We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Kawano recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kevin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Joker’s Hand was born from risk. Growing up, I lived in a strict household that prioritized education. My father immigrated here from Japan with his family when he was a child and had a tough time assimilating. My mother was born in the states, but she grew up in an abusive, alcoholic family that did nothing to encourage her soaring ambitions. By the time she was 17, she was living and surviving all on her own. Now, at 27, I understand my parent’s perspective on life when I was a child: they wanted to give me every opportunity I could grasp onto because they were never given such opportunities themselves when they were kids. As a result I moved schools every few years. I played every sport imaginable at one point in my life or another, eventually finding a strength and joining the high school tennis team in the hopes that this would prove to colleges that I was a “well rounded student.” I took saxophone lessons so I could play in the school band and was a part of marching band, jazz band as a guitarist, and drumline as a kit player. I played on the tennis team, did volunteer work planting trees, and became an Eagle Scout. (On a side note, oh boy do I have a ton of gripes with that organization. I recall once getting a phone call from a woman in our troop asking if one of the other kids was gay. They literally had a gay witch hunt during one of our summer camps. I couldn’t believe it and since then have kept my distance.)
Long story short, I always felt I barely had time to breathe with my hectic schedule. But when I did have free time, I usually dedicated it to one of the many garage bands I was involved in. I loved playing guitar. In fact, the guitar became a huge bonding catalyst for my father and I. I first took an interest in the electric guitar when I was 9, having stumbled across my father’s old Gibson SG that he tinkered around with when he was growing up. He immediately set me up with lessons with my neighbor and within a few months I played “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” by Green Day at my first talent show.
During high school, I started seriously getting into songwriting. I always had this fantasy that I’d play a show somewhere and some big shot would see us and go “hey, here’s a bunch of money, you get to keep doing this forever and don’t have to go to school.” That would have been a dream come true at the time, but looking back now, I’m glad it never happened.
College was not what I expected it to be, but it did force me to grow. I didn’t want to study music, but I also didn’t have any other ambitions in other fields. At the time, I was convinced since I “missed my shot before I was 18” that music would forever be a hobby, so why sink all this tuition money into studying that? I wound up choosing ‘film & digital media’ simply because I liked movies and wanted to learn how they were produced. I figured that this would be a great thing to sidechain along with music because I could learn how to shoot music videos professionally and learn new editing techniques from people who knew what they were doing. But the reality of the program I was in was far removed from what I hoped for. I wasn’t allowed to even pick up a camera until my 4th year. My classes did nothing in terms of teaching me skills that would translate to real world jobs. It astounds me that I have a degree in film, yet am still clueless as to what the people on set are doing during our music video shoots. I didn’t find much value in the program, but I did wind up making a friend that changed the trajectory of my entire life.
Throughout our four years as roommates in college, Matt and I would jam here and there. I knew he had a background in orchestra and had taught himself to play some chords on guitar. At one point he walked in on me soloing over “Purple Rain.” To him, I must have been a guitar god at the time. I started showing him some of the licks and scales I was playing and then asked him if he had ever sang. After Matt replied with a “no,” I started laying on the thickest, heaviest peer pressure I could possibly muster up to get him to sing with me. After many awkward minutes, he found the courage to try singing blink-182’s “Feeling This” with me. And suddenly, for the first time ever, I had another musician jamming with me that was willing to sing! The only reason I was ever the lead singer in any band I was in was because no one else was willing to try. They were all too scared. But Matt wasn’t. And pretty soon he was swimming circles around my guitar playing, quickly taking up the mantle of lead guitar player in our band.
We played our first open mic in Santa Cruz during our fourth year in college before approaching a local restaurant and asking for a gig. To our surprise, they hired us to play 3 hours every Saturday. Matt and I were beyond stoked. We were getting paid to play for the first time ever and were making new friends in a way that felt organic and not forced the way it sometimes does in a classroom. We started writing together around this time. I remember presenting ideas for songs to bandmates in high school and, more often than not, getting laughed at for the ideas. Of course, none of those guys did any writing themselves. But Matt would take my ideas and run with them on top of throwing out his own ideas that pushed the envelope in ways I didn’t even consider before. By the time our 4th year in college was over, we had made up our minds: we would dedicate our lives to music, completely turning away from doorways our degrees could have opened for us. We didn’t know anyone in the industry and didn’t have any idea how to get gigs or properly record ourselves. Nothing seemed tangible, but that didn’t stop us from going out to every open mic we could and writing more and more.
In a way, you could say that fear was our greatest motivator. We had an epiphany one night during our 4th year in college. We had just finished unpacking from a gig and were kicking back on the couch with drinks in hand. Within a few months, we’d have to move back home and start finding work. But there was something about the combination of our friendship and creativity that made us both think, “in 50 years, I want to be able to wake up and at least say ‘I tried.'”
I had set my entire life up to bank on whatever degree I would get in college. But at the last minute, I turned away from my pre-planned life and decided, for once, to do what I wanted to do, what I felt I was made to do. The risk was, and still is, huge. I’m nowhere near where I want to be and my ambitions are set high. But the reward of personal growth, meeting new people and getting to do what I love far outweighs the risk.
Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Kevin Kawano and I am the lead singer and co-founder of the rock band Joker’s Hand. I started this band in 2017 with my best friend Matt Lau in a dorm room. Our latest EP “Pride Before The Panic” was released independently in February 2024. Music has always been an emotional release for me and a means of escape from my problems. I often find myself writing about feelings that I can’t quite describe until I’ve finished writing the song, almost as if the process itself was a therapy session that helped me organize my thoughts. It brings me so much joy when others tell me that our songs connected with them or impacted them emotionally, especially as an introvert who has trouble articulating his emotions in real life. I am so proud of how much we have grown as a band since starting in 2017. Our music has evolved along with our worldviews and palettes. Our writing is sometimes introspective and sometimes it’s focused on the external world and things we see happening around us. Our newest EP has me convinced that we have finally found our signature sound.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
In my mind, I’ve recently shifted my relationship with the stage. When I was starting out, I would always try to focus 100% of my energy on being perfect: hitting the right notes, strumming the right chords, and trying as hard as possible to lock in to the song. Matthew Denis, our bassist and one of the best musicians I have had the pleasure to work with, told me something before one of our shows. “It isn’t about you, it’s about them,” he said while pointing to the crowd we were about to perform in front of. Meaning, it isn’t about how perfect I can be musically. Don’t get me wrong, that is important. But the impact we leave on this group of people who took the time out of their day to come see us in person should take precedent. I really took that to heart.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Growing up, I was moved schools every few years, so keeping friends long term was a challenge. Besides saying “I get to do what I love,” or “my art is the reward,” the biggest reward this path has given me is a sense of community. I have a bandmate who I’m best friends with, the musicians we work with have become very dear friends, and I’ve met so many new people pursuing what we love that have given me a sense of purpose. I’m nowhere near where my ambitions want to take me. I dream of playing stadiums and touring internationally. But just because I haven’t “hit it big” doesn’t mean I’m not winning. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have a community of truly beautiful humans around me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jokershand.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jokershandofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JokersHandBand/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JokersHandBand
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwywFTEnXiXtFoqL-eoUGw
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6G7UZ6ZZOsaic31p0hUT8d?si=DtMI1mxJRz6Cy3G-9x54IQ
Image Credits
SoFinch Photography Janna Molano Sean Richards