Black Astra, Through Hardship to the Stars

For Black Astra, writing was a place to find freedom long before it became music. They started writing poetry around 12 years old, using words as a form of emotional release during an upbringing that did not always leave much room for them to feel like their own person. On the page, things were different. They controlled the words, the tone and, most importantly, the voice. “My upbringing wasn’t really a conducive space for me to, like, be my own person,” they said. “But I felt like in my writing, like, my voice came through.” Years later, that need to speak freely still sits at the center of their music. The difference is that they are no longer using art simply to figure themselves out. After years of writing, producing, performing and evolving, they are creating from a much more certain place. “Being in those spaces feels, like, less, I’m figuring out, and more, like, here I am.”

Born Miles and named after Miles Davis, they are originally from St. Louis, Missouri, but Los Angeles has been part of their story since childhood. They first moved to the city at seven when their mother, a screenwriter, came to pursue her creative ambitions. They later returned to St. Louis before making their way back to Los Angeles as a teenager. Their musical upbringing reflected that movement between different worlds. Through their mother came artists like Sade, Maxwell and Erykah Badu, while time with their father introduced them to trap and hip-hop. Punk and alternative music eventually entered the mix too, creating the collection of influences that can be heard in what they now describe as “diverse alternative hip-hop.” Poetry became songwriting around 16 or 17, and while living in a group home, they began recording music with a friend. When the two eventually stopped working together, Black Astra decided they did not want to rely on finding beats online, so they taught themselves how to make their own. Today, they produce most of their music themselves, choosing beats largely by instinct. “It’s whatever makes me want to speak,” they say.

While attending Hollywood High, they found another place to create through the school’s recording and production equipment, often staying after school to work on music. “It was just like freedom,” they remember. That period eventually led them to a House of Blues Music Forward program and an opportunity to perform at the Wiltern while they were still discovering who they were as an artist. Years later, they look at performing differently. They have developed a clearer understanding of their sound, their presence and what they want their music to represent. Vulnerability remains central to that. Some of their earlier songs can be uncomfortable for them to revisit because they captured thoughts and experiences they had not fully processed at the time. Now, vulnerability feels more intentional. By being honest about their own experiences, they hope someone listening might find language for something they have experienced too. “I think that’s all I ever really want, is for it to mean something to somebody,” they say. “It means something to me. So, if it means something to you, then, you know, thank you.”

That evolution comes through on their 13-track album, Take It to the Stars, a project that allows the different sides of them to exist together. They point to “Borrowed” and “What Do It Matter” as two tracks that especially represent where they are today. “Borrowed” carries the loudness and intensity of their punk influences while confronting the idea of living on borrowed time and making the life they have their own. “What Do It Matter” moves into heavier territory, wrestling with purpose, nihilism and the moments when everything happening around them can make it difficult to see the point of it all. Those questions are not separate from the person behind the music. They are part of it, and rather than hide them, they give themselves space to explore them.

Even the name Black Astra reflects how much their sense of self has changed. For years, they released music as 100 Miles, a name someone else suggested when they first started rapping. Eventually, it stopped feeling like them. Black Astra carried more personal meaning, connecting the image of a Black star with the idea of moving “through hardship to the stars.” The name speaks not only to what they have experienced, but to what they want others to recognize in themselves. Their past remains part of their story without having to determine what comes next. “All the people that have been a part of my journey, whether they’re still here or not, I am grateful for that,” they say. “I don’t live a singular experience. It all compounds into the person I am at the end of the day.”

For now, they are focused on continuing to push Take It to the Stars, releasing more visuals, getting physical copies of the album into people’s hands and performing more shows. They have also considered celebrating 10 years of making music with a tour. But underneath those ambitions is the same thing that was there when they first began writing poetry: the need to say something honest and make it mean something. At 12, writing gave them a place to find their voice. As a teenager, music gave that voice somewhere to go. Now, after years spent learning who they are and what they want to say, they are no longer simply figuring it out. They are stepping forward as themselves.