Over at Jewcy, former Operation Ivy singer, Jesse Michaels, talks about his father, Leonard Michaels.

I want to ask you about your growing up.  Your father Leonard, was an accomplished writer.  Did this have any affect on how you turned out as an artist?

Yes definitely, he taught me the value, the importance of art.  It was never a consideration whether art was important, it was just a given.  I mean art in the largest sense of the word, movies, music, anything.  His psyche influenced mine and I definitely picked up this legacy of creative activity.  More importantly I always just loved him dearly, and I still do.  That was always more important than anything.  All the writer stuff my brother and I just made fun of, but that was definitely there and I’m sure that had some self-conscious implications.

What do you mean “writer stuff?”

He would get some award and we would think it was funny and make fun of him.  He would have writers over and they would have writer talk, and we were always sort of awe-struck.  At the same time he was just out dad and it was all just this drama he did in the world that had nothing to do with our relationship with him.

Did he know about your music?

Yeah he did.