Last year, Jin J. X released an album that some might say is outside of his usual style. The Barefoot, Pregnant, Neck Beard, Marital Bed String Band effortlessly blurs the lines of country music and jazz through Afrofuturism. In this episode of SoundCheck, Jess Balisle speaks with Jin about what Afrofuturism is and how it connects to his music.
Transcript
Jess Balisle: So now we're doing the interview for real.
Jin J. X: Okay. Okay.
Balisle: Are you ready?
X: I think I'm ready.
Balisle: Okay! Your music centers a lot around Afrofuturism as a theme and a genre. Tell us a little bit about what Afrofuturism is.
X: Oh, that's a great question. Um, I still am figuring it out. I know that I used to hear the term coming up on rare occasions. I think people associate it with maybe, was it Octavia Butler and different writers. But for me, the first true Afrofuturistic television show I saw was Static Shock. Do you remember that?
Balisle: Yeah.
X: From the late 90s? And so it was like this whole, the late 90s was such a future theme for things. Even The Matrix, I think is technically part of that. But Static Shock was both in the future, but it had themes of kind of like the Black experience in America and the past, present and future. And so like, I always go back to that when I think about what the concept means. It means what that show was about, like the positivity of the past, present and future and maybe a Black lens.
Balisle: Yeah. So kind of the whole thing from beginning to end to beyond.
X: Absolutely. And I think even more specifically because it is from the African American lens, it's not like in certain educational standpoints, it's like, “We're going to go to jazz music from 1950 and we're going to just rip that off. And we're going to sound like that for the rest of our life, or we're going to, we're going to read, you know, Mark Twain books, and we're going to try to write like that!” That is not part of the Afrofuturistic concept. We're only looking to the past for inspiration, but we are still moving forward.
Balisle: So tell me, how does this play a part in your music?
X: Yeah. No, I think, um, I've wanted to do something like this since I was like a teenager. Like I grew up here too, you know? And so listening to Chet Atkins, when I first got into playing guitar, he embodied a lot of this where he would play with George Benson and Earl Klugh, but then he would produce for Dolly Parton, and then he'd play, I mean, just he was all over the place. He wasn't weird. And he was an OG. He was an old guy that accepted everybody. So, uh, to that point, I always wanted to do something that had elements of that, those flavors of like Les Paul sounds and Chet Atkins sounds, as well as, you know, the brothers that were I mean, this this comes from the brothers, too. I mean, I like Charley Pride, just kind of giving yourself permission to try some stuff.
Balisle:. A lot of our listeners know you as a jazz guy. I know Theresa B plays you a lot on Monday Night Jazz.
X: It's a blessing.
Balisle: But this newest batch of songs is more of a country flair. How does that connect to you to Afrofuturism then?
X: I think it's kind of all the same. You know, like, I think there's like a through line. I don't know, man. I can listen to Kanye and like what he does. I know he's kind of a polarizing character, but I can listen to his music and appreciate it because he sees things as a producer. And I think I'm getting more to that point now where I don't know if I consider myself a jazz musician. I don't know if…
Balisle: Interesting,
X: …you know, like the jazz, you know, musician thing is often part of the educational thing and I'm really a self-taught artist. And so, I've never really felt accepted with jazz musicians. So to me, this is this is just an outsider that just likes different types of music and just kind of just draws from it and keeps it pushing.
Balisle: Well Jin, we are so looking forward to having you on studio Live this Friday at noon.
