- Hello, everybody.

I'm Satori Shakoor.

Welcome to Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove, where Detroit's talented artists take the stage, and share insights into their creations.

Stay tuned, and plug into some straight up energy right here on Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove.

- [Announcer] Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, The Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (playing upbeat electronic music) (music fades) (playing upbeat electronic music) ♪ Right where you are ♪ In reverie ♪ Emergent theme ♪ You have permission ♪ Right where you are ♪ Invest return ♪ Don't crash and burn ♪ Be the expression ♪ Right where you are, what you say ♪ ♪ Be bold and free ♪ Request for me ♪ Rise to receive it ♪ Right where you are, what you say ♪ ♪ Spectrum and found ♪ Living profound ♪ While standing for you (singer vocalizing) ♪ Right where you are ♪ Eyes on the mark ♪ Till it just starts ♪ With right and center ♪ Right where you are ♪ Adjusting starts ♪ With whose new star ♪ To mark your distance ♪ Right where you are ♪ What you say ♪ Above the dance ♪ Of tears and sweat ♪ You are the captain ♪ Right where you are, what you say ♪ ♪ Lower your guard ♪ You've come so far ♪ We're rooting for you (singer vocalizing) (singer vocalizing) (singer vocalizing) (singer vocalizing) (music fades) (playing upbeat electronic music) (music fades) - We are back from the stage from that phenomenal, incredible performance by Kevin Reynolds, who tore it up.

Hi, Kevin.

- Hey, how are you?

- I'm very good.

So techno?

- Yes.

- What was your introduction to it?

- Introduction for me came on the radio in Detroit.

It was never in the plan for me to get into this music.

I just was fascinated with it, I was fascinated with science fiction, and futurism, and I just found it, the music coincided with it.

- [Satori] So that's what pushed you into performing?

- Yeah, performing, and then seeing the people that I heard on the radio, and then seeing them perform later in life, and realizing that this music comes from the city of Detroit.

It had a huge impact on me.

And then I started creating music, but at the same time, started performing as well.

So it was kind of hand in hand.

I never DJ'd, I only performed live with all my equipment.

- [Satori] Where was the first place you performed?

- The first place I performed, Grand Trunk Pub Friends here in Detroit.

Used to be a little ticket station for the rails, for the railroad.

- Will you ever forget it?

- (laughing) No.

All four people, I will never forget it.

(Satori laughs) - What did you perform for us today?

- The stuff that I performed today is all from my recent album, A Certain Circumstance.

Osunlade's Yoruba Records.

He's been a longtime mentor.

It's songs directly from the album.

- And how would you describe your music?

- I would say it's music built for athletic response.

It's music that is designed for the body as the mind and spirit, 'cause they're intertwined, the mind and the body.

So I feel like my music is something for your head, heart, and soul, and your body.

- Why did you choose the songs that you chose today?

- I chose these songs today because I felt like they represent where I'm at right now.

- [Satori] Where is that?

- Discovery.

(laughing) Yeah, yeah.

And journey.

And just being at peace with yourself.

I think that's, there's a lot of movement going on.

There's a lot of things happening around us, and sometimes you need to bring it back in.

And I hope that my music does that, and creates this great, positive energy.

- Do you have a mission?

- Yeah, just make people feel better about their daily life.

If I can make one person get through some difficult times, I had a friend that lost his father during the past couple months, and he said that my album helped him navigate that, and brought him a lot of joy.

That's worth all of it right there.

- You wanna heal the world?

- Help people, yeah.

'Cause music helped me.

Yeah.

It helped heal me.

- How so?

- I grew up in Detroit, we didn't have a lot.

My mom struggled, single mom, and now she's an MD, medical doctor.

Yeah, and about to retire.

And for me, it's, I had a lot of loss in my life.

I lost my dad when I was a kid, in a car accident.

And then lost my brother over in Iraq.

So there's a lot of difficult things I had to navigate, and music was the key for me to navigate those.

- What do you want us to take from our experience of your performance?

- I would just like people to take away that no matter how difficult things are going for you, everything is temporary, and you can find joy through things in life, through music, through food, through whatever, through reading books.

And I just want people to have a more joyful life, I guess.

- When you're in your zone up there, and you're giving us what we need to heal, how do you feel?

- I feel like I'm in my most natural state.

I feel like all the tensions and all the difficult things that are going on around me, I feel like they're being released when I perform, through positive things.

And yeah, for me it's just, up on that stage, I feel just elevated to another level.

Like I'm almost floating above.

That's how I feel when I perform.

- Thank you so much, Kevin.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- And thank you for watching Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove, and we'll see you next time.

(funky upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for Detroit Performs is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, The Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(funky upbeat music) (soft piano music)