Steve Burks
I was born in Gary, Indiana, where my safe haven was music throughout my school years: choir, orchestra, band (saxophone), drill team snare drummer, making mixes and doing edits with the cassette-tape pause button (I'm telling my age), becoming a rapper when I heard L.L. Cool J's first album (Radio), and mixing house records (Chicago was the mecca of house music). Music was the only thing that made school bearable, because outside of it, I was nerd-outcast-weirdo boy.
After an Air Force tour, and a few years in the wrong college major, I was accepted at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Good thing I didn't know how elite the program was, or I would not have applied, since I hadn't studied my instrument seriously (saxophone) in years, and even when I had, I was only a big fish in a small pond. IU crushed my ego. But it enabled me to be the best musician I can be, so I'm glad I did it. Truth be told, my real passion was composing. I wanted to write movie music for orchestras, but that didn't seem practical from a get-a-job standpoint, nor accessible from a cultural standpoint. (How many black rapper/ministers of music who score Hollywood blockbusters do you know?) So, I started off in Music Education (instrumental teaching). Then I studied voice. Then I thought about dropping out, but I was married with a baby. Quitting is so unattractive anyway. I finished the degree, though not with honors.
I also got a Master's degree that allowed me to focus on Black music and film. That was affirming.
After graduating college, I tried to teach music in public school, but that didn't go so well. (It's not them, it's me.) So I stuck to church music, which I've known all my life.
The digital and Internet revolutions made it possible for me to be a recording artist on my own terms, and that's probably the only way it would have happened, because I don't fit into musical boxes very well. Gospel, classical (19th Century Romantic orchestral stuff to be specific), conscious hip-hop (the kind with smart lyrics that don't make me embarrassed to be black), and especially soul music ... I love them all. It's why my music shifts around a lot. Freedom.
There are three music organizations that I've had the pleasure of working with: the IU Soul Revue (thank you Dr. Sykes), the International House of Blues Foundation (thank you Nazanin), and Cherry Lane Music Publishing (thank you Mark Phillips). Other than that, it's been all church.