Q: How have the shows been going in this COVID-altered world?
A: In fact, they’ve been pretty good. We really picked up where we left off in terms of crowds and intensity. The crowds have certainly been good. It was great to be on the road again. It’s been a while so it’s been really rewarding and fun.
Q: What are the plans for the summer?
A: We’ve done a lot of shows starting in February, so we’ll take it easy for the summer. We have a few punctual dates but no real tour. We’re going to work on some music and kind of come back to things. I await it with impatience.
Q: Are you thinking of a sequel to the Christmas album?
A: We will be working on new music, whether it’s a new album or just a new single. Right now we’re looking at a few possible collaborations that we’d like to explore, but definitely some new music. We did the Christmas album and now we’re ready for something else. We will find our next move during the summer.
Black Violin’s Wil “Wil B” Baptiste (left) and Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester will perform at the Schuster Center in Dayton on Friday, May 6. Baptiste says the duo will determine their next move this summer. CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Black Violin’s Wil “Wil B” Baptiste (left) and Kevin “Kev Marcus” Sylvester will perform at the Schuster Center in Dayton on Friday, May 6. Baptiste says the duo will determine their next move this summer. CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Q: Black Violin has covered a lot of musical ground. Is there anything in particular that you would like to explore sonically?
A: For me, it’s just collaborating. We haven’t done much of that lately and I really want to explore the possibility of collaborating a bit more with different bands and artists. Sonically, I don’t know because, for us, it can go so many different ways. We experimented with so many different styles of music. It’s something we love to do and it’s not going to change but who knows what it’s going to be like?
Q: Black Violin officially celebrates 20 years as a band in 2024. What’s the most surprising thing about your career development?
A: Honestly, we never had a vision. For us, we were just kids who loved music and loved to create. At this point, looking at where we’ve been, we’ve done so many amazing things and we’re still growing. The most rewarding thing about what we do now is the effect we have on people and the effect we have on children. We were able to start this foundation and these things are so rewarding. When we were first making music, we were talking about how many Grammys we were going to get and all these different things, but that hasn’t been our goal for a long time. We really want to be able to create music and continue to inspire and uplift people around the world.
Q: What makes you both work to support young musicians?
A: One of the things we try to do is not just perform on stage, but we also try to inject some inspiration into that community and kids are a huge part of what we do. We were children and we understand the importance of the arts and we understand how the arts affected us. We want to be able to give that back to as many communities as possible.
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or by email at [email protected].
HOW TO GET THERE
Who: black violin
Or: Schuster Center, Second and Main Streets, Dayton
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 6
Cost: $30 to $50
More information: 937-228-3630 or www.daytonlive.org
Artist Information: blackviolin.net
