Episode Transcript
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Are you a songwriter? Are youlooking to turn your songwriting fashion into a
full time gig. Whether you're justat the start of your songwriting journey or
a seasoned industry professional, this showis made for you. Welcome to the
Songwriter Show, bringing together songwriting news, interviews and community. Now welcome your
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host, Sorrantos. Thank you fortuning in, and welcome back to the
Songwriter Show right here on Reality Radioone oh one. I'm your host,
Serrantos. I'm a solo music artistwho's been writing lyrics for as long as
I can remember. Words are soimportant to me, and that's where I'm
thrilled to host this show for youevery single Tuesday evening. I believe in
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my heart that every song is astory. Tonight's guest is Harry Kappin.
He's known for his deeper lyrics andhis songs. He's a Dutch musician and
music therapist. His first love isa guitar, but gradually he discovered the
bass and now you can safely callhim a multi instrumentalist. And now welcome
this week's special guest. Yes,welcome to show, Harry. How are
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you doing? Oh hello? Ithank you for having me and I'm fine.
Yeah. How are you doing.I'm doing well. Man. I'm
in Chicago, so we have alittle bit of time difference, but we
made this work. It's early foryou. Yeah. So what is the
coolest thing about your country? Youknow, I've always wanted to visit.
I haven't been out there yet.Oh wow, Well, I think the
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coolest thing is that half of thecountry is below sea level. That is
cool. Wow. I did notknow that. Yeah. So it's a
little bit like being in New Orleans. Do you guys worry about getting flooded
or anything like that. Well,there were several severe floods in the past.
Yeah, but we made a verybig dikes and a lot of working
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works, so we are safe.Now. That's good to hear. Do
you sounds like a good topic towrite a song about it? Yeah?
Maybe yeah. So tell us aboutyour musical talents here. Guitar is your
first thing that you learned? Yeah, that's yeah. I learned it from
well. I was like ten yearsold and my sister had an acoustic guitar
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and I was curious. So sometimesI learned the guitar and I thought that
was nice, and I had somelessons for two years classical. But then
well I became adolescent and there werewe started some school bands, and in
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that way I learned a lot moreabout pop music. So I quit lessons
and I went on with just bands, learning the good old fashioned way.
Yeah. Yeah, What is yourfavorite part about songwriting? That's a good
question, because I like it.I'd like the process, the process,
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the process of creating and trying andsearching for a sound, searching for a
subject, try things. So Ilove that. I'm almost a bit disappointed
when a song is finished, youknow. So sometimes it takes a week
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or a month, and I enjoyedto lay the puzzle and and always comes
this moment of everything coming together,and that's a very nice moment. But
after that there's a disappointed because it'sfinished, so we start another one.
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How often do you try to writesongs? Do you do it every day
every week? What's your process?Well, I've done it a lot in
the past, and then I wroteevery day when I played them bands and
performed a lot. Nowadays I'm amusic therapist, so I've less time to
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do it, but I'm always veryas short from us. When I sit
down and take my guitar that therewill bigg a song in the end.
So yeah, that's great. Well, how do you try to decide if
a song that you're working on isgonna you know, if you're going to
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release it and work on it andfinish it. Do you have a group
of confidence or how do you figurethat out? Yeah? Well, first
of all, I have to getthe feeling of everything coming together and it's
right. And of course I haveconfidence like my sister or some two friends
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who which I played with in Beads, and I check with them, but
honestly, I don't Well maybe theyhave some comments, but I think my
own. When I think it's good, it's good. Okay, all right,
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you gotta trust yourself. Yeah,what exciting things do you have coming
out this year for the fans?Well, first of all, this year
was last year was the full album, and this year there was two singles
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came out, one of the freedominside and the last single not all of
us agreed from a month ago.So there are two singles this year and
end up this summer there will bea full album with all the songs on
it. Okay, tell us alittle bit about any advice you would give
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anyone who's a beginner in this industry. That's a tough question because when I
started, I just copied some ofmy heroes and try to lay the emphasis
on the sound and on the guitarand on the stuff the equipment. But
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now I think you have to bewhen I now look at it, I'm
just being me and with my experience, I trust myself to play music side
like that. Okay, can youtell us a little information about this song
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we're going to hear in a littlebit. Not all of us agreed.
It's about well, there's a lotgoing on on the technological field, like
a I, artificial intelligence and alot of more the Internet of course,
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and everything what's happening, and wethe people have to cope with it and
adjust to what's happening. And sometimesthat's difficult, certainly for older people,
I think. And it's also abit scary because yeah, it just is
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there and it develops and it's new, so it's yeah, it can be
scary. So I made a songabout it because not all of us agreed,
and suddenly it's there, so wehave to cope with it. And
I think it's a what you seein the holland, there's a big mistrust
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between people and government, for instance. I think that's also the case in
America and everywhere else. There's thisbig, different, big gap between government
and people. And and also there'sthis technology which is new, and there
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is fake news, and there's allall kinds of stuff we don't control.
So it all comes together with it'sa danger for human context, I think
relations because you don't know what whatis real anymore on television or in the
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media, you can't be sure ifit's if it's real or not. So
well, I don't say it's thewrong thing, but it's well, we
have to think about that and don'tand don't forget who we are and our
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human feelings and a human side oflife. Yeah, humanity is very important.
We got to hang on to thatevery chance we got, of course.
Yeah. Okay, tell you what, Harry. Let's take a listen
to it and then we'll come backand talk. Okay, okay, okay,
awesome, check this out. Everybody, here we go and well,
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I'll take over an a dream whichshe knows your name. I'm not sure
what they want for me. Check. I want to fill your touch right
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now. Don't go official life.I don't want to sit this and not
all about agreed, dr this allylast a time for pretending. Just take
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a look into my eyes. Believethe teams are an I freak you are
we steal you and me or wefor see now I need your love.
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I want to be touch right now. No one official life. I don't
want to sit as any that otherus agree the truth? This all last
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up time, don't pretend to whatfashion life, no time A natural friend
until the iustand says your lace andfeeling each other's heart be no one official
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life. I don't want to sitesand live. That was kind of a
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cool song, Harry, Thank youfor sharing it with us, Thank you,
thank you. So one of thequestions I'd like to ask a lot
of the guesses about scams. So, since you're obviously from your up,
I don't know if it's a littlebit different there, but what are the
scams that you guys as musicians,that people try to pray on you guys,
anything that you want to point outto us. I don't know what
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do you mean by scams? Whatdo you what do you mean scams where
people are trying to get you tohey, here's like you could do a
show but you have to sell athousand dollars with the tickets and things like
that like that. Yeah, well, you never can be sure, but
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I'm very careful with that. Andof course there are people who try to
advantage take advantage of you. Butit's the best thing is to keep the
human relation central and then and don'tcommunicate only by mail or you never know.
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You never know who is a mailwith feel and that's a dangerous Yeah,
fair enough, So so sorrental.So are you real this? Why
are you real? Am I real? I think I'm real, But I
don't know. It depends on whoyou asked. That's a loaded question.
You're gonna get a lot of differentanswers. Okay, Well, so let's
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tell us about your favorite eighties song. I love the eighties. I'm sure
there's a song you can think aboutthat you love from the eighties. Wow,
all right, there's there's such alot of music and the eighties,
well, I have to say,when Prince came, I think it was
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eighty five eighty six that turned meon. Yeah, yeah, that was
that was great, But that that'ssuch a lot of music. But I
definitely Prince was one of the highlights. Yeah, definitely talented talented musician and
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multi instrumentalists. Right, So examplefor me as a musician to do things
yourself, learn things yourself, haveyour own studio and equipment, and do
what you like. Yeah. Sois that part of your inspiration to become
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a multi instrumentalist yourself? Yeah?Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He
was, Yeah, Okay, howmany instruments do you play? Roughly?
Are we talking about like two tenttwenty? Well, I have, well
really play that's only drums, bass, guitar, and a little piano.
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But as a therapist, I haveto connect with my clients. So that
can be any instrument like the celloor gamba or African other African percussion things.
So I have to connect. Thatdoes not say that I'm a very
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talented gam bay player, but butI have to connect those are yourself?
Sure maybe you are, yeah,but it's enough to connect and that's important
that Yeah, and then it's tenor fifteen instruments. Yeah, yeah.
So I love the music therapy forpeople that don't know, could you describe
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it in a sentence or two?What is it? Wow? It's it's
like psychotherapy, but you use musicas an instrument to help your clients.
For instance, I have very chaoticclients and so giving them some kind of
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structure helps them to uh well,to live in a more pleasant way.
And music is structured in time.You have the the well three minute song
has an intro in an end,and a solo and chorus, and it's
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very structural. So composing with thecomputer I do a lot. But also
drumming is very good for your well, for the structure and and for your
mind, the relation between your armsand your legs. So I make a
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lot of songs with my clients,and and I have young clients like adolescence,
and it's far for them. It'smuch easier to make music than talk
about things because they are well insecure, mostly don't know what to do,
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don't know who they are, theyhave not defined identity yet. So I
make lyrics with them on a safeway, in a safe way about everything,
and they learn how to express themselvesand how they feel. And so
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I use that, Yeah, forinstances. There are a lot of ways
you can use music in therapy.I also have families, complete families who
come to me, dysfunctional families withdysfunctional patterns in the communication, and I
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invite them to come in and weimprovise music with each other, and within
seconds, everybody hears what's the problembecause it's about communication and when it there's
a dysfunctional thing, it doesn't soundright. So we try to fix it
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in the music to make things soundright or better. Yeah, I think
that's and then we and then wemake this translation to the real world in
daily life. Yeah, that's verypowerful and that's great to hear. Yeah,
tell us a little bit about yourwebsite. Where can people touch base
with you, listen to your musicand support you on Harry Kavin dot com
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very simple, Harry kappan dot comand other information you can get with my
management by Michael go for well known. So I like that and I'm also
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when you type Harry kapanill on onthe computer, you'll get LinkedIn and Facebook
and Instagram. It's all that,Okay, Well, Harry, it was
an absolute pleasure, and I reallyreally want to thank you for being on
the show tonight. I think yourstory is inspiring and I'm very glad to
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know. Especially the music therapy thingin addition to the music, I think
it is a very powerful thing.So I commend you for doing it.
Thank you, thank you, andI'm glad you're having me so okay,
thank you. You're welcome, Harry. So tenny listeners out there, thank
you so much for spending a littlebit of your time with Harry and I.
We hope your own unique story getsheard around the world. My name
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is Sarrontos, and please join meevery Tuesday night to your other awesome artists
share they're fascinating behind the scene storiesright here at the Reality Radio one oh
one The Songwriter Show. Have agreat night, everybody. I love you
guys. There was a Dapon backin eighteen eighty two reminds us not to
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take each other for granding. Oftenhappens without us realizing it, So don't
fall into life, but try downsizingit. Days men for swimming while was
still yummy food and Comfrey toes,waving the flag by the band falls bigness
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and with the fires showing up.If you're up today, be gray fun.
If you're working today, be gayfar. If you're a kid today,
I'll be laid by day. Pleasebe kind and have fun in your
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life, enjoying in here. Thelast few drops of summer close your eyes
and imagine that you're free and openyour eyes and act like a free days
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man for swimming all the water stillon young food and comfrey clothes, waving
flag love ban farm fitness in afarm with the firework shun a crown.
If you're up today, be grateful. If you're working today, be gratefu.
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If you're a kid today, begrateful. Happy late birthday. It's
not a day for everyone to dropup some trees through a local hospital lord
by station by the way, wherewas the last time? Will actually dank
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your bars. If you're up today, be grateful. If you're working today,
be gratefu. If you're a kidtoday, be grateful. Happy labor
Birthday, Birdairday. Thank you forlistening to The Songwriter Show. To keep
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no, no singing hanging out