Roll of the Dice: 5 Questions with Joker’s Hand

---

Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.

Genre-bending duo Joker’s Hand released Seeing Red EP earlier this year. The alt, hip-hop, punk pairing of Kevin Kawano and Matt Lau took a few moments to sit down with TGEFM for a quick Roll of the Dice interview.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the release of your EP, Seeing Red! What should TGEFM readers know about Joker’s Hand and this EP?
(KEVIN) Thank you so much for having us! We’re a duo that formed during our fourth year in
college up in Santa Cruz. Neither of us were particularly thrilled by what we were studying, but
both of us have always had a deep, undying love for music. As friends, we have always pushed
each other out of our own comfort zones. Stepping up onto stage, especially for Matt, was very
hard when we first started. I had played in garage bands and performed in front of crowds prior
to this…but I was never as comfortable on stage as I was with Matt. As friends and as
professionals, we truly bring out the best in each other.
(MATT) Our new EP Seeing Red is a very special record to us. It features one of the heaviest
songs we’ve ever written along with some of our deepest, most personal lyrics. The lead single
off the EP, “Danny Phantom,” features the man himself, Jakob Nowell. We initially met Jakob
while playing a show together at The Venice West. We went on to play a few more shows
together in San Diego and Austin. Watching him perform is such a treat. The guy is a natural
born entertainer. He makes everybody in the room feel warm and welcome and puts on a hell of
a show. When Kevin and I came up with the idea to have him feature on our song, neither of us
actually thought it would happen. We worked with our producer Steve Ornest to shape the song
before presenting it to him. And then there he was, laying down the vocals at Total Access
Recording in Redondo Beach. It was such a fun session and hang. We even got to perform the
song live with him later in the year!

You guys met at film school. How do the elements of theatrics and cinematics play into
your process, both in the studio and at live performances?
(KEVIN) That’s technically not true. I was studying film & digital media while Matt was studying
environmental science. However, with the amount of time Matt had spent placating me and
listening to me go on and on about what I was learning, I’m sure he picked up on a lot of the
curriculum. Theatrics and cinematics do play a decent role when writing music. Whenever I hear
a song, I tend to let my mind wander into whatever visuals it can imagine, almost like a music
video playing in my head. I always envision what the visual mood of the song is during the
writing process, it helps me keep the song cohesive and attach it to a specific feeling.

The world has seen some absurd levels of shit over the last few years, and you’ve
remained fairly active in the #StopAsianHate activist community. How has the political
and cultural landscape played into your sound and writing?
(KEVIN) #StopAsianHate is a cause we have always gotten behind. We have been part of
multiple rallies, with some of them having us perform during. We’re always happy to lend our
voices to a cause like this. People were being needlessly attacked because of a heavily
politicized disease. At the end of the day, I blame the president at the time and his never ending,
selfish jabber that he would constantly spew to the public. Calling Covid the “China virus,” for
example, simply made anyone who looked remotely Asian a target for no damn good reason.
This was a situation that was affecting all of us, but one man tried to blame it on one race of
people. It was disgusting. The political state of the world during his presidency and its residual
effects birthed many ideas for us, the best example being “Hijacked,” from our first EP released
in 2020.

What does Joker’s Hand have in store for fans in 2023 and beyond?
(MATT) We have a ton of shows planned for 2023! We’ll be playing a couple shows in Austin
this March. It’ll be our second time playing a showcase put on by 93.7 KLBJ Rock Radio and
Total Access Recording. In May we’ll be playing the Flavor Festival in Stockton, and by then we
will likely have the bare bones for our next release. We’re planning on more releases later this
year, so stoked for you to hear them!

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found
most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM
readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
(MATT) A couple of badass local LA bands we think people should know about are Fencer and
Holy Wars. Fencer is a super tight garage rock trio. They’re really cool dudes that we first
connected with at a live-streamed concert we played together during the first year of the COVID
pandemic. We’ve since stayed in touch and recently got to open up their album release show for
their debut LP in early February. Their self-titled record is called Fencer, so definitely check
them out! Following that, Holy Wars is a synthy, heavy, dark pop rock duo that we first
discovered through the streaming platform gods, the holy algorithms haha. We connected with
them on social media and have had the pleasure of meeting them a few times. They put on
absolutely killer shows and they’re songs blend genres and just bleed raw attitude. Their full
length EAT IT UP SPIT IT OUT is a must listen.