AB: Speaking of scary times, what was it like coming out to your parents?

KK: It was so – I didn’t even really come out. My mom had been reading letters that I’d written to various girls.

AB: Oh no!

KK: Oh yeah. Totally. And, I don’t know, maybe I just wanted them to know. I left one kind of laying around the house – not open, not really out, so maybe that was my subconscious going, “Oh, out with it!” My mom didn’t really – as liberal as she is, it just wasn’t easy for her. And my dad, he just sat down with me the next day and said, “Hey, kid, I love you. Don’t worry about anything. Everything’s great.” It was so simple. That was it. My mom? Well, you know moms and daughters.

AB: And how old were you?

KK: I was about fifteen. Fourteen or fifteen.

AB: Wow, so you were like a kid. That must have been such a relief. Now, I know you did music for Into the Wild and August Rush. So, when you sit down for that type of project, is it a different approach, because you know visuals will be attached?

KK: Well, preferably you’re connected to the image. With Into The Wild, I was lucky enough to be watching the scenes. They just put them up in front of me, so I was watching and writing them. It’s really fun, because there are so many more things that you think about when you put music to picture. I think a lot composers, that’s what they know. They take it for granted that they just watch picture and write music. I come from the perspective of making albums, so it was really exciting. I got really into everything – the feeling and what’s happening in context and how music can change the emotional content of the scene. I get excited about it. I feel like some composers, it is just second nature to them.

AB: Now, is Kaki a common shortening of Katherine or is that something that you came up with?

KK: It’s not common, no. It’s something that my parents came up with or it may have been that was trying to say Katherine but couldn’t and said Kaki, and they thought it was cute. No one’s ever really gotten to the bottom of where my name came from!