Exploring Nature, Film and Music with Roah Summit’s Kevin...

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Exploring Nature, Film and Music with Roah Summit’s Kevin Clark

To see more of Kevin’s photos, check out @kevinclark and @roahsummit on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.

Everybody remembers their world getting rocked at least once in high school. Maybe it was by your own personal Jordan Catalano, or the first time you read The Catcher in the Rye. For Kevin Clark, it was with a phrase: “Story is king.”

“It’s changed my world,” the 22-year-old says of his teacher’s advice. “Since I got that nugget, I started seeing things differently. Over time it was something I became obsessed with.”

Whether it’s the videos he directs for the band he plays keys in, Roah Summit (@roahsummit), or the expansive nature photos he posts, his images dig their hooks into you as deeply as a book you stay up reading till 3 a.m. Huskies curl on a blanket of snow in front of a petal-pink van with an open door. A selfie is so much more when it’s taken in a steaming, milky Icelandic hot spring. And the video he filmed for the band’s song “Take Care,” which tells the story of an interracial love affair, will leave your eyes blurry with tears.

“Being able to connect with other people [is inspirational],” he says. “When you start, you don’t know what’s going to happen but you feel something — and that’s enough.”

His other inspiration is the great outdoors, which he spent exploring in earnest when he, a couple of buddies and eventually his family emptied their bank accounts and backpacked through New Zealand, Australia and Iceland for two months.

“Nature plays a big role [in my art],” he says. “Going into nature, there’s just a spirit. I’ve always loved being a part of that. I feel like it’s important to have something in your life that humbles you. Life is crazy and to go to a place where you are fully not in charge of a crazy terrain — it feels good to not be in control for a little bit.”

Growing up in Cathedral City, California, he always loved the mountains and making movies, but being in a band was never his plan. Three years ago, however, he met Jacob Perry, the lead singer of Roah Summit, and they began spending time in a warehouse they had access to — a massive man cave where they talked about their respective dreams: forming a band (Jacob) and becoming a film director (Kevin).

Once Jacob started the band, Kevin would hang out filming live videos of their jam sessions. “I found out I could plug the GarageBand app on my phone into speakers in the warehouse, and I just started playing weird noises though my phone. I just became infatuated with creating sounds. I learned the synth through trial and error,” he laughs. “I want to be like, ‘Yes, I was classically trained.’ But no, I really never played keys ever.”

Now, though, he can’t imagine not playing them. Nor can he imagine not making films. “We did a premiere of the ‘Take Care’ video in a theater and we decided we wanted to play the music live to the video,” he says. “So that literally was the experience of doing both at once — I’m playing keys and looking up at a giant movie screen. The two being in one was really amazing.”

The only problem? He’s used to telling stories from behind the camera.

“That’s the funniest thing about being in a band,” he says. “I don’t like being in the spotlight.”

—Rebecca Haithcoat for Instagram @music

by via Instagram Blog