her forthcoming CD in 2011. Currently, Scott has released his highly anticipated "Greatest Hits - Volume One" CD with great merit. The album contains 15 tracks taken from his "Eruption" "Supernatural" "Family Jewel" "Aloha Miles Away" "Born This Way" and his most recent "Heavenly Reign" CD-album.