Nick Black is host of ‘Nick Black’s 30 Day Twitch Sample Challenge.’
Nick Black is on a musical roll.
He’s writing a new song every day for the next 30 days on Nick Black’s 30 Day Twitch Sample Challenge. He live streams at noon or later on twitch.tv/nickblackmusic.
“I’m going to create a song a day and each song is going to use a sample that a friend of mine has submitted or a fan has submitted,” Black says. “Any original kind of piece they have. Whether it’s a drummer or a keyboardist or a singer. They send me 30 seconds of a sample and that is going to be the inspiration for the song.
“The way that I work in this kind of situation is it could end up becoming the centerpiece of the song. It also could end up having an effect on the song. I just kind of have to follow inspiration wherever it goes.”
The resulting song “could end up as anything. There’s going to be a lot of mixing, so it will lave a lot of hip-hop influence, a lot of R&B ‘cause that’s the music I love. And probably a lot of neo soul as well.”
Black takes sample submissions at his email address: nickblackmusic.com/twitchchallenge.
“The stream is going to be sponsored by a company I endorse, Cordial Cables, instrument cables and recording cables.”
His first show aired May 18th with Black wearing a “Memphis Soul” shirt. He already was well stocked with samples before that first show. “I have got samples from my band and I’ve got samples from other musicians I’ve reached out to. I’m covered for a while, but there are people I would like to work with. So, if I do get samples from them, that would be great.”
He wants “lots of samples from Memphis musicians,” says Black, who counts Graham Winchester and John Paul Keith as among those he’d like to hear from. “Anybody that wants to submit from Memphis, I would love it.”
This isn’t an idea Black just came up with. “I’ve never had the time to do this. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time.”
The quarantine was responsible for Black coming up with the show. “I think, honestly, the thing that I miss the most because of the quarantine is the collaboration between me and my band. This is sort of a glimpse inside what I would normally be doing. This is the quarantine version of all that.”
Black has released three albums and “a slew of singles” since his first album, The Soul Diaries, in 2012. He explores mixing electronic music with acoustic elements in his recently-released single, “IRL.”
He was touring nationally with sold-out shows, including Springboard West Music Festival in San Diego, The Mint in Los Angeles, and B-Side in Hollywood. But touring came to a halt with the pandemic. “We were forced off the road. We were up in New York supposedly to play at Berkeley College School of Music. They closed Berkeley a couple of days before our show. We were stranded and kind of had to make our way back home.
“For the past two months I’ve been teaching a little bit here and there. I was at the University of Memphis heading the music business program over there.”
Black and his wife, Lena, also are hosting a weekly cooking show, “Cooking and Crooning.” “We go live on Facebook from my Facebook page. My wife will cook a vegetarian meal while I sing. In between the songs we’ll banter back and forth.”
Nick Black’s 30 Day Twitch Sample Challenge is a cooking show of sorts, Black says. “The sample could end up being the centerpiece at this kind of meal I’m cooking up, if you will. But it could also end up being a side.”
