The Soul of Sound: An Interview with Deon Brown

(Written by Zoe Salahud-Din)

Deon Brown, multi-hyphenate creative and founder of the Black American Sound System is hosting a sonic exhibition and event series at Oakland Public Library that focuses on sounds of the Bay Area and the nostalgia that comes with it. In preparation, we interviewed him to get further acquainted with who he is and what people can expect from his project.

ME: So for those unfamiliar with you and your work, how would you introduce them to Deon Brown and the Black American Sound System?

DEON: How would I introduce them to Deon Brown? Deon Brown is who I am and under that moniker I am an artist, producer, singer, and songwriter. The Black American Sound System is the platform to which I do that practice. It’s sound design. It’s constructing sound systems, constructing basically archival experiences. I think what this is is I’ve kind of recreated my love for school and my intuit career. Basically doing large-scale projects around Black history and me not only creating music for it, but the speaker to play it. And the history that is attached to [the speakers] with the vinyl that I also have. Just making those connections has turned into –and I'm very grateful to say– a career and a legacy that I plan to leave for my children and the children’s children. Which is who I’m doing a lot of this work for and I’m so grateful that people are attached to it and connect with the speakers as well. Which is how the Cornbread system came about. I do this because I remember what it was like being in a lot of white music classes, getting my degree and feeling like the music and the knowledge that I had was not valued.

ME: How does the Cornbread Sound System differ from the B.A.S.S and what made you decide on that name?

DEON: Yes, so the Black American Sound System is the name of the project and the company. The Cornbread Sound System is the name of the sound system that B.A.S.S has made. B.A.S.S is the house and Cornbread lives in there. The name “Cornbread” came about after getting a genealogy report and verifying with my Grandma who said most of the information was true. Relaying to me about living in Georgia which was the most surveilled slave state at the time, having escaped being lynched, creating their own towns and creating their own self-sufficient businesses, selling watermelons and Okra. Same goes for Texas; yes, they were cowboys and yes, they did create Juneteenth. And so when I thought about that, I was like wow there’s this type of crossover that’s happening, this alchemy occurring, that isn’t really documented but we all just do. So I had a song called ‘Chitlens’ that came out where I talked about that process where we’re given scraps and we were able to change that and turn it into sustenance and magic. I was telling myself like... well I’ve had a really sh*tty life for a couple years growing up out here in the bay. It was really tough and I was like how can I make the best of this? What my ancestors told me, they’re like ‘Well, look at Cornbread' you know? During the time of the Freedman’s Bureau we got food like cornmeal. What can anyone do with cornmeal? That cornmeal turned into grits... turned into Cornbread. My process felt like Cornbread, having very little scraps of material and turning it into something.

ME: As we know, you’re hosting an exhibition with OPL called “Soul, Sonics, and Sound Systems.” What will these performances entail? What can newcomers expect?

DEON: Yes, so “Soul, Sonics, and Sound Systems” is a sonic exhibition that I’m putting together in connection with the Cornbread Sound System that I’ve added some adjustments to — a sound wall, as well as all the archives on display, all the research I’ve done around soul music here in the Bay Area, around sonic experimentation by means of jazz specifically, cause there’s such a large jazz background in the Bay Area. It’s pretty tight. Same thing with sound systems, car audio. So, what’s been great about this is, all of it is so integrated with my work. I have a mentor that’s an antiquarian, we both collect vinyl and talk about this stuff all the time. I’m talking to my homies who always suggest the music in the car, so they tell me about that. I listen to soul music. I'm thinking about the time I was listening to “The Quiet Storm” in LA with my mom making yams for Sunday dinner and having the call-ins. How much those are sacred Black listening experiences and just bringing that to the library. Showcasing that this place of wholesome-ness still lives here. On view we’ll have vinyl from the Bay Area, some CON FUNK SHUN, some Alice Coltrane, Raphael Saddiq, Tony! Toni! Tone!. We went to the library archives and got some concert posters and of course we’ll have the sound system. We’ll be turning the space into Grandma’s house and It’ll be a really good time. There’s three main events, so the first one is Opening Reception 2/26, and then we have Sonic Flow Yoga and Sound Bath 3/26, and the last one, the Closing Reception 4/26, will be a live performance between myself and another special guest. Which is supposed to be a car show, a Sunday Sound Service. We’ll be pulling the speakers outside playing the soul music in the courtyard and we’ll be having a panel around some of the black car audio engineers in the Bay Area with the speakers and all that. It’ll be really cool.

ME: What do you want event-goers to walk away with after attending “Soul Sonics and Sound Systems”?

DEON: I want them to walk away with first, a better understanding that soul music and Black people and Black music lives in the Bay Area and has always. I want them to also know that the Bay Area doom is only as real as you think it is. And, a lot of the answers to what we’re experiencing also live in our elders. (Some. haha. Sometimes.) And, the sound of Black people, the story of Black people, the music, the history, is valuable. It’s high art. There’s innovation in it, there’s design, there’s expression. I believe that sound is the expression of freedom and having that be rung and reverberated through the walls of a library, of an institution that is state-sanctioned and saying that this is something that wouldn’t be considered art but is now presented is important to me.

ME: From your interviews and written material, I get the sense that you read. You’re extremely articulate, intelligent and intentional with an expansive vocabulary. I have to ask, what are you reading or what have you read that informs your thinking?

DEON: Oh my gosh, you know I like to say that I’m not an avid reader, but I read so much. So I went to San Francisco State, I was a double major. I went for music composition and pre-law. So I was reading every day. Right now, actually, I’ve been reading Blue People by LeRoi Jones for the exhibition. I’ve been reading a lot of articles on soul music in the Bay Area. I went to the archives at the Oakland History Center. I’m getting through The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. That was my mom’s copy. She left it out on her dresser that I took. Toni [her book] is so thick, so it’s really a page or two a day when I’m in the bathtub but I really enjoy that. And then Conversations with God [Neale Donald Walsch]. That is one of my favorite books, basically about this man who is a writer. He was also having those same questions that you and I or a lot of people are having around like ‘Okay, is there more to this? What’s going on? What do I believe?’ and he just started journaling the questions that he asked God. And it’s like this moment where God is speaking through him, he’s channeling God’s answers through his writing. And I think it’s just a very interesting piece of theology, talking about God and metaphysics and the way we interact with this simulation. So, I thought it was a nice perspective. Also, I know I’m doing too much but I’m also reading Black Aesthetics and Black Cognitive Thought by W.D Wright. I like to keep it very theoretical, I’m like 'What are people thinking and how can we change that?' Because thought leads to creation and this is how y’all created hell on earth.

ME: So as we wait for your event series, where in your catalogue should we start listening to get
acquainted with your art?

DEON: Oh yes. Please listen to “Negro Night Prayers” on my SoundCloud. Then I also have my album “Home” which is on Apple Music right now. I highly suggest that “Negro Night Prayers” though. That is, I would say, a temporary piece of living art, with a lot of soundscapes and my own unreleased songs and stuff. I made this album and the speakers at the same time. And I made the album specifically for the speakers, to which I will play at the exhibition. That’s what I suggest.

Check out Deon Brown’s “Negro Night Prayers” and the rest of his discography HERE: https://soundcloud.com/deonbrownmusic and be sure to stop by OPL and experience his sonic exhibition. More information can also be found at this link: https://tinyurl.com/SoulSonicsandSoundsystem