Aura Bora Photo credit: Jhune Liwanag
Raw, cheeky, and kick-you-in-the-face fun, Jhune Liwanag has a voice that’s made for DIY stages and teeming pits. Which is why it’s a shock that until she formed her Hawai’i-based indie-punk band Aura Bora in 2016, Liwanag was too scared to get on stage.
Lucky for all of us, though, she tamped down those nerves with the help of the band’s current lineup (Joey Green, drums; Ed Panen, producer/guitarist; Will Adair, bass) and busted out a searing suite of songs called Welcome to Heck.
“I thought of it as a way to succinctly summarize lessons that I’ve learned through interpersonal follies,” Liwanag says of the record. “Being honest about trying and failing. I hope that it will help people feel less alone or afraid to do something they want to do.”
Speaking of afraid, although Liwanag grew up majorly fixated on music (Rilo Kiley, Belle and Sebastian, The Magnetic Fields), she never really saw herself playing in front of an audience. Instead, she spent years organizing and photographing shows and leading a collective called Failed Orbit Records, which formed to elevate the eclectic Hawai’i music scene. No cliques on the island — every genre mixes and mingles with aplomb. After meeting Green (a hardcore kid), Liwanag launched Aura Bora in 2016, dropping two albums, Yeah She Seems Cool and Was, before the band dissolved in 2017 due to new jobs and life changes.
“But, in 2021, we got asked to open for Otoboke Beaver. I just took it as a sign to try again,” Liwanag says. They also opened for Alvvays in 2023 and scored a Bandcamp writeup. High on momentum, the band started working on their new EP in 2024, recording in a hotel-turned-office building in a studio called the Spaghetti Shack. There, they churned out five personal-yet-powerful tracks, such as lead single “I Wanna.” The chugging, sing-song breakup anthem is a finger in the eye to any exes who try to change you.
About the single, Liwanag tells The Big Takeover,
“‘I Wanna’ is a love letter to myself, born out of years of looking for answers and validation outside of me, only to realize the hardest and most necessary work is learning to love myself. For most of my life, I’ve worried about how my actions might affect someone I was romantically interested in—often to the point of losing sight of what I actually wanted. The song began when I was younger, bitter, and still blaming others for heartbreaks. But as it evolved, it became less about pointing fingers and more about acknowledging my own role in the lessons I’ve had to learn. To me, songs are like mile markers of personal growth, and this one is a meditation on self-awareness, self-compassion, and what I truly seek in both love and in myself.
Recording this track felt deeply personal because it happened in a space that has held so many of my growing pains—the old Blaisdell Hotel in Chinatown, now home to our DIY studio. There’s a particular intimacy in creating music in a place where so many of my life lessons have unfolded, and working with Eduard, our producer and guitarist, made it even more honest and grounding. This band has given me a safe, nonjudgmental space to reflect, stumble, and learn. “I Wanna” carries that energy: raw, imperfect, and searching, but ultimately hopeful that in learning to care for ourselves, we learn to love others better too.”
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