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things. I really love music, but putting myself really out there is not always the easiest. So yeah, I
always go through this cycle, but I want to be stronger. I definitely don't want to come across as
just a cry-baby. Yeah, I mean, I guess I live and learn, every day I try.

BiTS: Well, let me say that I'm a good bit older than you and I know very well that there is no
professional musician in the world that does not have doubts about their capacity and their ability
and whether they're doing what they should be doing. It's very, very common indeed.

HPK: Yeah, I believe so.

BiTS: Tell me something about what your plans for the future are? You’re talking now about
staying in Louisiana, presumably looking for gigs and that kind of thing? Do you manage yourself,
or do you have a manager?

HPK: No, I do pretty much everything
on my own at the moment. I have this
gut feeling that there's a reason why I'm
down here and I am just learning and
taking it in all I can. Not only musically,
but just the culture and it's very
different than upstate New York. I said
this to somebody once before, but it's
actually really good and bad and it's all
here, and for some reason, I think I'm
supposed to be here and learning all this
and just really, being in it, being in the
middle of it. But I don't really plan on
living in Louisiana very long term,
either. I actually really love upstate New
York, so I guess I have to just see how it
goes. But one thing I learned about life

so far is I can kind of plan all I want, but
sometimes things happen [chuckling]
and it kind of leads you to different
directions too. So I just constantly try to
meditate and pray and see, try to
hopefully hear the right voice within me
and hopefully make more wise decisions
than the bad decisions on the way.

BiTS: One of the things that I noticed from your publicity material is that in photographs, you
seem always to be wearing a hat. Is that deliberate?

HPK: Because I wasn't used to being out and being photographed and all that, so when I first
started performing, hats were the easiest thing to do for my hair. I really just didn’t know what
to do with my hair, and plus, I really didn't like myself in the photos. And when you wear the hat
it already covers one-third of your face, so it's kind of cheating in a way. It just made it easy and
if the stage light is too bright, I can just kind of use it as a shade [laughs]. But lately I tend to do it
less. Maybe because it's so hot down in Louisiana, I don't know, but I think you just kind of get
used to seeing yourself in the photos. After all, this is just what I look like. Just live with it. Don't
try too hard. But yeah, I do still love hats, but maybe I’m not so stuck with it like I’ve got to wear

a hat. I guess it used to be like that, but now it's like I may, I may not.