2018 Article
The reminders are a reggae fusion group made up of Big Samir & Asia Black. They have been performing artist and a a couple for over a decade. They have released 2 albums and have toured all around the world. They are one of the premier music groups out of Colorado Springs.
How did you get into the music business?
Before we met, Asia was more of a spoken word artist, and I was I was already in a well-established band here in Colorado Springs. By the time Asia and I got together, we fed off each others energy, and we just kept creating. It was never the plan to be the supergroup couple. It just kind of came together.
What are some exciting moments in your journey so far?
Even though we are married and making music together, we’re not the only ones raising children and still pursuing their dreams. We’re not the only couple that works together. When we get to share our experiences with the world through our music and see people connect and relate to it, it inspires us to keep on creating. People connect through our music, they also connect with our family, our values and the way we carry ourselves. It’s been a great journey so far.
In what ways are you involved in your local community?
Initially, we were doing a lot of work in schools with anti-bullying assemblies in Colorado Springs. A lot of kids commit suicide here, more than in other places. So we wanted to raise awareness and help these kids through tough situations in their lives, trying to raise their self esteem. That opportunity led us to partner with the library district here to do some writing workshops and help people learn how to channel that energy into creativity. I also started a podcast about fatherhood. I started this parenting podcast because a lot of my friends started having children after. So they would call me for advice about raising kids, relationships and fatherhood. I found myself counseling men all the time. Men don’t generally speak up when they need help or when they need advice. I wanted to create a platform to help men feel comfortable talking about these issues.
So I decided to have these conversations with the men that I look up to and that have helped me and inspired me. I had them share their stories, hoping that it might inspire or help somebody out. Everybody needs healing, everybody needs assistance, and sometimes people are afraid to ask. I’m just trying to do my part to better my community.
Are your kids involved in the family business?
We don’t take them all the time when we perform or travel. We take them when it’s going to work out. For example, if we’re touring in the summertime and they’re out of school and it’s going to be a comfortable set up for them, than absolutely, they should come along for the ride. We miss our children when we travel, so we try to find ways to stay connected. When we tour, it’s not easy. People think it’s a glamorous life, the rock star life, but it’s a lot of late nights early mornings, you don’t eat the proper food sometimes because your always on the go. On one tour, we were away from our kids for almost 2 weeks, but towards the end of the tour, while we were in California, they joined us, and we were able to go to Disneyland as a family and have fun.
What are some of the messages that you are trying to get across in your music?
We try to unite people through the power of music because music is one place where it’s not about politics. It’s not about your race. It’s not about your background. A lot of times you go to the concert and people come from everywhere, and even though we may not have had something in common before we got there , that one artist, that one song connects us. That’s the power of music. We express whatever we go through in our daily lives, whether it be struggles or joy, expressing that honestly from the heart is what we are about.
We’re all one people on this planet. We’re all one people with a heart beat. It doesn’t matter if you’re the wealthiest person on earth, you will still have some struggles. So we try just to try to touch a lot of these different points that everybody goes through every day.
What are some tips for creatives who want to excel at their craft?
#1 Don’t wait for anybody or anything. Don’t wait to become famous. Don’t wait to have money. A lot of times people are waiting for something to happen to them. There’s no time to waste, the time is now. I say go for it. Don’t wait for the New Year’s resolution.
#2 Keeps getting better. With consistency, you’re going to get better. If you’re a videographer, get better at shooting videos. If you’re a photographer keep taking pictures. If you’re a writer, keep writing. Dont wait will you find inspiration, write until you are inspired. Just perfect your craft. When that opportunity comes to you, you want to be prepared, and you want to be your best, you don’t want to still be a work in progress.
Tell me about the upcoming project.
We’ve had two albums out already. This latest project took a while for us becausee we’ve been touring, raising our children and just really putting our family first and not letting anything come between that. Our children are getting older. We help them with thier schoolwork and different things. We are hands-on parents. We’re not part-time parents. we are in here full-time. I just dropped the kids off at school. We’ve learned a lot from the last album till now. We’ve learned a lot from traveling more and just pouring our hearts into the songs that we’ve written. We went to Chicago a few times to work with a producer out there and recorded 3 songs, but a lot of the songs were created from scratch. Asia played the guitar. She played a couple of riffs, we wrote the songs. I played either the Djembe or the Cajon drum, and we just let it flow. It feels great to be able to create something from nothing, this is really what this album is about. Us showing our growth. We had a lot of fun just really expressing ourselves honestly, and hope for people enjoy it.
