Aidan James Laprete Powell (born September 6, 2001) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer.

Early life

Laprete was born on September 6, 2001, in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. Laprete's first time acting was at the age of 18 months in a TV pilot, "The Break". He continued to do commercials as a child. Laprete started playing the

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

at age four, and started to sing at age eight. He started performing at age six in children's groups at local ukulele festivals.

Musical style

The ukulele, played as a pop instrument rather than in traditional Hawaiian style, is his trademark. He has said, "I want to be able to show the ukulele to everybody and be able to show that you can do anything with it." After rebranding to Laprete from Aidan James in 2020, he changed his sound completely, now being labeled as

alternative pop Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

music with

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

, hip hop, ambient, and

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop, R&B, and jungle. It ...

influences. His influences include

Jon Bellion Jonathan David Bellion (born December 26, 1990) is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. He was born and raised in Lake Grove, New York on Long Island. He is best known for his song "All Time Low," along with his writing and producing cred ...

The 1975 The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in 2002 in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Now based in Manchester, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew "Matty" Healy, lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and drummer ...

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...

Jai Paul Jai Paul is an English songwriter, record producer and recording artist. His early demo "BTSTU" led to his online discovery and a subsequent recording contract with XL Recordings. Together with its follow-up "Jasmine", these songs have been reg ...

, and

Sevdaliza Sevda Alizadeh (; born 1 September 1987), known professionally as Sevdaliza, is an Iranian-Dutch singer, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and director. In 2015, she released two EPs, ''The Suspended Kid'' and ''Children of Silk''. Whi ...

. In live performances, James uses a

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

RC-300 to create loops live on the spot, Roland SPD-SX to trigger samples,

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Ableton Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool ...

, and TC Helicon's Voicelive 3 for

and

singing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or with ...

effects.

Career

At age eight, Laprete performed the song " Hey Soul Sister" by

Train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

at the 2010 Ukulele Festival. On July 19, 2010, a video of this performance was uploaded by "elrollo79" onto YouTube. The video quickly went viral and has received over twenty million views. The video got the attention of a number of popular artists, among them Jack Johnson and Mick Fleetwood as well as Train's Pat Monahan who is reported to have called it his favorite cover version of the song. Jack Johnson asked James to be a part of the 2010 Kokua Festival. James played at the keiki stage at the festival. In 2010, Laprete was approached by producer and creator of the 2010 remake of '' Hawaii Five-0'',

Peter Lenkov Peter M. Lenkov (born 9 May 1964) is a Canadian television and film writer, producer, and comic book author. He is best known as the showrunner of the reboot series '' Hawaii Five-0'', ''MacGyver'', and '' Magnum P.I.'', all of which aired on CBS ...

, and was asked to be on an episode of the program. He was featured in episode 5, Season 1 singing " Hey Soul Sister". Laprete can be seen in Train's music video for their song ''

Mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes ass ...

'', which was filmed in Honolulu. The video premiered on February 27, 2013. In 2014, Laprete released his first single under the artist name Aidan James, "One of the Ones", with Nashville composer Jeff Dayton. The single was recorded at Island Sound Studios in

and was produced by Gaylord Holomalia. He went on a solo tour independently to the east and west coast promoting his single. In

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, he performed on the steps of the Capitol Hill and did a private performance at the

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

Headquarters. Laprete's debut EP, ''Live Again'' was released on December 25, 2014. The EP consists of 4 tracks. It was reviewed in local magazine ''

MidWeek ''MidWeek'' is a weekly United States tabloid shopper and advertisement periodical published in Honolulu, Hawaii and distributed throughout the Islands of Oahu and Kauai. It is owned by Black Press and is a sister publication of the '' Honol ...

'', with Bill Mossman saying: "The four-song album represents James's maiden voyage into unchartered waters as a fast-maturing artist. His voice is deeper and more refined, while his playing chops are rhythmically and tastefully on fleek (as teenagers his age might say). And although the cuteness factor is still present on the album, thanks to his pop rock-friendly melodies, James's growth as a musician can be heard in his burgeoning songwriting abilities". A Hawaiian magazine,

, did a cover story on Laprete titled "How Aidan James Became One of Earth's Mightiest Heroes". The story was about him being featured in HBO's documentary, Saving My Tomorrow. Laprete's debut album under the name Aidan James, ''Echoes'' was released on December 1, 2015. He joined the lineup for

's 2016 Sail Across the Sun cruise, along with

Phillip Phillips Phillip LaDon Phillips Jr. (born September 20, 1990) Note: An inaccurate birthdate (Sept. 29, 1990) and birthplace (Leesburg, Georgia) appear in is an American singer-songwriter who rose to fame after winning the eleventh season of ''Americ ...

Michael Franti Michael Franti (born April 21, 1966) is an American rapper, musician, poet, activist, documentarian, and singer-songwriter, known for his participation in many musical projects, most with a political and social emphasis, including the Beatnigs ...

Andy Grammer Andrew Charles Grammer (born December 3, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is signed to S-Curve Records. His debut album, '' Andy Grammer'', was released in 2011 and spawned the singles " Keep Your Head Up" and " F ...

, and

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer * Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse * Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...

. Laprete was interviewed by

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

and 3 of his music videos were featured at Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series in Central Park on July 22, 2016. On March 29, 2017, Laprete was featured on an episode of HBO's '' Saving My Tomorrow''. Laprete released the single, "What My Friends Talk About" on December 8, 2017, with distribution from

Create Music Group Create Music Group is an independent American music distribution and publishing company founded in 2015 by Jonathan Strauss and Alexandre Williams. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company provides music distribution ...

. On May 18, 2018, the single "Casanova", a collaboration between James and

Chosen Jacobs Chosen Jacobs (born July 1, 2001) is an American actor and singer best known for his recurring role as Will Grover on the CBS television series '' Hawaii Five-0'' and his role as Mike Hanlon in the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King novel ...

, was released. It was written and produced by James and Jacobs. In 2019, he produced and co-wrote the album, ''Head To Head'' by singer Grayson. The EP was released on May 10, 2019, on ''One Half Records''. The project features production and writing from Laprete. ''Head To Head'' received support from outlets including ''Billboard'', calling the single a "synth pop jam". Aidan changed his artist name to Laprete in August 2019. On August 23, 2019, the single "Ina" was released. The EP, "Sanguine", was released on July 31, 2020. Laprete has appeared in a variety of TV shows and films including '' Chad'', ''

Everything's Gonna Be Okay ''Everything's Gonna Be Okay'' is an American comedy television series created by Australian comedian Josh Thomas. Thomas previously created, wrote, directed and starred in the semi-autobiographical award-winning series ''Please Like Me''. ''Ev ...

'', '' Alexa and Katie'', and ''

Under the Blood Red Sun ''Under the Blood Red Sun'' is a historical novel by Graham Salisbury, published in 1995. An award-winning feature film by Japanese-American director Tim Savage and produced by Dana Satler Hankins, from a screenplay by Salisbury, was released in ...

''. In 2022, Laprete played the role of Henry Tanaka in the second season of the Amazon Prime Video series, '' The Wilds''.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Official Site

YouTube Video
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laprete, Aidan 2001 births Living people 21st-century American singers American child singers American male singer-songwriters Hawaiian ukulele players People from Honolulu 21st-century American male singers Singer-songwriters from Hawaii