Clarkophile Interview with Kai Clark: 2014

 

What is it like for Kai to play his dad's songs?

"There are some specific songs that really speak to me.  As a kid, when dad was still alive, I would play some of those.  I think with age, though, it really gives me the feel of how deep my father was intellectually, and in a writing sense.  For someone that wasn’t a scholar or a writer in the broader sense, it’s just amazing.  It makes me think of how much he had running through him as kind of a conduit."  Kai mentions the ethereal 'Silver Raven' as a personal favourite. "I relate some of it to my life," he says, "but mostly it just makes me think of my father – just my dad, in that sense of growing up and listening to him playing and the emotion and passion he had while playing."

For those of us who sometimes allow ourselves to become obsessed with the minutia of Gene's career as a legendary songwriter, Kai's use of the phrase "my dad" is a sobering reminder that we're not talking about songwriting credits or a picture on an album cover.  We are speaking about someone's father. That said, it is comforting to know that at times even Kai can sound like a geeky, besotted fan.  He admits that he's blown away "all the time" by Gene's artistry. "Here, he’ll be going along in a major and then all of sudden there’s this minor seventh," he says with a astonished chuckle.  "That’s a Gene Clark trait -- you’ll be rolling along through the song and he’ll hit this one note and you go 'Wow'".

 

http://clarkophile.blogspot.ca/2014/10/kai-clark-chats-about-upcoming-70th.html