“LIFE IS ART. ART IS LIFE. I NEVER SEPARATE IT. ” - Ai Weiwei
The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
The Artist B. Soleil is an Oakland-based “genre-nonconforming” musician originally from Houston, Texas. They produce, write songs and rap with a musical style influenced by artists like Tupac Shakur, Alice Coltrane and Prince.
“If you think of gender nonconformity as being this spectrum of how we exist, I feel like music is also a similar spectrum,” B. Soleil said. “I can still like hip hop, but with this really cool rock guitar solo sound on it, like everything doesn’t have to be so into boxes.”
Growing up, they were introduced to music at an early age. B. Soleil’s great-grandmother taught them how to play the piano at the age of three and they later joined the marching band and a jazz combo, playing the flute, clarinet and bass.
“I have a lot of family who are also musicians,” they said. “My mom sings, my aunt is a singer and an entertainer. My dad was a music producer. I didn’t have a choice.” [keep reading]
Sankofa B. , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
If I was asked this question in the past, I would’ve probably rambled on about work or a new song. (“Speak Your Truth” is def popping out soon.) But, as an artist/activist I have had the pleasure of devoting my craft and my time to some very impactful campaigns. My creative contributions have been implemented amongst some high-profile historical movements of our time –Ferguson Uprising, Parkland Mass Shooting, March for Our Lives, Poor People’s Campaign, to name a few. Yet, in 2018, after a soul-awakening experience hanging from the side of a 15-story building, and a noticeable decline in my mental health because of it all, I began to question if doing “good work” was indeed enough. [keep reading]
"We had the good fortune of connecting with B. Soleil and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi B., why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I believe that for some of us creativity pursues us and not the other way around. Music has always been my way of expressing the world around me as I see it, feel it, and experience it. I’ve long admired artists that use their art to deliver a message to the world and inspire people with their creativity. Art, in all forms, has the power to teleport us away from reality when it gets too tough—or in the same sense speak truth to reality when it needs to be felt on a deeper level and not just observed. I chose to be an artist because throughout history art has been at the forefront of the revolutions that change the world for the better. In the age of influencers many long for attention, but few understand what it means to..." [keep reading]
"Soleil noted that their Alice character “isn’t a traditional Alice.”
“One, I’m African-American, so that’s the first take when you get to the play – you see that,” Soleil said. “This Alice, like the other Alice, goes on this adventure to find herself, to discover who she is, and she learns all these lessons through the other characters in the play. But she … is also learning how to conquer things via the musical instruments, via song.”
That’s a story thread that connects to Soleil’s own journey, one that has left them skilled as a musician on an unusually large number of instruments – roughly 30.
“My great-grandmother was a church pianist growing up, and so my first instrument was piano in church,” said Soleil, who plays everything from piano and electric guitar to djembe on stage during each “Wonderland” show this month. “And then I went from piano [to] congas, and I started playing vibraphone, and I always just wanted...” [keep reading]