April 16, 2025 • 14 mins
Join Lynn Hoffman for this classic replay with the inspiring story of the artist BLKBOK. He is the multi-talented Neo-Classical pianist who grew up in Detroit Michigan and found music has a saving grace in the chaos of growing up in the inner city community. BLKBOK shares his joy of music and how much he loves engaging with his music community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
One of the things that I can say about the
Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is that if you enter it, it's like a.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Family, and that family perspective is part of the thing
that helped me developed not only as a musician, but
as a person, and also helped prevent me from getting
into some of the pitfalls that exists in being from
an urban environment. I can remember in the day, a
lot of my teachers will call me and say, Hey,
are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
(00:29):
And at the same time I would get the same
call from my homies and they would say, you know,
let's go do something stupid.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to another episode of the
Music Saved Me Podcast, where we showcase the force of
nature that we know in our lives called music. Our
guest is a neo classical pianist who's performed with the
likes of Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. Black Bawk knows the
power of music firsthand, growing up as a child prodigy
(00:58):
in the inner city of Detroit. So first, welcome to
the show. Tell everyone who you are and how has
music saved you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Oh wow, Well, yes, music has saved me so many times.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
My name is black Back.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm a neoclassical composer and pianist from Detroit, Michigan. And
that being said alone, being from Detroit, Michigan, music was
something that saved me a bit from the environment that
I was born and raised in. One of the things
that I can say about the Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Is that if you enter it, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Like a family, and that family perspective is part of
the thing that helped me developed not only as a
musician but as a person, and also helped prevent me
from getting into some of the pitfalls that exists being
from an urban environment. I can remember in the day,
(01:56):
a lot of my teachers will call me and say, hey,
are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
And at the same time I would get the same
call from my homies and they would say, you know,
let's go do something stupid. And you know, it was
like this sort of choice of which one would I choose,
And you know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I felt that music was the thing that.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
The vehicle that could get me from one environment and
could allow me to see the world, which it did.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And then when we speak about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Mental health, and that has always been something that has
been a challenge for I think everyone. I always have
this quote that I say, which is, this world is
so complex that you need therapy. The reason why we
need therapy is that you need someone else to help
you kind of navigate the pitfalls of life.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
This life has become very complex. For me. Therapy and
music have been kind of one and the same.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, I have had external therapy, but the way that
I am able to express myself and have an outlet
is through music my writing. I think that music has
saved me time and time again, and not only just
in a physical way, but I said a mental and
spiritual way because of that strong connection to being a
(03:17):
creative and dodging some of the things that could potentially
be detrimental to my life.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So you feel music has therapeutic and healing forces.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
How has music impacted you, you know at a particularly
challenging time in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, I can talk about twenty twenty, which was a
challenging time for all of us.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Being that you know it was the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
COVID in the lockdown and one of the things that
kept me sort of kept the balance of my life
during that crazy time was music. I wrote my first album,
Black Book, during that period, and the thing that was
very cool was that I was able to do it
in one hundred and twenty one consecutive days. So music
(04:11):
was the thing that kind of every day, you know,
while so many people were kind of going crazy, going
what do I do? I went, let me focus on music.
Music is going to be the thing that's going to
keep me very much balanced throughout this crazy process, and
it kind of worked. One hundred and twenty one consecutive days.
A couple months later, I signed a record deal and
(04:33):
the rest is ancient history.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Wow, congratulations on all that good focus. That's pretty incredible.
So what does it mean to have your music profoundly
impact others?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh, that's the reason that I do it. You know,
the reason that I do music is as an act
of service. It's important to me that that I'm putting
something into the world that represents love, that represents kindness,
that represents healing, that represents being emotionally just level.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
For me, that's the goal, you know, that's like the
number one goal.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I believe that musicians have a great power, and to
use that power in a way that is of service
to others is exactly why we were given the power
in the first place.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So my music is all about that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I always say that I want to be a walking
embodiment of what love is, and I want my music
to be a reflection of that walking embodiment of love.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I love that embodiment of love and great power. Indeed,
is there a particular musical genre or artists or bands
that have impacted you in certain situations that you found yourself, then.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I think all of them have impacted me. Each genre
has impacted me in a different way. Initially a hip
hop kid from the West Side of Detroit, I grew
up listening to R and B and motown. Of course,
jazz was very influential in my life, but I started
playing classical at the age of four, so it's just
(06:23):
been this whole mix up of everything. I think that
if more people listen to more, the more you expand
your listening, the more you're able to tap into different
emotions that come from different pieces of music. Sometimes people
I have friends that have you know, been in the
same room with me listening to something like, you know,
like Celtic music, and they're like, what are you listening to?
(06:44):
Saying you don't understand, you don't feel. You have to
just take a moment to feel what the story is
behind it. And each drama gives you a different piece
of information and that information can be used to be healing,
or to be uplift thing, or to tell a story.
And that's what music is for, is to bring us
(07:06):
out of our element and into someone else's world and
to allow us to see and view and witness a
different world.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I love it. How does expression on social issues impact
your view of music?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, My music is very much based around social social
issues and the impact that they have.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I believe that many composers from you know, very long
ago did the same thing. They wrote about the things
that were affecting them in their daily lives and affecting
the people around them. I think that as a composer,
it is important that we begin to see and address
(07:48):
the things that matter, the social issues.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, right now, I'm very much.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Affected by this mass shooting community. I don't even know
what it is that we have going on in America
right now. I think, you know, something needs to be
said about it, And who better than someone who's tapped
into this source of energy like music to speak about it? So,
you know, I consider that my job and my duty.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
How important is a sense of humor that you convey
in your music can storytelling?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm just a funny yuay. I'd just like to laugh
a lot, So.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I'm one of those people, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think it was Charlie Chaplin said if you don't
a day without laughter is a wasted day. Or I'm
just that same way, Like, if I'm not laughing, this
is a waste, you know. Like I think that that's
very important at storytelling. I think humor plays a very
big part of telling. Any story is a way to
kind of break up the story. If it's a very
(08:52):
serious story, that's definitely a way to kind of break
up the action and have a little fun.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You gotta laugh. I love it all right. Here's a
crazy one. What do you think the world would be
like without music?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The world wouldn't exist without music. I mean everything is vibration.
What we see around us our reflections of vibrations. So
I think that the world is built upon music. Everything
is music. There's no substance that exists without vibration, and
I think that the organization of vibration and air is
(09:29):
what we call.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Music, and it's sort of the substance that allows humans
to be human.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I don't think there's anyone that you'll ever meet that
says I don't like music.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I think people will say they don't like a certain genre.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Maybe I don't like country, maybe I don't like classical,
maybe I don't like rap.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
But you never hear anyone say I don't like music.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So I think it's a a central part of our
human experience.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Must have been a few years ago that I heard
of Black Boy and started to get a little familiar
with his music. But it wasn't until I joined the
Pistons six months ago in terms of a career changed
for me. And you know, our past cross professionally, and
I was familiar with his work, just kind of got
(10:17):
reacquainted and re introduced to his music in a much
more personal way. Ever since I discovered his work, I've
I've just kind of been taken back by it. It
is powerful, you know, his music in general is just
it's brilliant in so many different ways. It's hard to
(10:38):
just sum up so quickly. Every time he gets behind
the piano, it's you're going to feel something. You're probably
going to feel multiple things. And when it's done, when
he finishes, it's just it's very powerful. You feel like
you just heard a story or experienced the story and
(11:00):
one word hasn't been spoken, you know. And I just
think it's it's really powerful his music, how it acts
as a storyteller without using words.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
How does it feel when one of your fans connects
with you regarding your music?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Those moments are so very special, And the thing that
I find is that they're so individualized, you know. I
know that there may be other artists that you know,
someone says the same thing as another person, as another
person other person. I think that I've never heard the
same thing twice. It's amazing that music with no words
(11:34):
can convey such a message and can allow the mind
to travel in a way that creates an environment where
someone's able to feel something, or express something, or experience
something that you know, the net person sitting next to
him is having a totally different experience. For me, that
(11:54):
that feedback from fans makes my day. It makes me
understand that what I'm doing means.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Something, and that I'm on the right path and I
need to continue. I think that that, like I said,
it's service.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Okay, And one more question, describe the spiritual component of music?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Oh wow, the spiritual component.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This is probably a very complex question to answer because
the spiritual component changes and shifts so rapidly between you know,
one composition or one piece of music in the next.
The thing that I can say that they do have
in common is that I'm able to feel music in
(12:46):
a way that is beyond just my ears.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's beyond just what I can see or what I
can hear.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
It's something that hits my soul in a way, and
they're there's information that's being transferred very much.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
The spiritual component for.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Me is that, you know, the music is the universal language,
and I hear that and I feel that and its abilities.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
My ability to.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Speak that language also allows me to hear that language
in a different way. I think that every time I
listen to music, I don't just.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Hear it with my ears.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I hear it with my soul, and that allows me
again to be able to express that myself or tell
that story. I always say, I love that I've had
the highest highs and the lowest lows. Why Because now
I can tell a story of the highest highs in
the lowest lows, So that in itself is an expression
(13:48):
of how the spiritual component.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Of music affects me.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I feel it from the very top to the very bottom.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Black Bok, thank you so much for joining us today
on the Music Saved Me Podcast. Congratulations on all your
successes in life and in music.
Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
One of the things that I can say about the
Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is that if you enter it, it's like a.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Family, and that family perspective is part of the thing
that helped me developed not only as a musician, but
as a person, and also helped prevent me from getting
into some of the pitfalls that exists in being from
an urban environment. I can remember in the day, a
lot of my teachers will call me and say, Hey,
are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
(00:29):
And at the same time I would get the same
call from my homies and they would say, you know,
let's go do something stupid.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
You know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to another episode of the
Music Saved Me Podcast, where we showcase the force of
nature that we know in our lives called music. Our
guest is a neo classical pianist who's performed with the
likes of Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. Black Bawk knows the
power of music firsthand, growing up as a child prodigy
(00:58):
in the inner city of Detroit. So first, welcome to
the show. Tell everyone who you are and how has
music saved you.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Oh wow, Well, yes, music has saved me so many times.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
My name is black Back.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm a neoclassical composer and pianist from Detroit, Michigan. And
that being said alone, being from Detroit, Michigan, music was
something that saved me a bit from the environment that
I was born and raised in. One of the things
that I can say about the Detroit music scene.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Is that if you enter it, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Like a family, and that family perspective is part of
the thing that helped me developed not only as a
musician but as a person, and also helped prevent me
from getting into some of the pitfalls that exists being
from an urban environment. I can remember in the day,
(01:56):
a lot of my teachers will call me and say, hey,
are you coming down to sit in with us tonight?
And at the same time I would get the same
call from my homies and they would say, you know,
let's go do something stupid. And you know, it was
like this sort of choice of which one would I choose,
And you know, the good thing is that I chose music.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I felt that music was the thing that.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
The vehicle that could get me from one environment and
could allow me to see the world, which it did.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And then when we speak about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Mental health, and that has always been something that has
been a challenge for I think everyone. I always have
this quote that I say, which is, this world is
so complex that you need therapy. The reason why we
need therapy is that you need someone else to help
you kind of navigate the pitfalls of life.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
This life has become very complex. For me. Therapy and
music have been kind of one and the same.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, I have had external therapy, but the way that
I am able to express myself and have an outlet
is through music my writing. I think that music has
saved me time and time again, and not only just
in a physical way, but I said a mental and
spiritual way because of that strong connection to being a
(03:17):
creative and dodging some of the things that could potentially
be detrimental to my life.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So you feel music has therapeutic and healing forces.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
How has music impacted you, you know at a particularly
challenging time in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, I can talk about twenty twenty, which was a
challenging time for all of us.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Being that you know it was the beginning of.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
COVID in the lockdown and one of the things that
kept me sort of kept the balance of my life
during that crazy time was music. I wrote my first album,
Black Book, during that period, and the thing that was
very cool was that I was able to do it
in one hundred and twenty one consecutive days. So music
(04:11):
was the thing that kind of every day, you know,
while so many people were kind of going crazy, going
what do I do? I went, let me focus on music.
Music is going to be the thing that's going to
keep me very much balanced throughout this crazy process, and
it kind of worked. One hundred and twenty one consecutive days.
A couple months later, I signed a record deal and
(04:33):
the rest is ancient history.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Wow, congratulations on all that good focus. That's pretty incredible.
So what does it mean to have your music profoundly
impact others?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh, that's the reason that I do it. You know,
the reason that I do music is as an act
of service. It's important to me that that I'm putting
something into the world that represents love, that represents kindness,
that represents healing, that represents being emotionally just level.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
For me, that's the goal, you know, that's like the
number one goal.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I believe that musicians have a great power, and to
use that power in a way that is of service
to others is exactly why we were given the power
in the first place.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So my music is all about that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I always say that I want to be a walking
embodiment of what love is, and I want my music
to be a reflection of that walking embodiment of love.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I love that embodiment of love and great power. Indeed,
is there a particular musical genre or artists or bands
that have impacted you in certain situations that you found yourself, then.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I think all of them have impacted me. Each genre
has impacted me in a different way. Initially a hip
hop kid from the West Side of Detroit, I grew
up listening to R and B and motown. Of course,
jazz was very influential in my life, but I started
playing classical at the age of four, so it's just
(06:23):
been this whole mix up of everything. I think that
if more people listen to more, the more you expand
your listening, the more you're able to tap into different
emotions that come from different pieces of music. Sometimes people
I have friends that have you know, been in the
same room with me listening to something like, you know,
like Celtic music, and they're like, what are you listening to?
(06:44):
Saying you don't understand, you don't feel. You have to
just take a moment to feel what the story is
behind it. And each drama gives you a different piece
of information and that information can be used to be healing,
or to be uplift thing, or to tell a story.
And that's what music is for, is to bring us
(07:06):
out of our element and into someone else's world and
to allow us to see and view and witness a
different world.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
I love it. How does expression on social issues impact
your view of music?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Oh, My music is very much based around social social
issues and the impact that they have.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I believe that many composers from you know, very long
ago did the same thing. They wrote about the things
that were affecting them in their daily lives and affecting
the people around them. I think that as a composer,
it is important that we begin to see and address
(07:48):
the things that matter, the social issues.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, right now, I'm very much.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Affected by this mass shooting community. I don't even know
what it is that we have going on in America
right now. I think, you know, something needs to be
said about it, And who better than someone who's tapped
into this source of energy like music to speak about it? So,
you know, I consider that my job and my duty.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
How important is a sense of humor that you convey
in your music can storytelling?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm just a funny yuay. I'd just like to laugh
a lot, So.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I'm one of those people, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I think it was Charlie Chaplin said if you don't
a day without laughter is a wasted day. Or I'm
just that same way, Like, if I'm not laughing, this
is a waste, you know. Like I think that that's
very important at storytelling. I think humor plays a very
big part of telling. Any story is a way to
kind of break up the story. If it's a very
(08:52):
serious story, that's definitely a way to kind of break
up the action and have a little fun.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You gotta laugh. I love it all right. Here's a
crazy one. What do you think the world would be
like without music?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The world wouldn't exist without music. I mean everything is vibration.
What we see around us our reflections of vibrations. So
I think that the world is built upon music. Everything
is music. There's no substance that exists without vibration, and
I think that the organization of vibration and air is
(09:29):
what we call.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Music, and it's sort of the substance that allows humans
to be human.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I don't think there's anyone that you'll ever meet that
says I don't like music.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I think people will say they don't like a certain genre.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Maybe I don't like country, maybe I don't like classical,
maybe I don't like rap.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
But you never hear anyone say I don't like music.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So I think it's a a central part of our
human experience.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Must have been a few years ago that I heard
of Black Boy and started to get a little familiar
with his music. But it wasn't until I joined the
Pistons six months ago in terms of a career changed
for me. And you know, our past cross professionally, and
I was familiar with his work, just kind of got
(10:17):
reacquainted and re introduced to his music in a much
more personal way. Ever since I discovered his work, I've
I've just kind of been taken back by it. It
is powerful, you know, his music in general is just
it's brilliant in so many different ways. It's hard to
(10:38):
just sum up so quickly. Every time he gets behind
the piano, it's you're going to feel something. You're probably
going to feel multiple things. And when it's done, when
he finishes, it's just it's very powerful. You feel like
you just heard a story or experienced the story and
(11:00):
one word hasn't been spoken, you know. And I just
think it's it's really powerful his music, how it acts
as a storyteller without using words.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
How does it feel when one of your fans connects
with you regarding your music?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Those moments are so very special, And the thing that
I find is that they're so individualized, you know. I
know that there may be other artists that you know,
someone says the same thing as another person, as another
person other person. I think that I've never heard the
same thing twice. It's amazing that music with no words
(11:34):
can convey such a message and can allow the mind
to travel in a way that creates an environment where
someone's able to feel something, or express something, or experience
something that you know, the net person sitting next to
him is having a totally different experience. For me, that
(11:54):
that feedback from fans makes my day. It makes me
understand that what I'm doing means.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Something, and that I'm on the right path and I
need to continue. I think that that, like I said,
it's service.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Okay, And one more question, describe the spiritual component of music?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Oh wow, the spiritual component.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This is probably a very complex question to answer because
the spiritual component changes and shifts so rapidly between you know,
one composition or one piece of music in the next.
The thing that I can say that they do have
in common is that I'm able to feel music in
(12:46):
a way that is beyond just my ears.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's beyond just what I can see or what I
can hear.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
It's something that hits my soul in a way, and
they're there's information that's being transferred very much.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
The spiritual component for.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Me is that, you know, the music is the universal language,
and I hear that and I feel that and its abilities.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
My ability to.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Speak that language also allows me to hear that language
in a different way. I think that every time I
listen to music, I don't just.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Hear it with my ears.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I hear it with my soul, and that allows me
again to be able to express that myself or tell
that story. I always say, I love that I've had
the highest highs and the lowest lows. Why Because now
I can tell a story of the highest highs in
the lowest lows, So that in itself is an expression
(13:48):
of how the spiritual component.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Of music affects me.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I feel it from the very top to the very bottom.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Black Bok, thank you so much for joining us today
on the Music Saved Me Podcast. Congratulations on all your
successes in life and in music.
Host
Lynn Hoffman
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