This week we introduce Memphis to your future leaders with our annual 20<30 issue. You can read about our readers’ and staff’s picks for Memphis’ best and brightest here.
Of our 20 honorees, 19 chose to do Zoom interviews with journalist Chris McCoy (Noah Miller opted to do his interview via email), so on this week’s podcast, you can hear them talk in their own words about who they are, what they do, and why they do it.
Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to nominate outstanding young people in Memphis who are making a difference in their community. We chose the top 20 from an outstanding field of more than 50 nominations. Memphis, meet your future leaders, the 20<30 Class of 2025.
Austin Brown
Director of Development and Communications, Community Legal Center (CLC)
A native Memphian, Brown decided to stay in the city and attend Christian Brothers University. There, he became the philanthropy chair for Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Brown says the experience changed his life. “We did a bunch of volunteering opportunities. Just getting a chance to see up close and personal the disparities in the city showed me a lot of the things I wanted to address in my professional career, and in any way I could.
“What makes Community Legal Center unique is, unlike some other legal aid organizations you may be familiar with, CLC offers services at a low cost, and on a sliding scale, depending on household income and household size,” says Brown. “We’re about filling in that justice gap and helping the people in the forgotten middle. So, people who probably make too much money to qualify for free legal services, but they don’t make enough to afford a private attorney. I’m here to make a just Memphis. Simple as that.”
Liv Cohen
Membership and Community Engagement Coordinator, WYXR
“I grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. Memphis was the cool city to come to on a weekend, and I just kind of fell in love with it,” says Cohen.
She found her niche at the community radio station, WYXR. “I interned my senior year of college, and then just convinced Robby [Grant, WYXR founder,] to keep me around. … I manage all of our individual giving and memberships, so if you’ve ever gotten an email asking to donate to WYXR, it’s probably from me.
“I’ve found myself deeply rooted in the music community here, and it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced or witnessed. People really care about each other here. The music is just unbeatable, and yeah, I’ve really found my people here and I love it. … I would love to see a city that really invests in creative types and puts them in positions of leadership as well.”
Leon Cunningham III
Agent, New York Life Insurance
“I think Memphis is, right now, a land of opportunity,” says Cunningham. He’s got a lot of irons in the fire. In addition to his work in the insurance field, he is also dedicated to volunteerism. “I think I’m making an impact here from a financial place, but a philanthropy piece is something that I could hang my hat on at the end of the day.”
One of his passions is mentoring. “Embracing Brotherhood [Foundation] is a social group I kind of started through networking in Memphis. It’s centered around youth, but also minority males, helping them get connections throughout general areas and regions, supporting them in business and life.”
As if that’s not enough, he’s also a professional model, working on national accounts through the Tribe Talent Management. “I was definitely shy. It opened me up. It helped me be comfortable in my skin.”
Hugh Ferguson
Biomathematics Research Student, Rhodes College
“I’ve always been interested in being a doctor, since I was probably 11 or 12,” says Ferguson. “I have a heart condition and other health conditions, and the care that I’ve received from other doctors has inspired me to make sure other people have that same access.” He volunteers for Remote Area Medical. “We go into rural areas, mostly in Tennessee, that lack proper healthcare. We set up remote clinics and get doctors around the region to help. We usually treat about a thousand people at each clinic.”
This inspired his research into AI-assisted ultrasound devices. “We’re working on, not replacing [X-ray machines], but offering an alternative to help underserved communities. You can’t learn how to care about someone from just reading about science. You have to go into field work, and experience humanity, what it needs, and realize that you’re more than just a person. There’s a whole story behind you.”
Antonella Reyes Flores
Case Manager, Endeavors
When unaccompanied immigrant children arrive in Memphis, Flores takes care of them. “It can be anything from helping them enroll in a school, or connecting them to something like Church Health and getting them their updated vaccinations, or getting them a PCP. If they’re struggling with mental health, connecting with mental health services. Or just connecting them to a local food bank. Maybe they are trying to get onto a local soccer team, or they want to get involved with the church. I’m there to have a feel for what they need, and fill those gaps.
“I want to build an inclusive Memphis. Everyone has their niche in Memphis, whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or you’re a nonprofit or higher education, there are so many overlaps. We need to keep working together to help the next generation of Memphis. We have to put so much back into our youth. These are future doctors, teachers, engineers. We’re doing our part to guide them into helping build such a great Memphis.”
Zavier Hayes
Owner, Zavier Hayes Shelter Insurance
During the pandemic, Hayes got a job offer to work in insurance. “I’m thinking, ‘Nobody’s going to take a chance on me. I’m 23 years old! I’ve barely got a year of experience.’ … They took the chance, gave me my own office in Mumford.”
Now, he’s his own boss. “You’re an independent contractor; you’re being your own entrepreneur. There’s some days where it’s harder than others, and there’s some days where it’s like, man, I just wish I could copy and paste this day, and have this be every day. It’s a journey, and I truly enjoy it.”
In his off hours, he coaches basketball at Northpoint Christian School. “I love working with kids. It’s a chance to give back. I tell my players, ‘I was just in y’all’s shoes 10 years ago.’ And this is my chance to say, ‘Hey, if this was younger me, this is exactly what I would teach you guys to do.’”
Raneem Imam
Musician
Originally from the Bay Area, Imam’s family is Palestinian- and Lebanese-American. “I call myself an Arabic cocktail, so I’m really mixed with a lot of great things to make a juicy cocktail,” she says. “I’ve always been singing. My mom says I was getting on top of tables and singing to guests, and convincing her to come to my room for short musicals that I would perform for her and my grandmother.”
At Rhodes College, “I ended up majoring in music and falling in love with Memphis music and all the opportunities that I could seize while I was there. I didn’t know where the road was going to lead, obviously, but I feel like it’s just a part of my life motto to start where you are.”
Her plan to hit the ground performing after graduation was stymied by the pandemic, but she found an audience through virtual gigs. Now she’s pursuing music full-time and working on a full-length album. “I’m kind of exploring this line between funk, R&B, and pop, while also toying around with some Arabic influence because I haven’t seen that yet.”
RaSean Jenkins
Board Office Advisor, Memphis-Shelby County Schools
“I got a scholarship to University of Memphis when I was studying Japanese history and language,” Jenkins says. “I was going through my neighborhood one day, and I had so many questions about why are we so separated as a city. What led Memphis to be this way? It ended up becoming my major, and I ended up becoming an urban historian.”
Jenkins is currently on track to finish his Ph.D. at the University of Memphis. “I’m writing my dissertation on A.W. Willis and his family’s work to integrate segregated spaces in the Mid-South.”
Teaching is in his blood. “I’ve been a mentor for Memphis-Shelby County Schools since I was 18, and also I do mentoring with the city. I want to be a professor one day, but I am very dedicated to our district here in Memphis and Shelby County. I would not like to leave the district. I would love to stay and just continue to grow here, but I really see myself being a college professor one day for sure, teaching history.”
Alexxas Johnson
Associate Attorney, Spence Partners
“I do general litigation, so the easiest way to describe that is, everything except criminal [law] — except when I have to do criminal [law],” says Johnson. “So really, just a smorgasbord of things, which I love, because I’m somebody that is creative by nature. I thought when I decided to become a lawyer, I was a little bummed because I feel like lawyers are in this gray area, with not a lot of time to create and be innovative. There are so many rules and procedures, and of course it’s a very old career field, governed by things that happened in 1935. But thankfully, in the way that I write and craft my arguments, I’ve learned to become creative in this career field.”
A native Memphian, Johnson returned home after attending college at Alabama and a stint in Miami to attend law school. “Who doesn’t want to be a part of Memphis? I mean, everyone steals our swag anyways, so you might as well come here.”
Noah Miller
Multidisciplinary Artist
Filmmaker, photographer, printmaker, and painter, Miller does it all. His most recent exhibit, “Days,” ran for seven months at Crosstown Arts. “I’m interested in so many different things. The world is abundant! But most of the time, I have an idea that feels like it could be better represented in a different medium, whether that’s painting, sculpture, music, or film. Film is the greatest medium of all because it’s everything packed into one thing. It scratches every itch for me. But I’m someone who wants to do it all: write the script, build the set, shoot the whole thing myself, edit, and even record the soundtrack. … This is why I’ve gravitated toward painting. I can realistically have something finished by the end of the week.
“Memphis feels like the biggest ‘punk’ city to me in the sense that everyone just does exactly what they want here (or they should be), and you can get away with it! It’s a very genuine place.”
David Oppong
Project Engineer, Allworld Project Management
Inspired by his scientist father, Oppong decided to pursue engineering. “I realized that whatever I wanted to do in life, I wanted to have a direct impact on people and help make people’s lives better. I’ve seen that through civil engineering because people are the most direct result of all the infrastructure that we have in this world. I knew that if I could be around to affect the change and have a positive impact on people’s lives, then I would feel fulfilled in my purpose to be an engineer.
“We work with MATA on a number of capital projects, and the very first project that I had a chance to be a part of — and eventually got a chance to lead — was their electric bus program, which was for the procurement and implementation of up to 50 electric buses within their fleet.
“I grew up in the city, and I stayed because I knew that I wanted to be part of the change to make this a better place.”
Phoenix Powell
Community Advocate/Health and Wellness Specialist, OUTMemphis
Powell’s work for OUTMemphis includes cooking weekly community meals. “I found that I really have a passion for advocacy and made a decision to do it as my work last year. I feel like advocacy and cooking go hand-in-hand because any civil rights movement that you look at, things like food and music have always been a part of it. I’m able to use food as a way to give back. … Now the stakes feel a little bit higher than they have been.
“The work we do here is really needed. Every day, people come in and tell their stories. The common denominator is, they don’t really have a support system. They don’t have a group of people that they can feel like, ‘This is like my family.’ And when I’m cooking, I never like to shortcut things. These folks come to us when they don’t have anything. I’m not going to give them the bare minimum.”
Juan Sanchez
Project Engineer, Turner Construction Company
A native of Memphis with “proud Mexican origins,” Sanchez was the first person in his family to graduate from college. “I was born here, raised here, went to school here, went to university here, currently working here. I’m currently building Memphis and building the communities that I’ve been a part of. So it’s all been full circle.”
Among the projects Sanchez has been the “boots on the ground” for are the Memphis Sports and Events Complex, the Shelby County Health Department, and the soon-to-be-opened Alliance Health Services’ Crisis Center. Project engineer, he says, is “a two-word title, but it has many different responsibilities. … A lot of what I do is coordination and problem-solving among our contractors, design team, and clients to assure construction advances safely, within budget, and on schedule.”
Sanchez takes time to recruit other Hispanic and minority kids into the science and engineering fields. He was the first-ever guest speaker for the University of Memphis’ Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. “There’s much more for Memphis in the future, much more building, and I’m just excited to be a part of that.”
Josh Shaw
Musician, Blvck Hippie
“I started playing piano when I was 11,” says Shaw. “Music was just my own way of spreading my wings.”
Shaw’s band Blvck Hippie had a great year in 2024, touring extensively, and playing a huge gig at the Overton Park Shell. “Getting to play the Shell was just crazy! I found this little goal list I wrote out when I was a junior in college — my musical bucket list, basically. The top three were, one, tour. The second one was, do a European tour, and the third one was, play the Shell.”
Shaw completed all three items on their list last year and won the Indie Memphis music video competition for the second year in a row. Even sweeter, they got to bring their young daughter to the Shell show. “She got to see me play for the first time! That was just kind of a dream come true.”
Ciara Swearingen
Family Inn Advocate, Room in the Inn
Swearingen was already a volunteer for Planned Parenthood when she became pregnant at 22 years old, while a student at the University of Memphis. “Going through my pregnancy, I didn’t get a lot of support from my OB-GYN,” she says.
After having to advocate for herself while enduring a high-risk pregnancy, she became an advocate for others in the same position. “There are things that, growing up, especially in the Black community, nobody prepares you for when becoming a mother. … There are so many women, especially in the city of Memphis, that are struggling to let their doctors know, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this type of way. Is this normal?’
“Once baby gets here, and you’re in the hospital, that’s the most important time for moms to command and demand in their pregnancy. Luckily, I had my mom there with me when I had my son, but there are a lot of Black women in the city of Memphis who don’t have this support.”
JoElle Thompson
Entrepreneur, The Four Way, Center for Transforming Communities
In 2002, Thompson’s grandfather decided to reopen the shuttered Four Way restaurant after seeing it on a Travel Channel list of the best soul food restaurants in America. “It was the only one that was closed,” Thompson says.
Her family devoted themselves to “keeping the legacy alive because so many people from Stax and just around the neighborhood of LeMoyne-Owen College, … even Martin Luther King and notable people around the country, knew about the Four Way when they came to Memphis because it was a community staple. We’ve tried to continue that legacy.”
While working at the restaurant, she also earned a master’s degree in public health and was recruited as a community organizer at the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC). “My project that I’m doing right now with CTC is a community cookbook, specifically based in South Memphis, to honor people like me and some of my friends who are third, fourth, and fifth generation South Memphians because there’s such a rich legacy in our community. I’m trying to capture the history and voices of our community.”
Katelyn Thompson
Policy Director, Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus
“I love Memphis because it’s in my DNA,” says Thompson. “It runs through my veins.”
Thompson is passionate about politics and wants to spread the word about participating in our democracy. “When I went to Tennessee State University, I had started the bus to the polls, and a lot of students didn’t even know that they could vote. … My wish to every school and university is that we could do better with that in educating our students so they can be involved because our students are the future. They’re going to be the ones to keep us moving forward. And if they don’t know what they’re supposed to do, then we’re going backwards.”
She’s already made a splash in Tennessee political circles. “It is such an honor to serve as the youngest policy director for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to work with both Mayor Paul Young and Senator London Lamar. Their leadership and trust in me have been instrumental in my journey, and I truly admire their commitment to serving our community.”
Margaret Tong
Entrepreneur, Mochi & Mi, Bao Toan Kitchen & Bar
Tong was born and raised in Memphis, but “growing up, my classmates were predominantly white and Black. It was very rare for me see Asian people. Once I got myself into the Asian community, I felt more sense of belonging, with people that understand you, understand the culture.”
Tong helped put on the first Asian Night Market, which has seen explosive growth over only two years. “We didn’t expect to have such a big turnout because we were like, ‘Oh, the community is small.’ … And then I saw that crowd! I was glad I was behind the table. There was more room behind the table than there was in that crowd!”
Growing up, her mother had a nail business, but the pair decided to go into the food business together. Now, they’re the force behind Bao Toan Kitchen, the newest restaurant in Crosstown Concourse. “I’d like to see a Memphis that helps each other,” she says. “I love the people, the sense of community here, the Memphis pride here.”
Connor Webber
Staff Attorney, Tennessee Innocence Project
Why did Webber become an attorney? “I get asked that a lot, and the answer is that I like to argue.”
An internship at the Davidson County district attorney’s office led him to the Tennessee Innocence Project. “We investigate and litigate cases of wrongful conviction in the state of Tennessee. … We received more applications from Shelby County than any other county in Tennessee. This was clearly where the need was, and they asked me to move here and open the office with them. I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
One of the first cases they tackled was Ricky Webb, who had been convicted of a “heinous crime” in 1976. “We started looking into his case almost 50 years later, and there was a lot of evidence that was covered up that really proved that he was in fact innocent. His conviction was overturned in October [2024]. It became formal on Halloween, and he became the fourth-longest serving exoneree in United States history. He served just shy of 47 years in custody.”
Haley Wilson
Actor, Choreographer
Wilson first came to Memphis for the annual United Professional Theater Auditions at Playhouse on the Square in 2019. She made her debut as the lead in A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. “I played one of my dream roles, a country artist that I had always listened to growing up, and also started my company member position at the same time.”
Since then, she has performed in more than 30 shows, earning an Ostrander Award for Best Supporting Actress in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, as well as three other BroadwayWorld Awards nominations. She’s taught and choreographed at Houston High School, St. George’s Independent School, and Memphis University School. “I like to live other people’s stories to the best of my ability,” she says. “Sometimes being yourself is hard, and so getting away and getting to be someone else for a little bit is what I strive for. Today was a hard day for Haley, but I’m going to go be someone else for a little bit and just get away from that.”
The Memphis Flyer extends special thanks to Sondra Pham Khammavong, 20<30 Class of 2024, for serving on this year’s selection committee.
The new album by Blvck Hippie is called If You Feel Alone At Parties. Josh Shaw has refined his sparkling indie rock sound to perfection on these 11 songs. He makes longing and alienation sound beautiful.
For the title track, director Lawrence Shaw went literal, putting his brother Josh in a rocking house party where he knows no one. Then he meets a cute girl (Vivian Cheslack) who wants to get to know him better. It’s so loud in here. Wanna go somewhere more chill? Will Josh close the deal? Only one way to find out:
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Just seconds into the song “Art School” during Blvck Hippie’s first hometown show following a six-week tour in support of their album If You Feel Alone at Parties, singer/guitarist Josh Shaw’s mic stand dipped downward, seemingly of its own volition. As I watched the musician follow a rapidly descending microphone (while still singing into it) I thought to myself, “This is what Josh does — roll with the punches.”
But the latest Memphian musician to sing on the popular indie music platform Audiotree Live later described this mic stand snafu as simply “hilarious.”
“I was like ‘Oh god, I need to bend down,’” Shaw said. “And then ‘Oh god, my knees.’”
Making light of a moment like this illustrates something essential about the singer/guitarist: What has been accomplished with the band is other-worldly, but Shaw is still as endearing a person as ever.
Still, the band’s success is undeniable. Blvck Hippie sits at just over 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. On January 26th it was announced that Blvck Hippie will be joining the South by Southwest official festival lineup this year in Austin, Texas.
Admittedly, I have a history with Shaw that’s getting more and more difficult not to brag about. In 2017, I shared the bill with him in what was his first live performance fronting a band (then going by St.John). In 2018, we were tourmates, and 2019 saw us become roommates. I remember when he burst out of his room with an unplugged electric guitar and the opening riff to “Bunkbed” — “You gotta hear this thing I came up with today!”
All this to say that catching Blvck Hippie at Black Lodge was far from my first rodeo with Shaw, drummer Casey Rittinger, and their brand of self-proclaimed “sad-boy indie rock.”
Shaw says, if he had to guess, the band’s big sound comes from the group maturing, as well as an improvement in the way he writes his guitar parts. The current lineup is composed of “really great artists who have their own things to add.” Undoubtedly this includes the suave Celest Farmer, joining Shaw on guitar, and the talented bassist Tyrell Williams.
“During tour, we really came into our own as a band, and we really want to come out to every show punching people in the face with our sound,” Shaw says.
That description may not be far off from what listeners can expect from the next Blvck Hippie record. “We’re going to get angrier and more aggressive with our music,” Shaw says. “While on tour I saw Black people in a ton of different cities headbanging to my songs. That affirmed that what I’m doing matters and is reaching people. It gives me the confidence to be myself more and make the music I want to make.”
This confidence has enabled Shaw to elevate not just one voice, but to increase representation for POC in indie/alternative music in general. When it came time to fill the bill for Blvck Hippie’s first show of the year, Shaw made sure to provide a platform for Black out-of-town artists, the surfy Bluphoria and math-rock-inspired Rest Ashore.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Rest Ashore for two years so it was amazing to get to play with them,” Shaw says. “It’s important to me that when Black bands come to Memphis we give them a reason to want to come back. It’s important to put on a safe welcoming show for them.”
Shaw says that they felt the safest they’ve ever felt in a musical space during Blvck Hippie’s past tour at a Black-run DIY venue in Cleveland. While Josh cites Black bands like Bartees Strange and Enumclaw rising to mainstream prominence since summer of 2020, the singer says more Black-owned and Black-run venues are necessary to inspire representation in the scene.
“Through touring and the internet, especially TikTok, we’ve been able to reach new audiences and a lot of times we’ve been the first band people have seen that look like us,” Shaw says. “We get comments all the time from Black people that it’s nice to see people that look like them making indie rock, and this is amazing to hear.”
As for their own group’s recent success, Shaw says things have been “wild” since the Audiotree performance. The band hasn’t processed everything yet.
“It’s very humbling to be able to represent Memphis in all the places we’re getting to play,” Shaw says. “Playing shows in Memphis solidifies that for me — I wouldn’t want to be doing this for any other city.”
Music Video Monday is a family affair.
Blvck Hippie‘s newest single “Rhodes Ave” is about growing up, says frontman Josh Shaw. “I lived in a house on Rhodes Avenue for the first 8 years of my life and my memory of that street inspired this song. I credit much of my musical inspiration to years spent listening to my parents’ music in that house on Rhodes — this song acts as tribute to those early influences.”
Josh’s brother Lawrence Shaw, who appears with Josh on the single’s cover, created the animated lyric video for the song. “It was inspired by the nostalgic nature of reminiscing on your childhood home — the comfort that can be found in those memories and how fleeting that feeling can be. My interpretation of the song is the strain of trying to recreate an idea of what your ‘perfect’ life would be, but knowing that you will not be able to have it, i.e. ‘I know I can’t give you the big house and a dog, just more empty promises and a shoreline full of fog.'”
Music Video Monday Blvck Hippie
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Memphis-based indie rockers Blvck Hippie released their new single, “Bunkbed,” Friday, August 7th. The song is five minutes of frenzied post-rock, all urgency communicated on bent guitar strings. Bandleader Josh Shaw’s vocals sound frantic to escape the speaker system, as befits a track recorded in the midst of a pandemic-induced quarantine.
Blvck Hippie has kept busy these past months, recording a pair of singles at Sun Studios (the second is due in September), laying down a live video for Crosstown Arts’ Against the Grain series, and performing at the protests against police brutality at City Hall. “Now you can’t play shows, you have to think through everything and figure out how you want to get in front of who you want to get in front of,” Shaw tells me over the phone.
Blvck Hippie’s Josh Shaw
“We were able to record two songs at Sun,” Shaw says of “Bunkbed” and the forthcoming single. Earlier in the pandemic, “they do recordings, but they can’t do tours,” he explains. “So we got the opportunity to be there from 11 to 11.” The process, Shaw says, of recording music in the historic studio during the day, when it’s usually full of tourists from across the globe, was surreal. Not to mention a little daunting. “So many greats have been here. I hope we don’t suck,” Shaw says, laughing.
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By any measure, the new single definitely does not suck. In fact, it finds Blvck Hippie harnessing the melodicism of their debut EP in tandem with the energy of the group’s live performances. With “Bunkbed” Shaw rakes the listener over the emotional coals, and the band displays chops that blend elements of indie rock, power-pop, and post-rock, making a confident vehicle for Shaw’s plaintive delivery. The single already scored a positive review from Afropunk, who called it, “the feel bad song of the summer.”
With the exception of their time recording, Shaw says, “The only real way we’ve been playing live music recently is by playing protests.”
Shaw said he had already been to protests as a participant when a friend called him and asked him if Blvck Hippie would be interested in performing. Shaw was eager to back up his convictions with his art, and he understood how music might give protesters another source of strength. “The overwhelming feeling of consistently protesting some kind of inequality, it becomes very tiring on people,” he says. “Music is one of the things that can make everybody feel that everything is going to be okay.”
And, the singer says, everyone did their best to be safe and take precautions to mitigate the potential spread of the virus. People “kept to the bubble of who they came with,” Shaw says, noting that he and his drummer live together — and that it was nice to have enough distance on the makeshift stage that he didn’t have to worry about being hit in the head with a bass stock. Protesters wore masks and kept to their groups, Shaw remembers, and performers brought their own microphones. In the end, Shaw says, the cause is an all-important one.
Blvck Hippie perform at Memphis City Hall.
Shaw continues: “It’s really hard not to feel helpless and feel like you have no control over anything. Even to the point where it’s like I can’t control whether I live or die due to police brutality, or any of my family members or anybody I’m close to. It’s crippling the feeling of not having control,” he explains. “And being able to use the one thing that you have close to yourself, which is music, that’s all I love to do and want to do. And being able to use that as a voice for me and other people like me, made me feel like I had a little bit of control. It was an amazing feeling.”
The musician says it was affirming, too, to get to support Black live with his music. Shaw creates in a genre overwhelmingly populated by white artists, and he says, it felt good to associate his music with this cause. “Getting to play protests was really cool,” he says, “because the genre of music I do isn’t really considered by mainstream media outlets as being ‘Black.’ So it’s nice to be able to do something empowering Black people by playing the music I am. There were a bunch of little Black kids one time we played a protest. They were all in front being really excited, super jazzed up. It’s really cool getting to show them, ‘Hey, man, Black art is just anything a Black person does that’s art.’”
Blake Galloway (left) and Josh Shaw
Memphis-based indie rock band Blvck Hippie released one of the catchiest Memphis-made songs in recent memory a little over one year ago, in January 2019.
“Hotel Lobby,” from the Blvck Hippie EP, opens with a drum shuffle followed by a descending bass line; when the piano and whining guitars hit, it’s already obvious the band has neo-soul arrangements on lockdown. And it just gets better from there.
Blvck Hippie, fronted by Josh Shaw, 24, has toured in support of the EP, undergone multiple lineup changes, and is currently working on new material. After seeing the new lineup at work at a concert at the Lamplighter Lounge, I called Shaw, who was cooking vegan pasta sauce at the time, to find out what was in store for Blvck Hippie.
The band will perform at Philly’s Got-You-Covered Fest in Cooper-Young on Saturday, January 25th, and at Pagan Mom House with Sun Not Yellow, Madd Well, Wednesday, January 29th, at 8 p.m. But that’s not all that Blvck Hippie has up its sleeve.
It’s no understatement to say that Shaw has immersed himself in music of late. He works at the School of Rock performance academy and is studying recording at the University of Memphis. He already has a music industry degree from Lambuth University. Of course, that’s when he’s not writing, recording, rehearsing, and performing with Blvck Hippie, a band that grew out of Shaw’s solo shows and demo tapes.
“Toward the end of my senior year of college I started being a little more open with sharing the music I’d been writing,” Shaw says. “I was pretty private about it at first, recording a lot in my room and in the studio on campus and keeping it to myself.”
Josh Shaw
So, after spending some time in Toronto, Canada, with his brother, Shaw decided to double down on making music. He moved back to Memphis from Jackson and bought some new gear. “I got a better electric guitar and a looper pedal,” he says.
After being booked at a festival, Shaw put together a band. “I decided January of 2018, that whole year was going to be only band shows,” he explains. Of course, the band would need a name. “I was a very weird, eccentric child, so my mom used to call me her little black hippie,” Shaw explains. He says he thought, “So I’ll just use that.”
With a name and a full roster, Blvck Hippie released its self-titled EP on January 1, 2019. That four-song example of indie-pop perfection was recorded at Young Avenue Sound with Calvin Lauber, and for a year, the band toured and played locally in support of it.
In addition to the excellent arrangements, the EP, along with the rest of Blvck Hippie’s music, is characterized by Shaw’s open and honest lyrics. Just as the songwriter who used to record in his room had struggled taking his songs public, he was unsure about being so open in his songwriting. But he had taken strength from the art of confessional songwriters when he needed it, and he was inspired by their example. “If I’m that open and honest, then I can help somebody else who might be going through a rough time,” Shaw says.
Blvck Hippie faced a new challenge when Blake Galloway, the band’s second guitarist, moved to Colorado. Shaw explains, “After losing a band member who was one of the founding members [I had to] reevaluate everything and [say], ‘What is it about us that I like? And what is it about us that can change and improve?’”
Shaw continues: “Every time somebody leaves, you feel like, ‘Aw, man, why did I even let this person into my heart? I should have just stayed solo.’ But I decided to embrace it as much as I can. Writing, arranging, recording — I do all the cooking of it, but if you don’t allow other people to throw seasoning in it, you might end up with a bland dish and not know it because you’re the only one who tasted it.”
Blvck Hippie
For the moment, the band is a trio — guitar, bass, and drums, but plans are in the works to add keyboards, trumpet, and euphonium. “Once everything hits the fan, you have to sit down and figure out why you’re still doing this,” Shaw says, explaining that he decided forced lineup changes were, from one perspective, just an excuse to build on what he likes in the group.
The two upcoming house concerts are on par for Blvck Hippie’s indie (as in “independent”) aesthetic. Shaw says he has made merchandise at his parents house, and the band’s self-titled EP was self-funded as well. “It’s something that’s done out of necessity,” Shaw admits. There are benefits, though, to an indie approach. “It’s a culture that embraces the different and weird,” Shaw says. “So you just automatically feel comfortable no matter what happens. You’re like, ‘Hey, I know this is an intimate setting and everybody’s here just to enjoy the experience. If I break a string, if I sing the wrong note, everything’s okay.’”
Blvck Hippie performs at Philly’s Got-You-Covered Fest at 1054 Philadelphia Street in Cooper-Young on Saturday, January 25th, at 8 p.m.; and at Pagan Mom House with Sun Not Yellow, Madd Well, Wednesday, January 29th, at 8 p.m.