What began when WWII soldiers brought guitars to our shores has grown into the defining strums of island string bands.Now, that sound is under pressure. Electronic music is rising. AI technology is trying to replicate it. Is this how string music is naturally evolving, or do we need to get back to our roots?You'll hear from Sir George Telek, the legendary voice who saw Papua New Guinea's string band skills recognised on the world stage, as well veteran Solomon Islands broadcaster Ashley Wickham, who shares how a shared sound unites such a linguistically diverse nation. And in Vanuatu, musician Sam Firi continues his father's legacy, using string band music to hold a community together.Culture Compass was produced byDeadset Studiosfor ABC Radio Australia.CreditsSeiuli Salamasina von Reiche , PresenterInga Stünzner, Executive ProducerImage DetailsString band music hit the Australian mainstream in 1990 when Sir George Telek and fellow musicians of Rabaul collaborated with David Bridie, from Not Drowning Waving.Program:More fromCulture CompassPacific,Solomon Islands,Vanuatu,Papua New Guinea,MusicTranscriptAshley WickhamWe have about 200 different dialects and languages. We hardly understand each other, my gosh. When a string band from any part of the country plays, everybody else is listening and we really enjoy it. And that tradition continues now, except that there's more attachment now to electronic instrumentation. It's a little bit different, but the intention is still the same.Salamasina von ReicheIf you step off the plane anywhere in the Pacific, chances are you'll be welcomed by an enthusiastic string band. Bouncy guitars and harmonious vocals is a classic sound of the islands. From Vanuatu to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands to Samoa, you'll hear that familiar rhythm, those rich vocal harmonies, and see the instruments sometimes made from whatever we could find. But it works. And it's a sound that's instantly nostalgic, unmistakably Pacific, and deeply rooted in place. But while these bands might feel traditional, they're actually born from something more recent. When US troops arrived on our shores during World War II, they brought with them foreign instruments and musical influences. What followed was a wave of creativity. We took what was introduced and made it our own. The result? A grassroots musical movement that exploded across the region. So where does the string band sit now? As new genres and technologies take hold, is the sound of the string band under threat? Or is it simply evolving? I'm Afamasaga Seiluli Salamasina von Reiche and this is Culture Compass, an exploration of survival, revival, and connection throughout the Pacific.Salamasina von ReicheAt the forefront of the string band's journey, the first Australian band to join the string band movement in Papua New Guinea is Sir George Telek Mamua. His long career started as a frontman of his villagers group, Moab Stringband, then Painim Wok. In 1989, he introduced his country's music to international audiences when he collaborated with Australian band Not Drowning Waving on the phenomenal album, Tabaran. Sir George is a legend on the world stage and one of his country's most iconic musicians. But it all started back in his village of Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain province.Sir George TelekWe were just like listening to them, and you know, keep following them around in the village. We were looking at my other brothers that used to play on a string band called the original Moab Stringband, which is later that we continue on with the Moab Stringband. You know, I was so excited, like, well, I want to be like this. I want to learn how to play ukulele, guitar, and also singing. But at the time, it was so interesting to be like them. So we kept on listening to them performing all the time in the village.Salamasina von ReicheI remember as a child, my favorite was to listen to the bass, which was just a piece of fishing string tied to a stick, and it sat on the bucket, you know? Did you have that?Sir George TelekYeah, yes. I remember that.Salamasina von ReicheAnd I wonder if you felt the same way, but to us, it was a sense of pride that we were able to make an instrument and actually play it like this. What do you think about the Papua New Guinea style? Why does it make it so special?Sir George TelekBecause we have this tune and the melody and the songs that we write is really unique and different. We have these four different vocals in it. We have the low one and the middle and the high one. So it's made it very beautiful, what is backup harmonies and the main vocals. So it's very, very beautiful.Salamasina von ReicheThere are over 800 languages across Papua New Guinea. Do you feel string band music is a way of connecting everybody and speaking when you can't always understand the language?Sir George TelekExactly, because we speak a common language to communicate, like Tok Pisin, it's a broken English. So the string band music, it's all around Papua New Guinea. Different style of music, different style of beat. But we still have one understanding. Every village across in Rabaul, in East New Britain province, has their own string band. They have different styles of tune that they make it up. Like we have the sunset key, the golden dry bush key, the Hawaiian key. And so it's popular all around the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain.Salamasina von ReicheWhat do you usually sing about in your songs? Are they stories of village life or about your ancestors?Sir George TelekYes, well, sometimes we adopt the cultural music, the traditional stories from before. But sometimes we rewrite our own songs and we sing about life, membrane fishing, maybe a little bit of love.Salamasina von ReicheSo George, you've been involved in shaping the sound of Papua New Guinea string bands through your bands like Moab and Painim Wok. You also helped get the sounds of Papua New Guinea to the international stage when you collaborated with Australian band Not Drowning Waving. What did that mean for you?Sir George TelekIt means a lot to me to take out the PNG music out to the international market and to people know about my village, my country and my music and to promote it to the outside world. So it means a lot to me. I'm really proud of it.Salamasina von ReicheAnd now with the rise of digital and electronic music, do you think younger generations will continue to play string band?Sir George TelekI think so, because we have to talk to them and tell them to keep our traditional music here and not to change it a lot. Because we'll talk to them. I've been talking to some of the young musicians to keep our string band music here. They have to learn and know the style of our music. It's very important to identify us that we are from this province and we have to perform and write songs in our own language. So they have to know this string band is from which province in Papua New Guinea.Salamasina von ReicheOn the streets of Honiara, people enjoy their string band music very loud and very proud. Ashley Wickham says it's a sound that would always bring people together. With over 200 dialects spoken across Solomon Islands, not everyone can understand each other, but everyone understands string band music. Ashley's the former head of Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation or SIBC. He's seen how the sounds have evolved over the years, but now new sounds and digital tools are changing the game.Ashley WickhamBy the time of our independence in 1978, most villages would have had a bamboo band or a pan pipe band or just a string band in their community and kept the young people happy, enabled a lot of expression of what people felt like talking or singing about. World War II hit us pretty badly, but it allowed new influences to emerge. For example, a lot of the soldiers who came here, they brought their instruments too. So my uncles, who are long gone now, learned to play banjo as well as guitars, ukulele, and they had very active string bands going in the 1940s and 50s. And that tradition continues now, except that there's more attachment now to electronic instrumentation. So the original traditional string band has given away to the use of the electronic stuff. It's a little bit different, but the intention is still the same. We have about 200 different dialects and languages. We hardly understand each other. When a string band from any part of the country plays, everybody else is listening and we really enjoy it.Salamasina von ReicheIs there anything you think our listeners would be surprised to know about these instruments being introduced to Solomon Islands?Ashley WickhamYes, we had steel guitar being played in the West straight after World War II, introduced by American forces. And I remember as a young man hearing the string band singing, including the Hawaiian songs, which had particular cadenza and special appeal. So string band has been with us a long time.Salamasina von ReicheAnd in the Solomons, you've made these instruments uniquely your own. Can you describe what instruments usually make up your string bands?Ashley WickhamIn recent years, the keyboard has come into play. But when I was a young fellow growing up in the 60s, 70s, there was mainly guitars and ukulele, and in some places augmented by bamboo. In other parts of the country, like Malaita, [Guadalcanal] and Makira, they use the pan pipes. Some of the most adventurous in recent years have come from the island of Isabel, in the sense of Solomons. And they produce some crossover artists, people who start a string band and go on to become performers and even travel to Fiji, to the Marshall Islands, for example, to Nauru, performing their music.Salamasina von ReicheAnd I understand that a lot of these string bands make their own instruments.Ashley WickhamOh yeah, those homemade things now are a bit of the past. People now find it very easy now to buy a bass guitar, have an amplifier, so we don't need to revert to the old tea box. In the old days, tea used to be transported around by freighters in huge boxes, roughly a metre square. And when they were emptied, they became very good drums. Put a string through them at the top, tie them to a piece of wood, and they'll play as you do with drums. But people now, for some time now, have been making ukuleles. Guitars are pretty common now, we can buy them in the shops. As a young fellow, I'm 10 or 12 years old, I used to follow all the string bands around Munda. And I learned all their songs, I still remember their songs now. And a lot of my relatives were involved. We even sent a group to the official opening of the Sydney Opera House.Ashley WickhamYou remember the Voyager series of rockets that were sent out to outer space in the [1970s]? Some of our recordings are in that Voyager, which I believe is still moving in the outer fringes of space right now.Salamasina von ReicheOh, that's so amazing to have it all the way out in space. When you're watching string band music, what kind of emotions come up for you, and how does it make you feel?Ashley WickhamIt's nostalgia for home, because most people in Honiara, we come from different parts of the country. And when we see and hear the string band, we can almost visualize that band in their natural environment. And because of our language differences, we enjoy hearing different languages and different ways they construct their songs. And sometimes it gives us a laugh. Sometimes the words that I use in one dialect is a bit risque in another, but I sort of smile right away. Yeah, in recent years, a lot more females are beginning to take to the string band. And I think it's going to be a very welcome addition for our tourism industry. When people gather around to sing as community groups at a string band, they cut loose, they don't sing in low volume. They build it up, they hear it 100%, and everybody enjoys it that way. And I don't think that will change, because that's what characterizes it, what makes it very interesting and enjoyable.Salamasina von ReicheYeah, I have been lucky enough, I've been privileged to hear the sounds of the Solomon Island string bands. But how can you describe it? How is it different to other countries across the Pacific?Ashley WickhamYou know, it's really interesting. I've traveled most of the Pacific and listened to a lot of the music that's around. I can say that we cannot compare different Pacific islands because of the history, colonial background and other events over the years. It's the same too with the music. The music we all make has commonalities, but they don't influence each other too much. A lot of the musicians can sing and play in almost any style of the Pacific, including some of the most vigorous ukulele playing that you usually hear from Cook Islands and Tahiti. We have bands who can do the same here too, but you just don't hear them too often.Salamasina von ReicheHas the string band sound and its popularity changed much over the years?Ashley WickhamOh yes, the technology changes the string band sound. The steel guitar that elders used to play in the 1950s had no amplification. Now you can get a lap steel guitar and it'll have an amplifier with it so you can play it as loud as possible. There are other string bands from the different parts of the country. For example, in Malaita, there is a band in the Kwaraʼae area, the language area, which is the biggest language or dialect in the country. They sing about a village called Lalaita. That is a story about how Lalaita has become depopulated by young people moving away to the bright lights of Auki, the provincial capital, and to Honiara, the national capital. I wouldn't have been able to explain this to you about this from Lalaita. I did not, of course, I'm a trained person from the language area who translated it for us once on Facebook. So, the technology is helping us even more.Salamasina von ReicheYou know, recently the Solomon Islands Broadcasting brought in a program called Swing to the Strings, encouraging young people to revive and play the string bands. Can you tell me about that?Ashley WickhamThat is a continuation of what used to happen in the 50s. So, I revived it during my time there at SIPC and only about 10, 15 years ago. It had died away in our rush to independence, but when we reintroduced it, everybody was hooked all over again.Salamasina von ReicheAre the younger generation adapting string music at all, like meddling it with electronic music?Ashley WickhamOh yeah, a lot of groups these days have electronic music. We have a lot of good bands now. You know, without the string bands and the availability of musical equipment in the villages, we would have very boring places. What's making it more boring is the influence. The one that has really, I think, impacted a lot of our musicians is the advent of the mobile phone, cell phone. You find groups of people sitting around with their guitars and more than half of them will be looking at their phone, sending texts or reading some program, listening to something, and only joining when their favorite songs come up. So, the mobile phone has really altered a lot of things in society. We used to hear a lot more local music. These are now minimized, but the only saving grace is that you can send your music on your phone, record it on your phone and send it to your friend on the other side of the world.Salamasina von ReicheHow important do you feel it is to preserve the style in the future?Ashley WickhamI think it's very important to preserve this because this is the community, the voice of the community, and the things important in the community. I think there will always be a need. Like I said, we have nearly a thousand islands. We have nearly 200 different languages and dialects. We need to be able to hear each other. We don't know each other's languages, or not so many, but if we can hear the songs and music, we can feel the warmth that comes with it. It's so engaging. It's almost emotional when you can hear string bands from another part of the country that you hardly understand what they're singing about, but you're feeling good because it's another bunch of Wantoks singing for national consumption.Salamasina von ReicheVanuatu is known for its rich and diverse sound. Each of their 83 islands brings its own musical flavor. At the height of the string band explosion in the 1970s, Vanuatu held its first string band competition. Taking out the top prize was a family band called Makura Tokolau, from the small island of Makura in Vanuatu's Shefa province. They sang songs of Vanuatu's independence. Messages their leader, George Pakoa Firi, was inspired to write from Bob Marley. Now, years later, George's son Sam is continuing the family tradition. He's the one composing and writing songs for the legacy band. But he says, with the rise of digital disruption and AI technology, string bands need to get back to their community roots.Sam SiriThe songs that I'm composing is positioning the legacy of my father, the legacy of Makura Tokolau, and the people of the Shefa Islands as being called the Shefa's people, as a beacon of hope, but one that is got the compass for showing, for pointing the compass to the target of where the walk for this freedom that we struggle for and we fight for, we sing for in every 30 July, for every 30 July year-round, which is Independence Day, we are the proudest people to go up on stage with these strings of instruments. We sing about our independence. You can see all our mothers are very happy. They sew these beautiful island dresses and they weave these traditional local baskets nicely and everyone walks with an ownership knowing that, yes, we own our place, we own our existence here as a state of itself. But the Makura Tokolau for us is, I'm putting it in a beacon of will always sign to say we must always remember that walk and we must always walk that walk for the promise for the people of Vanuatu, so that Vanuatu can be that promise to the other neighbouring islands as well in the Pacific region and beyond. I wrote this song the day I went down to the city. The city was empty. I can only see birds flying. I see cats and dogs walking around and no one in the city. I burst into tears and then I was standing there and I said, okay, this afternoon before the sunset, I'm going to sing a song about this. I wrote a song about this and saying, this song you listen to is giving the beauty and the simplicity of the fashion life that is missing right now in our city and that is we miss the sunset. We don't see the sunset again because the street is empty. There is no more music in the seafront. And when I say music, it's a group of people sitting around, island lifestyle, just chatting away, enjoying and laughing and making melody of itself. You can't see that now. There is no more friendly discussions that is peaceful and that constant sound that in reality, if this current time that I'm talking to you now, if there was no earthquake, if we go to the market house, you can hear the constant sound of harmonizing that is still on from end to end. But for now, if you go there now, that sound is not there.Salamasina von ReicheWhy do you think that singing has gone away?Sam SiriFor me, the only answer I can give to you that the sounds of the purity of the life of music that is the life of the people is simply because we are deflecting. We are going away from what the model of our nation stands upon. Our model is a long-haul to Mr. Love, which is in God we stand. But I think we've deflected, the nation as a whole has deflected out from that compass. And of course, the main, one of the big play in that is the influence of the technology that has come in. It steals the life of the people in the form that for me, I know very well, those days that the independence travel to a radio, which my father was part of singing. In these days, the influencer uses the Android phone more to take the time of people and steal their time. And therefore you don't hear a lot of these musics anymore. You don't, you don't see people singing anymore because they can go to their own world and just enjoy themselves inside that rectangular box, which is a mobile phone.Salamasina von ReicheAs we speak of the younger generation, I'm interested to know, are younger people interested in joining your group and getting involved with string band music?Sam Siri100% yes. That's one thing that I'm so excited about. My two sons, they're highly interested now. They're eager to want to be part of the band. String band, even though this music is coming up, you know, the influence of outside influence, but the locals in the islands, especially, they just love string band. String band is a life. String band music is a life for us. The shepherd people, for us, string band is a life. Every afternoon, just one guitar and we all start to sing. This is in the islands, but not in the city.Salamasina von ReicheAs technology advances everywhere in the world, it affects our music. Are you seeing that for string band music in Vanuatu as well?Sam SiriYes. There was an AI music string band that was just put out. I didn't even want to listen to it. I only had the other artists coming in and say, hey, now this thing can do all these wonders and all these things that we are trying to make, to compose, to play and to sing. It's already happening here for string band music because they confirmed that there's already one putting out using AI or I don't know what kind of app, but it's already producing string band music.Salamasina von ReicheIt's already happening. Gosh, how do you think those kinds of progressions will affect the future of string band music?Sam SiriFor our band Makura Tokorau and for our people of the Shefa group, we will always play the original as we are. But for other people outside, pretty sure that the speed of that influence will corrupt them and will actually dominate. Because we sing and we play string band as a beacon of light for our message that is positive for our group, for our ownership and for our pride. But for some artists and some people, it will only be for the means of the power to sell, but I can sell money. So of course they will always run for the easy way to produce the music.Salamasina von ReicheAre you seeing any of them try to mix the two types of music together, like electronic music and the more traditional string band music?Sam SiriOh, it's already happening.Salamasina von ReicheDo they pay homage to their string band roots?Sam SiriNo, the legislation here is being, we don't actually have those laws in place that is already there, but implementation of it is not really what the individual artists and artists of band, artists have been made aware of it completely that they know what to stand for and make sure that the royalty of someone using a song from another band or using a local or a band name from this one and mixing it with this one is actually being something that the royalty send to the band as well.Salamasina von ReicheAre there many other bands around Vanuatu that are promoting the string band sound?Sam SiriYes. In fact, all 83 islands, I would say 95% of them, they all have string band and they all play string band. But it's just a platform that is not yet in place and it's something that I already identified and I'll try to find a way to find assistance to come in in that to make sure that we set up a hub that looks after all the string bands so that we can keep this music alive. Because it's very difficult, the cost of recording is very high. Copyright law is something that is not well protected. It's passed in Parliament, the laws is there, but it's not being implemented in full force. Therefore, it ruins the younger ones that are trying to produce an album because as soon as they produce the album, they launch and then that song only one person pays for it and then they sell it on to the other ones. So the return is very less and it just kills them to go back to studio again to do another album.Salamasina von ReicheHow important do you feel it is to preserve the style in the future?Sam SiriVery, very highly important to protect string band music because this is the only voice and this is the only beats that send out the waves, the trumpet sound for resilience before independence and after independence. And even to this 2025 that we are here today, it is our identity, our legacy, it is our only strong tool that holds the people together.Salamasina von ReicheString bands have always been more than music. They're a way of bringing us together across islands, languages and generations. Technology might be changing how we play, record and share our sounds, but the essence of string band remains rooted in community. So as our sound continues to evolve in the future, the challenge is holding on to what makes it distinctly ours.Salamasina von ReicheThis is Culture Compass on ABC Radio Australia. Culture Compass is hosted by me, Afamasaga Seiluli Salamasina von Reiche. Our ABC Radio Australia executive producer is Faleagafulu Inga Stünzner. From Deadset Studios, our producer is Lucy McAfee. And our supervising producer is Gia Moylan. Sound design is by Nick McCorriston. This episode was produced on the lands of the Turrbal and Yagerra people. We pay respect to their elders past and present.