INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – In celebration of Black Music Month, brothers Joshua and Jared Thompson appeared on “Daybreak” with News 8’s Jeremy Jenkins to discuss their contributions to music, the importance of Black Music Month, and their upcoming projects.

Joshua Thompson emphasized the significance of Black Music Month, saying that while music is a constant part of their lives, Black Music Month provides an opportunity to highlight the many contributions people of color have made across all genres.

“It’s always nice to have a central focus where we can really analyze just how vast the contributions that Black folks have made and continue to make in just about every single genre of music that you can think of,” he said.

Jared Thompson, who performs with the band Premium Blend, shared similar sentiments.

“It’s in classical music, it’s in country music, it’s in folk music, jazz, R&B, hip hop, and just really fleshing out the minute details that make a more clear and holistic picture of what the soundscape of Black music is and its contributions to American culture.”

When asked about the local jazz scene, Jared affirmed its vibrancy and historical significance, particularly referencing Indiana Avenue’s rich history.

“It has such a rich and deep history of jazz and blues with Indiana Avenue in the Corridor that helped open up connecting Black musicians from the South to perform up north and also north, down the south,” he said. “The stories about the Avenue and those musicians that I love because they were just regular folks.”

Joshua also co-hosts the podcast “Melanated Moments in Classical Music” with renowned artist Angela Brown. He described the podcast as a platform to shed light on the often-overlooked Black contributions to classical music.

“Everyone loves to listen to classical music because it’s relaxing, but unfortunately, there’s just been century upon century of absolute neglect of Black contributions and literature in the classical canon,” Joshua said. “So what we do is we dust it off the annals, and we perform it. We talk about it. We interview the leading composers and musicians around the world to highlight that if it’s music, yeah, we’re in it and we’ve been doing it for a while.”

In addition to their individual projects, the Thompson twins announced an exciting new collaboration with Angela Brown: their new musical group, Spectrum.

“We are just really fortunate to have a personal and now a working relationship with Angela Brown,” Jared said. “We’re in the shed now, putting music together, getting bookings and tours. It’s going to be a very busy end of summer, fall, and winter.”

For more information, watch the full interview at the top of the page.