WEBVTT 00:16.059 --> 00:18.180 My name is Kevin Metz . I play the 00:18.190 --> 00:20.700 Japanese Shamisen . I would probably 00:20.709 --> 00:23.319 consider Misawa my hometown . Uh This 00:23.329 --> 00:25.399 is where I grew up . Uh when I was a 00:25.409 --> 00:28.729 very small child . Uh My father and 00:28.739 --> 00:30.920 mother moved from Germany where I was 00:30.930 --> 00:33.810 born here to Misawa and my father 00:33.819 --> 00:36.209 worked as a teacher at Solar's . Uh I 00:36.220 --> 00:38.109 also went to Solar's at that time 00:38.109 --> 00:40.209 because he was a teacher . We didn't 00:40.220 --> 00:42.387 have to move . Like most of my friends 00:42.387 --> 00:44.609 were just moving after three years like 00:44.609 --> 00:46.720 uh and I would just stay , I would be 00:46.720 --> 00:48.942 like the one that stayed in Misawa . So 00:48.942 --> 00:48.590 I grew up , went to Solars also to 00:48.599 --> 00:50.543 Edgar and I graduated from Edgar . 00:52.799 --> 00:54.919 So growing up in Japan , I was always 00:54.930 --> 00:57.152 introduced to Shamisen through like the 00:57.152 --> 00:59.152 festivals and uh I would just , you 00:59.152 --> 01:01.374 know , you just hear it back when I was 01:01.374 --> 01:03.430 younger . This is in the 19 eighties 01:03.430 --> 01:05.374 growing up here around this area , 01:05.374 --> 01:07.374 there was a Shamisen player named T 01:07.374 --> 01:09.374 Takahashi Chiku Zan . When I was 14 01:09.374 --> 01:11.800 years old , my mother um bought tickets 01:11.809 --> 01:13.976 to go see it and I had no interest . I 01:13.976 --> 01:16.031 was like uh Shami . So yeah , that's 01:16.031 --> 01:18.253 that thing . Right . I , I don't really 01:18.253 --> 01:20.253 wanna go , you know , I was playing 01:20.253 --> 01:22.420 guitar at the time and I was into like 01:22.420 --> 01:24.531 metal . So I got there and I sat down 01:24.531 --> 01:26.642 and instantly I was just like , wow , 01:26.642 --> 01:28.865 this is actually really cool , like the 01:28.865 --> 01:30.809 way he was playing and I found out 01:30.809 --> 01:32.809 later on his style is very unique . 01:32.809 --> 01:35.087 It's , it's not the way everyone plays . 01:35.087 --> 01:37.198 Shami Sun . He's got this very , very 01:37.198 --> 01:40.175 soulful , uh emotional um way and you 01:40.184 --> 01:42.785 can almost kind of hear his life story 01:42.794 --> 01:44.905 coming out of his shami son . It kind 01:44.905 --> 01:46.961 of blew me away . I was like , I , I 01:46.961 --> 01:48.683 would really like to play this 01:48.683 --> 01:51.050 instrument someday . The thing is I was 01:51.059 --> 01:53.360 a teenager , American teenager here in 01:53.370 --> 01:56.459 Misawa . And at the time growing up , I 01:56.470 --> 01:58.581 didn't really think I could do it . I 01:58.581 --> 02:00.692 thought it was like , you gotta shave 02:00.692 --> 02:02.914 your head and go into the mountains and 02:02.914 --> 02:05.026 join the temple . As I got older into 02:05.026 --> 02:07.192 my twenties and close to my thirties . 02:07.192 --> 02:09.248 I started to think what , what was I 02:09.248 --> 02:11.470 thinking ? You know , why wouldn't I be 02:11.470 --> 02:13.692 able to play the Shamisen ? So a little 02:13.692 --> 02:15.859 later it took me a while . But um as I 02:15.859 --> 02:17.748 after growing up , after actually 02:17.748 --> 02:19.914 leaving Misawa , uh you know , I moved 02:19.914 --> 02:22.026 to California , I studied uh uh music 02:22.026 --> 02:24.248 composition at Cal Arts . Uh my parents 02:24.248 --> 02:26.414 were still here so I would come back , 02:26.414 --> 02:26.300 but I would come back and I'd start 02:26.309 --> 02:27.976 taking Shamisen lessons and I 02:27.976 --> 02:30.031 eventually got my own shamisen and I 02:30.031 --> 02:32.031 brought it back to the States and I 02:32.031 --> 02:34.198 just kind of made that my thing in the 02:34.198 --> 02:36.365 States . Like , I would join bands but 02:36.365 --> 02:38.531 not as a guitar player , as a Shamisen 02:38.531 --> 02:40.753 player . A lot of times like throughout 02:40.753 --> 02:42.865 my career , as a Shamis player , like 02:42.865 --> 02:45.087 college students would often call me up 02:45.087 --> 02:44.440 and they , they're like , yeah , we're 02:44.449 --> 02:46.671 doing this , we're making this animated 02:46.671 --> 02:48.949 film . It's like a samurai esque thing . 02:48.949 --> 02:51.005 We want like a live shami sun in the 02:51.005 --> 02:53.116 soundtrack . But I was always happy , 02:53.116 --> 02:56.539 I'd be like , yeah , sure . So I got uh 02:56.550 --> 02:59.710 an email once and this , this company 02:59.720 --> 03:01.664 was like , yeah , we're doing this 03:01.664 --> 03:03.831 animation . We're interested in having 03:03.831 --> 03:06.164 you play Shamisen . And I was like , oh , 03:06.164 --> 03:05.750 probably some college kids , you know . 03:05.759 --> 03:07.870 I don't know . So I was like , yeah , 03:07.870 --> 03:10.092 sure . Yeah , I'll do it . Just give me 03:10.092 --> 03:12.259 some information . Uh and they started 03:12.259 --> 03:14.370 sending me these scores , like actual 03:14.370 --> 03:16.426 like printouts of scores . And I was 03:16.426 --> 03:16.350 like , wow , this is this pretty 03:16.360 --> 03:18.690 professional , like , pretty legit . Uh 03:18.699 --> 03:20.810 And then I was like , yeah , I , I'll 03:20.810 --> 03:23.088 do it , you know , I'll agree to do it . 03:23.088 --> 03:25.255 And so they , then they quoted me this 03:25.255 --> 03:24.550 price . They're like , yeah , we're 03:24.559 --> 03:27.399 gonna pay you this amount of money and 03:27.410 --> 03:29.669 it was a lot of money . I'm like , wait 03:29.679 --> 03:32.029 a second . What , like , who are you 03:32.039 --> 03:34.261 guys ? Like , what is this ? You know , 03:34.261 --> 03:36.317 they sent me a copy of the trailer . 03:36.317 --> 03:38.372 And I was like , oh , this is a real 03:38.372 --> 03:40.483 thing . And then later on , they flew 03:40.483 --> 03:42.761 me out to Hollywood to record the , uh , 03:42.761 --> 03:44.817 guitar gently weeps song . That's at 03:44.817 --> 03:46.595 the end of the credits . It was 03:46.595 --> 03:48.817 nominated for an Academy Award , but it 03:48.817 --> 03:48.580 didn't get the Academy Award , but it 03:48.589 --> 03:50.811 was nominated . So that's pretty cool . 03:50.811 --> 03:52.756 Just being nominated is actually , 03:52.756 --> 03:54.589 that's kind of cool . You know , 03:57.910 --> 04:00.132 it started off kind of accepted as , as 04:00.132 --> 04:02.188 like a novelty act , I think , uh in 04:02.188 --> 04:04.243 the beginning . But after this album 04:04.243 --> 04:06.410 came out and after I was on like tours 04:06.410 --> 04:08.910 around Japan , uh and when I got a lot 04:08.919 --> 04:11.141 more exposure , I think people realized 04:11.141 --> 04:13.252 like , it's not just a gimmick , it's 04:13.252 --> 04:15.308 kind of like I'm taking my life from 04:15.308 --> 04:18.098 California and fusing that into a 04:18.109 --> 04:20.558 tradition that's supposed to be just 04:20.569 --> 04:22.829 Japanese , but I'm sort of showing 04:22.838 --> 04:24.671 everyone like this is not just a 04:24.671 --> 04:26.671 Japanese instrument . If anything , 04:26.671 --> 04:29.118 this could be a symbol of Japan's 04:29.128 --> 04:31.239 connection to the rest of the world , 04:31.239 --> 04:33.461 like all the other styles of music that 04:33.461 --> 04:35.572 are out there , it doesn't have to be 04:35.572 --> 04:37.628 limited to just Japanese music . You 04:37.628 --> 04:39.479 can uh do a tremendous amount of 04:39.489 --> 04:43.329 exploring on this instrument . So I 04:43.339 --> 04:45.630 view myself as kind of in retirement . 04:45.640 --> 04:47.640 Uh You know , really what I do is I 04:47.640 --> 04:49.709 teach English now in Hachinohe . Uh 04:49.720 --> 04:53.149 COVID , the pandemic did a lot of 04:53.160 --> 04:55.104 damage to people like me that were 04:55.104 --> 04:56.938 musicians uh because we couldn't 04:56.938 --> 04:59.104 perform anyway for a long , for a long 04:59.104 --> 05:01.271 time and that's sort of continued on . 05:01.359 --> 05:04.049 But , um , uh , even in spite of being 05:04.200 --> 05:06.989 somewhat in , unofficially in 05:07.000 --> 05:09.079 retirement , uh , like I said , I'm 05:09.089 --> 05:11.359 still always happy to , uh , come out 05:11.369 --> 05:13.536 of retirement for you guys , the Misao 05:13.536 --> 05:13.579 community .