We caught up with the brilliant and insightful J. Buck a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

J., appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

After I released my last project “Bar Talk” it was the first time that I felt misunderstood as an artist. Bar Talk was perhaps the most personal I’ve been as a writer and unloading so many of my faults, addictions, mistakes, and short comings for it not to be received in the way I had hoped was hurtful. Not to mention that the pandemic hit, I was drinking uncontrollably, my mother was battling cancer and I was restructuring my management team. I struggled with writers block for a long time during the pandemic because I was hesitant to find what I wanted to share after sharing so much and peoples responses being “why is this album so depressing” or for them just not to listen at all. It was like the saying “if a tree falls, and no one is there, does it make a sound”? My version of that became, “if an artist writes and no one listens, is he a writer”?

J., before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My birth name is Joshua Buck, I was born and raised in Memphis, TN in the Whitehaven area and I was raised by great parents who loved great music. I, like most, came up in the church singing in the choir so I love gospel and God has played a major role in my life to this day. I also grew to love many genres of music from jazz, to blues, soul, rock, pop, punk rock, funk, hip hop, afrobeat, reggaetone, ska, salsa etc. I LOVE IT ALL! I also love the written word and so writing songs came naturally for me, but it wasn’t until the passing of my grandfather in 2014 that I began to really take music seriously and it is that he would be proud of my using my voice to spread a positive message that has motivated me to continue. Of all of the things I’ve done from creating 3 projects, to touring all over Europe to working with so many amazing musicians, I am most proud of the fact that I have remained true to who I am as a man first and an artist second.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal and mission is to bring people together through music. My motto and mission statement is “love yourself, love your neighbor, love your neighborhood”. The power of music is so that it can literally move culture in a positive or negative direction, and if I can produce enough positive music an inspire other artists to do the same, then maybe we can save this dying world.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I can see the benefit of NFTs but in my humble opinion the structure of how you get paid from it give me pyramid scheme vibes. I have business PTSD, so I don’t put my money or art just anywhere. I’m waiting to gather more research into that space before I determine whether or not it’s right for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jbucktribe.com
• Instagram: @j.buckmusic_
• Facebook: JBuckMusic
• Linkedin: N/A
• Twitter: @jbuckmusic
• Youtube: JBuckMusic
• Yelp: N/A

Image Credits
Be Manning Instagram: @photos.bybe