Speaker 1: Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I can say about the
Speaker 2: Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1: Is that if you enter it, it's like a.
Speaker 2: Family, and that family perspective is part of the thing
Speaker 2: that helped me developed not only as a musician, but
Speaker 2: as a person, and also helped prevent me from getting
Speaker 2: into some of the pitfalls that exists in being from
Speaker 2: an urban environment. I can remember in the day, a
Speaker 2: lot of my teachers will call me and say, Hey,
Speaker 2: are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
Speaker 2: And at the same time I would get the same
Speaker 2: call from my homies and they would say, you know,
Speaker 2: let's go do something stupid.
Speaker 1: You know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 3: I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to another episode of the
Speaker 3: Music Saved Me Podcast, where we showcase the force of
Speaker 3: nature that we know in our lives called music. Our
Speaker 3: guest is a neo classical pianist who's performed with the
Speaker 3: likes of Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. Black Bawk knows the
Speaker 3: power of music firsthand, growing up as a child prodigy
Speaker 3: in the inner city of Detroit. So first, welcome to
Speaker 3: the show. Tell everyone who you are and how has
Speaker 3: music saved you.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Well, yes, music has saved me so many times.
Speaker 1: My name is black Back.
Speaker 2: I'm a neoclassical composer and pianist from Detroit, Michigan. And
Speaker 2: that being said alone, being from Detroit, Michigan, music was
Speaker 2: something that saved me a bit from the environment that
Speaker 2: I was born and raised in. One of the things
Speaker 2: that I can say about the Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1: Is that if you enter it, it's.
Speaker 2: Like a family, and that family perspective is part of
Speaker 2: the thing that helped me developed not only as a
Speaker 2: musician but as a person, and also helped prevent me
Speaker 2: from getting into some of the pitfalls that exists being
Speaker 2: from an urban environment. I can remember in the day,
Speaker 2: a lot of my teachers will call me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
Speaker 2: And at the same time I would get the same
Speaker 2: call from my homies and they would say, you know,
Speaker 2: let's go do something stupid. And you know, it was
Speaker 2: like this sort of choice of which one would I choose,
Speaker 2: And you know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 1: I felt that music was the thing that.
Speaker 2: The vehicle that could get me from one environment and
Speaker 2: could allow me to see the world, which it did.
Speaker 1: And then when we speak about.
Speaker 2: Mental health, and that has always been something that has
Speaker 2: been a challenge for I think everyone. I always have
Speaker 2: this quote that I say, which is, this world is
Speaker 2: so complex that you need therapy. The reason why we
Speaker 2: need therapy is that you need someone else to help
Speaker 2: you kind of navigate the pitfalls of life.
Speaker 1: This life has become very complex. For me. Therapy and
Speaker 1: music have been kind of one and the same.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have had external therapy, but the way that
Speaker 2: I am able to express myself and have an outlet
Speaker 2: is through music my writing. I think that music has
Speaker 2: saved me time and time again, and not only just
Speaker 2: in a physical way, but I said a mental and
Speaker 2: spiritual way because of that strong connection to being a
Speaker 2: creative and dodging some of the things that could potentially
Speaker 2: be detrimental to my life.
Speaker 3: So you feel music has therapeutic and healing forces.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3: How has music impacted you, you know at a particularly
Speaker 3: challenging time in your life?
Speaker 2: Well, I can talk about twenty twenty, which was a
Speaker 2: challenging time for all of us.
Speaker 1: Being that you know it was the beginning of.
Speaker 2: COVID in the lockdown and one of the things that
Speaker 2: kept me sort of kept the balance of my life
Speaker 2: during that crazy time was music. I wrote my first album,
Speaker 2: Black Book, during that period, and the thing that was
Speaker 2: very cool was that I was able to do it
Speaker 2: in one hundred and twenty one consecutive days. So music
Speaker 2: was the thing that kind of every day, you know,
Speaker 2: while so many people were kind of going crazy, going
Speaker 2: what do I do? I went, let me focus on music.
Speaker 2: Music is going to be the thing that's going to
Speaker 2: keep me very much balanced throughout this crazy process, and
Speaker 2: it kind of worked. One hundred and twenty one consecutive days.
Speaker 2: A couple months later, I signed a record deal and
Speaker 2: the rest is ancient history.
Speaker 3: Wow, congratulations on all that good focus. That's pretty incredible.
Speaker 3: So what does it mean to have your music profoundly
Speaker 3: impact others?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's the reason that I do it. You know,
Speaker 2: the reason that I do music is as an act
Speaker 2: of service. It's important to me that that I'm putting
Speaker 2: something into the world that represents love, that represents kindness,
Speaker 2: that represents healing, that represents being emotionally just level.
Speaker 1: For me, that's the goal, you know, that's like the
Speaker 1: number one goal.
Speaker 2: I believe that musicians have a great power, and to
Speaker 2: use that power in a way that is of service
Speaker 2: to others is exactly why we were given the power
Speaker 2: in the first place.
Speaker 1: So my music is all about that.
Speaker 2: I always say that I want to be a walking
Speaker 2: embodiment of what love is, and I want my music
Speaker 2: to be a reflection of that walking embodiment of love.
Speaker 3: I love that embodiment of love and great power. Indeed,
Speaker 3: is there a particular musical genre or artists or bands
Speaker 3: that have impacted you in certain situations that you found yourself, then.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think all of them have impacted me. Each genre
Speaker 2: has impacted me in a different way. Initially a hip
Speaker 2: hop kid from the West Side of Detroit, I grew
Speaker 2: up listening to R and B and motown. Of course,
Speaker 2: jazz was very influential in my life, but I started
Speaker 2: playing classical at the age of four, so it's just
Speaker 2: been this whole mix up of everything. I think that
Speaker 2: if more people listen to more, the more you expand
Speaker 2: your listening, the more you're able to tap into different
Speaker 2: emotions that come from different pieces of music. Sometimes people
Speaker 2: I have friends that have you know, been in the
Speaker 2: same room with me listening to something like, you know,
Speaker 2: like Celtic music, and they're like, what are you listening to?
Speaker 2: Saying you don't understand, you don't feel. You have to
Speaker 2: just take a moment to feel what the story is
Speaker 2: behind it. And each drama gives you a different piece
Speaker 2: of information and that information can be used to be healing,
Speaker 2: or to be uplift thing, or to tell a story.
Speaker 2: And that's what music is for, is to bring us
Speaker 2: out of our element and into someone else's world and
Speaker 2: to allow us to see and view and witness a
Speaker 2: different world.
Speaker 3: I love it. How does expression on social issues impact
Speaker 3: your view of music?
Speaker 1: Oh, My music is very much based around social social
Speaker 1: issues and the impact that they have.
Speaker 2: I believe that many composers from you know, very long
Speaker 2: ago did the same thing. They wrote about the things
Speaker 2: that were affecting them in their daily lives and affecting
Speaker 2: the people around them. I think that as a composer,
Speaker 2: it is important that we begin to see and address
Speaker 2: the things that matter, the social issues.
Speaker 1: You know, right now, I'm very much.
Speaker 2: Affected by this mass shooting community. I don't even know
Speaker 2: what it is that we have going on in America
Speaker 2: right now. I think, you know, something needs to be
Speaker 2: said about it, And who better than someone who's tapped
Speaker 2: into this source of energy like music to speak about it? So,
Speaker 2: you know, I consider that my job and my duty.
Speaker 3: How important is a sense of humor that you convey
Speaker 3: in your music can storytelling?
Speaker 1: I'm just a funny yuay. I'd just like to laugh
Speaker 1: a lot, So.
Speaker 3: Me too.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people, you know.
Speaker 2: I think it was Charlie Chaplin said if you don't
Speaker 2: a day without laughter is a wasted day. Or I'm
Speaker 2: just that same way, Like, if I'm not laughing, this
Speaker 2: is a waste, you know. Like I think that that's
Speaker 2: very important at storytelling. I think humor plays a very
Speaker 2: big part of telling. Any story is a way to
Speaker 2: kind of break up the story. If it's a very
Speaker 2: serious story, that's definitely a way to kind of break
Speaker 2: up the action and have a little fun.
Speaker 3: You gotta laugh. I love it all right. Here's a
Speaker 3: crazy one. What do you think the world would be
Speaker 3: like without music?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: The world wouldn't exist without music. I mean everything is vibration.
Speaker 2: What we see around us our reflections of vibrations. So
Speaker 2: I think that the world is built upon music. Everything
Speaker 2: is music. There's no substance that exists without vibration, and
Speaker 2: I think that the organization of vibration and air is
Speaker 2: what we call.
Speaker 1: Music, and it's sort of the substance that allows humans
Speaker 1: to be human.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's anyone that you'll ever meet that
Speaker 2: says I don't like music.
Speaker 1: I think people will say they don't like a certain genre.
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't like country, maybe I don't like classical,
Speaker 2: maybe I don't like rap.
Speaker 1: But you never hear anyone say I don't like music.
Speaker 2: So I think it's a a central part of our
Speaker 2: human experience.
Speaker 4: Must have been a few years ago that I heard
Speaker 4: of Black Boy and started to get a little familiar
Speaker 4: with his music. But it wasn't until I joined the
Speaker 4: Pistons six months ago in terms of a career changed
Speaker 4: for me. And you know, our past cross professionally, and
Speaker 4: I was familiar with his work, just kind of got
Speaker 4: reacquainted and re introduced to his music in a much
Speaker 4: more personal way. Ever since I discovered his work, I've
Speaker 4: I've just kind of been taken back by it. It
Speaker 4: is powerful, you know, his music in general is just
Speaker 4: it's brilliant in so many different ways. It's hard to
Speaker 4: just sum up so quickly. Every time he gets behind
Speaker 4: the piano, it's you're going to feel something. You're probably
Speaker 4: going to feel multiple things. And when it's done, when
Speaker 4: he finishes, it's just it's very powerful. You feel like
Speaker 4: you just heard a story or experienced the story and
Speaker 4: one word hasn't been spoken, you know. And I just
Speaker 4: think it's it's really powerful his music, how it acts
Speaker 4: as a storyteller without using words.
Speaker 3: How does it feel when one of your fans connects
Speaker 3: with you regarding your music?
Speaker 2: Those moments are so very special, And the thing that
Speaker 2: I find is that they're so individualized, you know. I
Speaker 2: know that there may be other artists that you know,
Speaker 2: someone says the same thing as another person, as another
Speaker 2: person other person. I think that I've never heard the
Speaker 2: same thing twice. It's amazing that music with no words
Speaker 2: can convey such a message and can allow the mind
Speaker 2: to travel in a way that creates an environment where
Speaker 2: someone's able to feel something, or express something, or experience
Speaker 2: something that you know, the net person sitting next to
Speaker 2: him is having a totally different experience. For me, that
Speaker 2: that feedback from fans makes my day. It makes me
Speaker 2: understand that what I'm doing means.
Speaker 1: Something, and that I'm on the right path and I
Speaker 1: need to continue. I think that that, like I said,
Speaker 1: it's service.
Speaker 3: Okay, And one more question, describe the spiritual component of music?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, the spiritual component.
Speaker 2: This is probably a very complex question to answer because
Speaker 2: the spiritual component changes and shifts so rapidly between you know,
Speaker 2: one composition or one piece of music in the next.
Speaker 2: The thing that I can say that they do have
Speaker 2: in common is that I'm able to feel music in
Speaker 2: a way that is beyond just my ears.
Speaker 1: It's beyond just what I can see or what I
Speaker 1: can hear.
Speaker 2: It's something that hits my soul in a way, and
Speaker 2: they're there's information that's being transferred very much.
Speaker 1: The spiritual component for.
Speaker 2: Me is that, you know, the music is the universal language,
Speaker 2: and I hear that and I feel that and its abilities.
Speaker 1: My ability to.
Speaker 2: Speak that language also allows me to hear that language
Speaker 2: in a different way. I think that every time I
Speaker 2: listen to music, I don't just.
Speaker 1: Hear it with my ears.
Speaker 2: I hear it with my soul, and that allows me
Speaker 2: again to be able to express that myself or tell
Speaker 2: that story. I always say, I love that I've had
Speaker 2: the highest highs and the lowest lows. Why Because now
Speaker 2: I can tell a story of the highest highs in
Speaker 2: the lowest lows, So that in itself is an expression
Speaker 2: of how the spiritual component.
Speaker 1: Of music affects me.
Speaker 2: I feel it from the very top to the very bottom.
Speaker 3: Black Bok, thank you so much for joining us today
Speaker 3: on the Music Saved Me Podcast. Congratulations on all your
Speaker 3: successes in life and in music.