Attempting to Decode “Hawaii: Part II”
On December 12th, 2012, at 12:12AM, one of the most complex albums I have ever listened to was released. It was not until recently that my relationship with this album devolved into pure hyperfixation. Like all great pieces of media, this album has lore, and it’s more intricate than I had ever imagined. Hawaii: Part II by ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical) truly is a musical as well as a masterpiece, displaying a melancholic, beautiful, and unique storyline with intense chord structure and particularly biblical language.After a hiatus in 2011, Joe Hawley accompanied by Ross Federman, Bora Karaca, and most of Tally Hall, released the album on 12/12/2012, the last consecutive date for close to 90 years and nine days away from the supposed end of the world phenomenon, which is truly an experience unlike any other. Its interpretation, however, has been up for speculation by fans for over a decade, and it seems no one can come to a definite conclusion. While there are some theories that the majority seem to agree on, I wanted to break down the most common fan theories surrounding Hawaii: Part II and how I might personally interpret this project. Before you continue reading, I encourage you to listen to the album in full, chronologically if you haven’t already. Once you’ve done so you can come back, or follow along song by song. Disclaimer: I have included the full album as a YouTube video in case anyone does not want to support creators such as Joe Hawley, as he is controversial to say the least. I do not want to praise Joe Hawley himself as he has multiple startling allegations against him and I tried to rather focus on the music itself and what the theories about the album’s storyline are.
“Introduction to the Snow”
We begin the album with a song that is beautiful, transformative, and apocalyptic. It opens with blustering winds and a longing voice accompanied by background hums and sparse piano. It’s a short track, and after the conclusion of the lyrics the piano swells into a gorgeous and heart-wrenching forte melody that concludes shortly after. This opening track serves to foreshadow the rest of the album, but through the lyrics it may be evident that this message is coming to us from those in the afterlife, after the story has concluded (“You’ll live forever tonight”). We see mystical imagery in the lyrics and overall tone of the music that make the scene feel otherworldly, heavenly, “Sparkling crystal souls aglow” potentially detailing literal souls in the distance who have passed. “Knows only two can make it light," apparent that two lost lovers’ souls are reunited in the afterlife. There is a pattern of bright lights being brought up in many of the songs, connecting each track to a possible motif that can be explained and explored later on.“Isle Unto Thyself”
The second track introduces the main character of our story, which many know as Simon. Through the lyrics it could be said that he is traveling to an island, presumably Hawaii, and how he experiences love for the first time and wondering if the challenges that come with it (“Love camouflaging under strife”) signify that this feeling is true (“You had a heart you hadn’t felt/Why would it hurt me/Or was it real”). Again we hear lyrics pertaining to a bright light (“Blinding shining star”) described by a woman’s voice. Many believe that the song is about a whale and an octopus dancing together in the ocean, representative of Simon and his lover. This is because of an animation made that, in my opinion, is once again foreshadowing the events to come. In the end, the tone of the song shifts from exciting and fast-paced to slow and heavy, with a voice pondering existential questions about the world (“Why did fire-erupted lands arrive?/Why did murderous animals survive?/Why did we deserve to be revived?/Why was any and everything alive?”). This is my second-favorite song in the album, one of love and new adventures as we explore the vastness of the human experience with one another.“Black Rainbows”
The heavy drums, electric bass, and hypnotizing baritone backup vocals serve to introduce the third song, which is one presenting our main character’s love interest. As far as I have seen, she does not have a name like Simon does. The backup vocals are sung in Hawaiian and they chant the colors of the rainbow, which seems to represent an innocent and positive outlook these characters have towards each other upon meeting for the first time. The most profound lyric in this song would have to be a distant voice singing “Stella octangula." While many believe that the motif of the shape “stella octangula” is not wholly important to the story of the album, I would have to disagree. While it might be difficult to assign a meaning to, every lyric is connected and intentional here. The stella octangula is a confusing shape primarily created by triangular prisms and is quite otherworldly. In some cases, it is said that the stella octangula can be used to “unlock the secrets of the universe” if it is understood. Throughout the album, the characters ponder existentially and attempt to understand death and life altogether, hence trying to unlock the secrets of the universe.
Stella octangula
“White Ball”
A gorgeous duet about love and overcoming the challenges that are associated with it (“Bound by delicate dread”), we arrive at the fourth song. Originally, I heard theories that this was about the relationship between Simon and his lover failing. This could be the case for some depending on how the future songs are interpreted, but I don’t think this is the case based on the lyricism. The lyrics describe what I feel is a pure love between these two people who have had their ups and downs but continue to be in each others’ lives: “I am yours/So please dismiss what they claim about this/Being vain to explain/How expressed with a kiss/Taking passionate steps/Floor suspending abyss/Such impossible bliss." The violins melodically take us through yet more discussion of the afterlife between Simon and his lover, referring to the cover of the album in which there is a moon (the white ball) preceded by a staircase. The two believe this to be heaven (“Round the already dead/Hung by staircase/Up/On and on, the awakening light, will bathe”) and they will happily attend this afterlife hand in hand.“Murders”
With staccato, dramatic, forte piano chords starting off the track, the fifth song on the album might be the most controversial among fans in terms of finding its meaning. There are two main theories that are speculated by fans: Simon is either schizophrenic and kills his lover or he is not schizophrenic and does not kill his lover. Many believe that “Murders” is about Simon’s lover being murdered by an unknown person in the woods, after which Simon finds her and is then found with her body and falsely accused of taking her life. The opposite theory begins the discussion of Simon being mentally ill, in which he actually does kill his lover. Personally, I find the latter to be the most plausible explanation. To start, the most important lyric of the song is towards the beginning, in which the song’s narrator explains, “She found the Erlking (the lover)." The Erlking is a being in European folklore, it is a ghostly entity that kills children in the forest who linger there for too long. In the context of Simon being the murderer, this means that he is the Erlking, or at least partially representative of such. This is primarily evident by the background voice saying “the lover” as it could be calling out Simon for being the one who killed his lover or evidence of schizophrenia as the enemy in this situation.
The Erkling
The lyrics go on to say that “he," likely in reference to Simon, was looking for the “fountain of infinite mirror." After doing my own digging on what this was referring to, I found an explanation linking this “fountain of infinite mirror” to Hawaiian mythology and folklore. While it is hard to sum up in a few sentences, it’s a post worth reading since it gives possible context to a large part of this song, including “Children of God," rainbows, and the middle ground and twilight that Simon sings about (“I was in the middle ground..." “Soon arrived the twilight/Finally the night and day remembered”). I believe this paradox of night and day is indicative of the switch in tone that occurs between “White Ball” and “Murders." Our main character goes from finding the love of his life to having her taken from him, quite possibly by his own hand. The “fountain of infinite mirror” seems to be a place where he wanted to go to relive the past events, except this is where he might have killed his lover (“Looking to find the fountain of infinite mirror/Tree falling, no one would hear/Shadow of nobody there/Murders of murderers living in fear of it”).My favorite line of this song, and perhaps the most haunting, is the very end in which the lyrics cry, “All for nothing at all." This is after a short piano interlude which could be the sequence of events leading up to Simon committing the murder, or at least finding his lover’s body. “All for nothing at all” is delivered in a way that is empty, guilt-ridden, and disappointed. Perhaps this goes back to the paradox mentioned earlier; Simon had this wonderful person in his life that he fought to create everlasting memories with, and now it’s gone. Another theory claims that his lover is the one exclaiming these words as she dies. “宇宙ステーションのレベル (Space Station Level 7)”
As if this score couldn’t get any more confusing, the sixth song is mainly sung in Japanese with one verse in French. It is a more calming and lilting tune, with heavy imagery regarding heaven. This is somewhat obvious since one of the only lyrics sung throughout the entire song in English is the word “Heaven." This could be about Simon’s late lover going to heaven, or Simon’s fantasies about heaven. Since heaven is synonymous with the moon to the characters, it is only fitting that a space station is the destination. The number 7 is referring to the seven layers of heaven made up of outer rings which surround the Earth. This song is therefore connected to “White Ball” and even “Isle Unto Thyself," as the god Apollo is mentioned and is commonly used to name space ships (“I was a victim of magic/Apollo catching my breath as I bled on the ground”). “The Mind Electric”
This is the hardest song on the album for me to listen to because it is incredibly eerie. The eighth track starts off with the entire song in reverse, and it sounds like a group of people murmuring to each other. There are two key events occurring during this song. Firstly is that Simon is on trial for the murder of his lover (“Resident minor, how do you plead?/We’ll need your testimony on the stand/Solemnly swear to tell the whole truth/So help me son, now raise your right hand”) and he pleads guilty of insanity (“Father your honor, may I explain?/My brain has claimed its glory over me/I’ve a good heart albeit insane/Condemn him to the infirmary”). After being sentenced to a mental hospital, Simon is forced to undergo electroshock therapy to treat his alleged mental illness (“Nuns commence incanting as the lightning strikes mine temples thus/Electrifying mine chambers, wholly scorching out thine sovereignty”). This song is a continuation of the events that occur after “Murders." The main dichotomy of this song is whether Simon is actually a victim of insanity or if he’s just pretending to be. My personal theory is that he really is mentally ill and as I had mentioned earlier, suffers from schizophrenia. This is a good explanation for the background voices that seems to inexplicably cut into each of the songs up until now, especially the voices heard throughout “The Mind Electric." Other examples include “the lover” in “Murders” and “Stella octangula” in “Black Labyrinth," just to name a few. On the other hand, Simon may actually not be mentally unstable and only pled guilty because he knew no one would believe he was innocent either way. Regardless, he is tortured in the asylum facing his real-world punishment. From what I have heard, some listeners with schizophrenia have described its potential portrayal in the album to be quite realistic. Similarly, there is an incomplete demo track on the Miracle Musical Bandcamp called “Inside the Mind of Simon," which might be an indication of his mental illness as well as the reason he is called Simon by listeners. “Labyrinth”
The ninth song of the album is probably the most unique in terms of musical genre. It is fast-paced and video game-esque, which is fitting because there existed a Labyrinth video game that contained lore for the album. There are rap verses throughout the song that detail Simon’s eventual descent into madness after electroshock therapy, regardless if he “needed” it or not (“I’m trapped”). Simon is now running from the terrors of his own mind while also being trapped in it. He again speaks of light but this time he’s so far gone that he struggles to obtain it (“The light’s in my sight but I can’t cross these enemy lines”). Through the lyrics it seems as if he is being psychologically haunted by his past (“Behind me my ex-girl’s chasing me/In front of me, my next girl’s facing me”). It is also possible that Simon feels like his time is coming, as he describes being chased by a being who sounds similar to that of the Erlking (“In the rear/I can see the beast getting close/Surrounded by ghosts in a cloud of smoke”). Whether or not Simon was actually insane before being tortured in the mental institution, it is evident now that he is certainly a victim to the abuse he has since endured.“Time Machine”
The tenth track is thankfully the easiest to understand. Simon is either released or escapes from the mental institution (“I’m leaving today, today”) and yearns to relive his past. It seems as though Simon feels like he has sufficiently repented for his sins, assuming that he did actually murder his lover (“Past is passed and rather than regret the old/I can live it back the other way”). He wants to get the time back he has lost to any past mistakes and hardships (“Live the dream in a time machine/You’ve been waiting forever”). What Simon really wants is “Time alone," which is possibly indicative of how he’s been a prisoner in his mind for so many years and wishes to have peace from it. Adversely, the tone switch during this part of the song could mean that he is all alone, meaning it is time to be reunited with his lover in the afterlife. This brings us into our penultimate song…“Stranded Lullaby”
This is my favorite song of the entire album. It is absolutely breathtaking, falsetto melody accompanied by lovely harp. The general interpretation of this song is that after leaving the mental institution, Simon sails on his own out into the ocean and mourns his lover’s death, relaying that he will soon join her in heaven (“I’d like to know why you are all alone while I’m lost at sea/Maybe you’ll be there when you want”). Where Simon has sailed off to, it’s unclear. Maybe he’s leaving Hawaii behind and all of the twisted memories he has of the place, or he’s finally sailing towards Hawaii to be alone. It seems as though he ends up “lost at sea” either way (“Anchorless and unmoored set amiss”) and is accepting his eventual demise. This fate does not seem undesirable to Simon, and in this moment he is finally calm and free from his thoughts. He sets adrift and mourns her solemnly. “Dream Sweet in Sea Major”
We end this story with the most popular song on the album, one that introduced many people, including myself, to this musical experience. This song is Simon’s final goodbye, and it begins exactly how we started with “Introduction to the Snow." A chilling theory I read was that this story is in a time loop, and it is meant to end with “Stranded Lullaby” and begin all over again with “Introduction to the Snow," keeping Simon trapped in an eternal purgatory. However, this time the loop is broken, and that is why we escape into “Dream Sweet in Sea Major” instead. To me, this is a viable theory, since the lyrics in “Introduction to the Snow” end with “You’ll live forever tonight” but are changed to “So things are different tonight” in the our last song, possibly indicating an end to the time loop and cascading into the delightful chaos that is our final number. So what happens now? One theory claims that Simon is actually being hypnotized by sirens in the water who eventually kill him (“A siren sounds like the goddess/Who promises endless apologies of paradise”). However, I don’t personally find this to be conducive, as it blocks out so much rich meaning in the lyrics. It is evident that Simon is dying, though, due to many examples in the lyrics (“It feels like flying, but maybe, we’re dying," “Now that existence is on the wake”). This song is exactly seven minutes in length. I did not even gather this until I read someone note how there can still be brain activity for seven minutes upon cause of death, making the significance of this song and personal look into Simon’s psyche even more chilling and intricate. There are two other main theories I have heard about this song. One is that it details Simon dying, being reunited with his long lost lover, and finally going with her to heaven. This is a beautiful and bittersweet ending to a complicated story, but I personally feel that it is not actually true. This might be my craving for extra complications and juicy fan theories about this album, but when you look at the lyrics it expands on so much more, indicating that Simon might not have gotten his happy ending after all. The first lyrical evidence of this is when he sings “She knows you heard her, staging music murder," which seems to indicate that if Simon did kill her, his lover knew about it the whole time. She might not be the same entity in which he has been fascinated about this whole time.In the middle of this song, we hear a complete shift in the tone, the new melody making you feel like you are sitting on a swaying boat, alone in the middle of the ocean, a soft breeze accompanying you as you look up at the moon. This less than a minute bridge and its meaning is what originally set me spiraling into researching this album. The lyrics go as follows:“You look quite divine tonight
Here among these vibrant lights
Pure delights surround us as we sail
Signed, yours truly, the whale”When I first heard this song and the rest of the album I thought it was supposed to be pure nonsense… but then I also began to wonder, who is “the whale”? There are multiple theories I have read about this, the first being that “the whale” is the protagonist of “Dream Sweet in Sea Major." So, would this be Simon? It’s very possible, as he is depicted as a whale all the way back in “Isle Unto Thyself." This part of the song is clearly supposed to be romantic in some way, perhaps Simon singing to the moon, otherwise known as heaven, trying to communicate with his dead lover who he feels close to at this moment. The other theory I have heard is that “the whale” is Joe Hawley himself. This love letter could be a thank you from Hawley to his audience for the years of support, saying farewell to this era of his career. This makes sense to me as this was Tally Hall’s last project together, again which followed a hiatus in 2011. So, why would Joe Hawley call himself “the whale”? This is easier to figure out, because Joe Hawley has records from earlier in his career where he went by “The Whale." Simon continues to fantasize about heaven, “Joy mirage’s kingdom come." However, this is where we see that he might not be getting the ending he desires. A woman’s voice enters the frenzy, which may be that of his lover finding him in his death. However, she sings, “We will be atoning/At last eternal through the past/Above a blinding star," potentially indicating that Simon is getting his just rewards, granted he did murder her. Instead of going to heaven, the “White Ball," the moon, he is going somewhere else. This “light," this “blinding star” we have heard so much about may not be in his future after all. It’s unclear if he is going to hell, purgatory, or somewhere completely unknown, but based on this lyrical analysis he is not finding paradise with his lover, and instead paying for what he did to her.The song ends with Simon saying a final farewell to us and all of his twisted adventures:"Bye, hi
Sigh, Hawaii
We never meant to part, sublime, thy art"He continues with a profound final thought, one that encapsulates perfectly his relationship with death and how it turned out for him in the end:"One light
Higher than the sun
Invisible to some
Until it’s time"Simon spent this whole time fantasizing about death, even idolizing what it would be like for him. Although, assuming he committed such actions against his lover, this never came to pass. Like many, he believed he was worthy of eternal paradise, but before he knew it, his plans had involuntarily altered forever. He leaves this world, waves crashing into the still night, leaving us listeners in bone-chilling confusion.
Everything you have just read could have been a lie. Or not! This album has hundreds of interpretations, and none of them will be confirmed any time soon. I wanted to create a basic understanding of what the majority of fans theorized this musical was about, but it is so vague that new ideas and messages can be spelled out from pin-pointing each and every individual word, phrase, lyric, and sound. I attempted to keep this as short as possible so as to not undermine the brilliance of those I received most of this information from, but obviously that proved to be a difficult task. There are points I have left out, either because they did not seem wholly relevant or because I simply do not know the answer (yet). If you’ve gone mad over this album like I have and crave more content about it, I highly, highly recommend checking out the videos and links attached as they have aided me entirely in compiling this information. What do you think this story behind Hawaii Part II is? I would love to know.
Hawaii Part ii: The Whale (A Video Essay)
The Hawaii Part II Iceberg Explained
hawaii part ii explained in a minute or less #shorts
The Great Mystery of Hawaii: Part II