About

Drew Kainalu (Kye-NAH-loo) Pine is a Seattle-area audio engineer with nearly two decades of experience spanning live sound, studio recording, mixing, and broadcast. As the dedicated audio engineer for High Pulp, he's toured as FOH engineer (2019 Bad Juice tour), mixed multiple KEXP in-studio sessions (2020, 2022), and served as recording and primary mixing engineer for the Mutual Attraction series of EPs—all recorded live and pressed to vinyl by KingUnderground between 2020–2021. Since 2022, Kainalu Sound has been the primary audio engineer for The Goodbye Look Club's ongoing series of pop-up jazz shows around Seattle, featuring nationally-recognized artists from the LA and NYC jazz scenes at venues including Bad Bar and The Mountain Room.

Drew's audio journey started early. He learned drums as a kid and picked up more instruments through his teenage years. In high school, he folded burritos at a Taco Del Mar in Tacoma to pay for equipment, eventually building a home studio in the finished third-story attic of a 1905 Victorian home—his bedroom. There, he began honing his engineering skills, recording his own music and collaborating with friends.

After high school, Drew moved to Bellingham to attend Western Washington University, where he became roommates with a member of the now-defunct Seattle band New Lungs. The summer after freshman year, he set the attic studio back up and recorded their 2012 EP Lanterns—which led to the band performing at the 2013 Sasquatch! Music Festival at The Gorge. Drew continued working with this circle of musicians, eventually playing bass for the New Lungs spinoff band …And I Am The Riot, and taking on the High Pulp engineering work that would become a defining collaboration.

In 2016, Drew launched a 2-hour radio program on Vashon Island's community station (Voice of Vashon, 101.9FM KVSH) called The Drew and Mark Show. Every two weeks, he and co-host Mark would bring in a band from the Seattle DIY scene to perform live in the KVSH studios—handling live audio for broadcast, multitrack recording for later mixing, and video, all while simulatenously hosting a live FM radio show. The show ran until 2018 and opened doors to live sound work at The Moon, a DIY venue at Big Building in Sodo.

From there, Kainalu Sound expanded: managing multiple stages at music festivals (BIG BLDG BASH, Inscape Arts Mash), providing live audio for Filson's 2017 July Music Series at their flagship Sodo store and subsequent shows at their Ballard location, and eventually landing the ongoing Goodbye Look Club work.

In 2024, Drew and his dad Doug rebooted their original Voice of Vashon show Classic Rock and Beyond, which first hit the airwaves back in 2004 when Drew was just 11 years old. The father-son duo now broadcasts live every second Sunday of each month from Voice of Vashon's Jean Bosch Broadcast Studio from 12–2 pm, after filling up on breakfast from one of the local island diners. Drew often features live in-studio tracks recorded back during The Drew and Mark Show days, weaving those fond memories into the mix. Replays air during the regular time slot on off weeks.

If you're a band in need of high-quality demos, a venue in need of a professional and reliable sound engineering team that can provide its own mobile equipment, a music festival that requires punctuality and efficiency, or a small broadcaster looking to incorporate crystal-clear live performances into your show, Kainalu Sound has you covered.