Kalvin Madsen shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Kalvin, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Nowadays I spend most of my time sleeping and working. I usually wake up around 7:30 and spend some time preparing for the day, before heading to work at 8. I work in an office, at a desk. In fact I am here right now, writing this. I suppose working here is the closest I have ever been to writing for money, so that is a great success in my book. Anyway, after 5pm I am no longer a paralegal, but have instead transformed into a pedestrian walking Lake Ave, toward the Sierra Madre Mountains. I arrive home and transform once more into a cook and a custodian, consumed in chores and the preparation of dinner. These activities usually conclude around 9-9:30pm. Then I will spend a feverish half hour trying to work on some aimless creative project until I am washed over with confusion and insecurity and must return to bed.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a creative writer and musician, among other things. I have been working in this creative space for many years, working in a variety of mediums to tell stories, and make art. I have several projects rolling their way to realization, such as my book of short stories Platforms & Stations, my upcoming album The Information Age, and the third issue of Low Hanging Fruit Magazine, a project I founded and operate.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I was sitting in my apartment the other day watching an old movie my dad made with Jennifer Tilly, Man With A Gun, and a very peculiar feeling came over me which led me to begin this writing.
After you lose a loved one, as I just lost my father, your imagination can run a bit wild. While I have not held any strong religious beliefs in my adult life, I still had the capacity of imagining my father looking down on us from above, in a spiritual sense – in the same way I have imagined my late brother Hudson does. I would imagine them watching over us, either for entertainment or with some intention of helping us from wherever they are. I felt a sort of pity for them, in this circumstance, because I could only imagine how much they would want to just speak out to us, or communicate with us somehow.
I thought of this experience, watching your loved ones as they wandered the world alive, and you are a sort of ghost who cannot interact with them. But what perhaps brought me to finally realize the unique implications of having a prolific actor for a father was when I was watching Man With a Gun after my father had passed. To my surprise and emotional confusion, I found myself experiencing this astral yearning to reach through impassible boundaries. Through time and space. As I watched my father in this role I became the ghost who cannot interact with my loved one, watching him as I imagined his ghost watching me. I could almost laugh at the strangeness of my own thought, but found it so peculiar.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I pretty much gave up all my creative ambitions a year ago, around the time I got out of college and moved back to Pasadena. It was hard to justify this path when there has been no success, no money raised, nothing to help my survival physically. Honestly devoting myself too strongly to this path was risking my safety and to a certain extent my life – it is a very dangerous time to be unemployed with no financial support system or realistic career progress. Things got very dark, and so I set about trying to enter the legal world. Since then I became a paralegal, but have been trying to keep my projects up anyway. Squeezing them in where I can, as they say.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
My mother, certainly. Her incredible character gives her great power.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Every time I eat food late at night.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kalvinmmadsen.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: @kalmadsen
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/4oE6B5oUs0M?si=79bbA7JFoAV83N3e
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kal-madsen
- Other: https://linktr.ee/kalmadsen
