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like to talk about but don ' t get the chance. So, there ' s a lot of pluses that outweighs the traveling, the hotels, the food, that kind of stuff.
Even when you ' re not traveling, your spouses and also your children are in that music environment, too?
Kevin: Definitely. My family, my kids love music. My son is a lifelong musician. He’ s a writer who has played in a band since he was probably a pre-teen. He’ s an engineer and producer, he composes and has done a lot of work with me and Kyra and with a whole bunch of other people, too. Our daughter is a good singer, and she loves writing. She had piano lessons when she was a kid. She loved her piano teacher because she was a super lovely, safe space, like an old lady with a box of cookies. That was the extent for her piano education, not being much of a taskmaster when it comes to practicing. And then all of a sudden, she sends me this video of her playing a Joni Mitchell song
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on the piano. I was like,“ Wow, where did that come from?” It kind of blew my mind. We definitely play and do stuff together.
I so enjoy following her and following you on on Instagram. That is a great platform for you because you ' re inviting the public into your home, and it feels somewhat intimate, although I ' m sure you ' re careful about what you show. That’ s been a gift to us.
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Kevin: I kind of went into it kicking and screaming, and I definitely have moments where I think, this is not what I want to do. It ' s very hard with social media to make a direct connection to any kind of financial reward or windfall. I’ m not going out and selling products. The time that I spend, or the money that I spend or advice and stuff like that, is it worth it? It ' s tough to know. On the other hand, at one point I was kind of halfway in, halfway out, and I said, you know, I don ' t like |
not doing something well. It ' s kind of shifted for me because if I ' m not making a movie or play or a show, I do need to have some kind of thing to think about as a creative outlet. It ' s almost like a disease; I have to be doing it. Even if it’ s a two-minute song parody or cover or silly thing with the family, with Kyra, it is its own form of creation. It’ s a little bit depressing, having done so many movies in the course of my life and worked so hard at it, that people will come up to me and say,“ My favorite thing you ever did is ….” and then they ' ll think of some stupid Instagram thing. It’ s kind of heartbreaking in a way, because you go,“ Wow, that ' s it. This is what it ' s come to.” But on the other hand, as you said, a lot of people get a lot of pleasure from it, and it brings them a feeling which I don ' t always really 100 percent understand, but I think that our bread and butter is to make people feel something, and so for the time being, at least, I ' m still in it. |
Everytime I see something posted, it just makes me smile. So you ' re doing something right.
Kevin: Cool, cool. Thank you.
I ' m a big fan of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and you’ re the composer for Finding Your Roots, Michael. Gates was in the Berkshires a couple years ago for the Authors Guild Foundation ' s WIT festival. You and Kevin have your own careers, and then you come together for the music. Is that a challenge, or do those different aspects of your creativity support each other in their development?
Michael: I ' ve been doing Finding Your Roots for 15 years and have an enormous library with them. At the same time, I like to give them new, fresh stuff. Right around the start of spring, I ' ll get a shopping list of some cues that they want, and I ' ll spend any spare time I have
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