When 27-year-old bassist Floyd Foster isn\u2019t taking care of his three children, working towards his certificate at Berklee Online, or teaching music, he is fixing up cars\u2014 \u201950s and \u201960s vintage models, to be exact. Although working as a mechanic and restoring his 1957 Chevy Bel Air is one of his passions, he can\u2019t always enjoy the result.
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\u201cI\u2019m dark-skinned with dreads and I drive a nice car to the point where I have gotten the cops called on me just for how loud my car is,\u201d he says. \u201cThey get the cops on me, they\u2019ll search me for drugs or stuff like that. All because I\u2019m a black guy with a nice car. Whether I\u2019m cooperating or not: handcuffs. They don\u2019t find no weapons or nothing like that. And then in the end, it was only because I was black.\u201d
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With the momentum of the current Black Lives Matter movement, Floyd says that now more than ever is the time to be creating and using music to express ourselves. He hopes by opening up his doors with free music lessons through his nonprofit, the Life Band, he can inspire change.
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\u201cBlack Lives Matter to me is just a cry for my life, man,\u201d says Floyd. \u201cIt\u2019s a cry for everybody around us.\u201d
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The Louisiana native\u2019s musical journey began when he joined the Army in 2012 and was stationed in Alaska. During this time, he ran into a drum-piano duo looking for a bass player. So, he taught himself to play, and coaxed the other members to become a trio with him. This started what they now call the Life Band. <\/em>After about five years of service, he was injured and had to undergo two bilateral hip replacements, which led to his medical retirement. While his injury ended his time in the Army, it started his career as a full-time musician. \u201cWithin the five years I was there, I built relationships with a lot of musicians,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019d let you come play even if you didn\u2019t know. They just wanted to hand out knowledge. Sometimes the best way to learn is experience.\u201d Floyd moved to Hinesville, Georgia where he currently lives with his wife Monique, and their three children Ava Lee (five), Zamar (two), and Marley Rae (one). Hinesville also happens to be just 60 miles north of Brunswick, Georgia, where Ahmaud Arbery was chased down, shot, and killed by two white supremacists while jogging near his home. Arbery\u2019s murder was one of the injustices that led to the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement. Floyd says that he has already had conversations about racism with his oldest daughter, Ava, because they have experienced it together. \u201cWhen the Black Lives Matter movement came along, it wasn\u2019t really a painful thing to talk about,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was more \u2018Hey, Baby Girl, remember that time you went to the park and these people didn\u2019t want to play with you? This is why this happened to this man.\u2019 It\u2019s not really hard to talk to her about things like that because we already been going through it with her all this time.\u201d With Floyd now doing music full-time, his move to Hinesville allowed for him and his band to establish themselves and open their group up to the community for bass, drum, voice, piano lessons, jams, collaborations, and music production for free. The Life Band is made up of seven musicians and nearly 60 students. He encourages his students to let out their frustrations through music, as one of the many modes of protest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome and you can protest through your music,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can\u2019t beat hate with hate. You need to do it with love. The best way that we feel that you can do it is through music. You can come in here, we can figure out how to write you a song because we actually produce too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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