Sean Cleland
Bio
Sean Cleland is a 2021 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Nominee and 2019 Award winner for "Alternative Album of the Year." As a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist based out of Honolulu, Hawai'i, he is described as an "innovative singer-songwriter and prolific performer who plays pop, rock, and soul" by The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. His music can, in one moment, be reflective and refined, and in the next, fiery and emotional. Blending a hooky pop-songwriting aesthetic with the raw emotion of his electric guitar, Sean traverses and synthesizes the furious passion of rock and blues with the sultry sounds of r&b, jazz, and soul.
In Honolulu, Hawai`i, Sean was born but was raised for most of his life in the northern California wine country. He is Hawaiian-Chinese and Scots-Irish/English.
Sean began playing music at the age of 13 and has never looked back. First, he attended college in southern California, earning a degree in philosophy and anthropology while playing and honing what he knew to be his primary passion - music. Then, after a life-changing backpacking trip across Europe and parts of North Africa, he returned to the islands in 2009 and immediately felt a deep connection to his Hawaiian heritage as he began to develop his music career in earnest.