Meet BK of BK & the Understanding | Singer-songwriter/Creative/Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with BK of BK & the Understanding and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi BK, why did you pursue a creative career?
As far back as I can recall, music has always been an enjoyable and uplifting force in my life, and from childhood, I have always had a vivid and creative imagination, which certainly influenced my pursuits. As a teenager, my passion for music became a defining factor for me, and my inclinations to read and write, a love of literature and poetry, just began to spark my desire to create and share music with people. I began writing my own songs in high school, and I have continued this to this day. I have binders and containers full of poems and song ideas that I hope to one day reopen in fact.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

The art of BK & the Understanding to this point has been DIY (do-it-yourself) and mostly direct reflections of the communities I was a part of at the time. All of our published music as of the time of this interview was recorded in my home, Jay Cortez’s home studio, Tim Paul Rugg’s home studio space, and JR Garcia’s home office, but mostly the songs were recorded and mixed by me in my home. This means that the production quality is low, as I had no training or background in recording priorly, and both Jay and Tim were still novices when helping with tracking, mixing, and mastering. Concerning the songwriting, these, again, were influenced by the communities that I grew up in, Stephenville and Granbury for instance, and the people I knew or encountered there. The spiritual songs, such as “Liberated Soul” and “It Came to Me by Night,” may be the exceptions, as those come from epiphanies that seem unique to me. Then, there are songs like “I Don’t Wanna Die!” and “A Dime a Dozen,” which are completely playful in intention. That’s what BK & the Understanding (BKatU) has been to this point. However, the intention was never to stay there or as that version of BKatU; it has always been the intention for us to be a rock band but with the flexibility of covering a variety of rock sub-genres. And, I am excited to announce that our first studio album will be a great segue from the acoustic-oriented, coffee shop and inspirational styles of songwriting that we have done into alternative and even grunge rock. I know completing this project, which will end up being more than one album of material, will take some time, but I am excited and eager to share it. Before it is finished, however, I have the last of the DIY albums to publish. Hopefully I will be able to say more on that soon.

You asked about struggles. Well, they have been and continue to be many. The biggest is financial. No one wants to pay for music anymore. Spotify has trained them not to and taught them that they do not have to. Venues tend to pay, but like streaming services, they tend not to pay living or respectable wages, and engaging audiences enough to get them to buy merch is a challenge at the DIY level, because we don’t have the funds to market ourselves like a record label would since no one wants to pay for our art or services. We are essentially exploited as free labor and make content for both streaming and social media platforms for the owners of those platforms to rake in billions through our content and collected data, and we get less than a tenth of a percent, if anything, from it. So, the obstacles are ongoing and gigantic, but what successes I have had to this point have come from perseverance, human-to-human networking, and being an authentically kind and compassionate person.

You asked what I want the world to know about BK & the Understanding, and to that I say that we are here, we are authentic, we want to challenge and inspire you in ways that will cause you to grow as a human being and to change, progress into a better version of yourself, and through that we can all make the world a better place. Saying that, however, I do reserve the right to write about whatever I feel moved to write about, and sometimes it is and will be harsh criticisms that need to be heard or topics that will make some uncomfortable.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Well, I certainly would look for local artists’ shows in Fort Worth that I am acquainted with, such as Denver Williams & the Gas Money or Cut Throat Finches, hopefully playing somewhere like Tulip’s or Lola’s (RIP Main at South Side) or Friday Night on the Magnolia Green. I also would make sure to take them to my favorite coffee shop in DFW presently, Vita Coffee House. I might take them to the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff or to see a movie at the Texas Theater. I would take them to Panther Island Brewing so they could try my favorite beer, the Cannonball, and probably also to Martin House Brewing to try their plethora of fantastic beers. I would take them by my favorite pub in DFW, McFly’s Pub in Fort Worth. Food choices would range from Joe T. Garcia’s fajitas and margs to Rodeo Goat’s burgers and Moontang to Velvet Taco’s taco of the week, or, if we are still at Vita Coffee House, we might just swing by Straight from Philly to get the best damn Philly cheesesteaks I have ever had. It just depends. I likely would also want to hit up a record store with my friends, such as Doc’s Records or Panther Island Vinyl in Fort Worth, Spinsters in the Bishop Arts, or Forever Young Records in between Grand Prairie and Arlington (I forget which one it technically is located in). Also, I would see if there are any rock bands playing in Deep Ellum. This is all presuming BK & the Understanding does not have any shows booked while this friend is or these friends are visiting of course, because if we do, I fully expect my friend or friends to attend our show and get the BKatU experience.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people have contributed or supported my journey on the path of being a singer-songwriter and musician, so it is difficult to point to any one. Early on, my parents in conjunction with my grandfather, the late Bob Gazaway, bought my sister and I a Sae Han acoustic guitar that our younger brother now possesses, and then in junior high and high school I briefly took guitar lessons from two professionals, that I sadly cannot recall their names, before going on the path of self-teaching. During my self-teaching period, playing with my friends at the time, particularly a friend named Justin Riggs, taught me how to play rhythm guitar. Since then, I would like to give a shoutout to JR Garcia, a long-time friend and former guitar-god of my high school, for helping me launch BK & the Understanding, and to Tim Paul Rugg for playing drums with us the first couple of years when we could get full-band shows. Also, Arynn Tomson helped with launching and getting the word out early on, and Jay Cortez of Elevated Studios and Jonnie Blues & Co. helped get my DIY projects going. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife for supporting me even when she didn’t understand how to do so. Being a musician, or an artist of any kind, is a daunting task for most of us who do not come from a privileged background. Oh, and also a shoutout should go to the friends who have supported BK & the Understanding since they were exposed to us, such as Chad and Sarah Mangrum, Rachel Beverly, Tyler Taegel, Jahmicah and Heather Dawes and their shop, SlimPickins Outfitters, and the Traveling Mic Productions out of Stephenville. Others have come along too, but those I just listed were huge contributors to the path that has brought me to this point.

Website: www.bkandtheunderstanding.bandcamp.com

Instagram: @bkandtheunderstanding

Twitter: @bkandtheunderst

Facebook: BK & the Understanding

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@bkandtheunderstanding

Image Credits
Photographers in no particular order: Rocky Helton, Arynn Tomson, Peter Wierenga, and BK (me).