An English literature major at the University of the Pacific in northern California, Justin started off first as a professional golfer and then as a writer prior to beginning his music career. He’s published several poetry pieces, written novels and short stories and even a children’s book.
His story is an amazing one; we’ll let him tell it to you in his own words:
“Being a writer, a lot of the stuff I write is about life. I’ve been traveling the world for the last 5 years writing and doing a bit of soul searching. I just started playing the guitar, I had a lot of time for it, and it made a lot of sense. I was playing live four or five months after picking the thing up.”
“I used to be a golf pro half the time and writing half the time. I realized one day that I was an artist; I didn’t want to be a golf pro. I pulled on the side of the road and I just quit. I had been giving lessons and playing at this golf course in southern California. I was on the way to work 4:35 in the morning and I just quit. I sold everything I had and said ‘to hell with this, if I’m gonna do it I’m gonna do it!’”
“I bought a plane ticket after giving my two weeks and the day after my two weeks, I flew to Fiji. I’ve been to Europe and places like that, but I’ve always been with people. This was the first time I left just completely alone. I was so stressed when I got off the plane. I was like ‘Dude, what are you doing? Knucklehead, you had the world on a string, you sold everything, and you’re in Fiji!’ I didn’t even know where it was on a map. I didn’t try to book anything, I thought, ‘I’ll just figure it out when I get there and go as I go.’ Sometimes the best part of travel is really not having plans; you just kinda do it. This guy walking through was like, ‘Hey, you need a place to stay?’ in this really thick Fijian accent and I said, ‘Yeah man, I’m just here with a surfboard and a guitar.’ Turns out he runs like two or three bars on one of the outside islands. He’s driven me to his nephew’s place, who runs one of these little tiny islands. I ended up staying out there two weeks for free, and I get to play music every third night and I’m going from completely shocked and ‘What the hell are you doing with yourself?’ to everything just kinda going places. It was really weird; it was kinda like that for me the whole time. Fijian people are amazing. They drive you to their house, introduce you to their family and send you home with a bunch of fruit. There’s just a different way of living over there.”
After his adventure in Fiji, he continued to tour the world. “I bit off more than I could chew, but something made me do it. I don’t know how random of a coincidence certain things are. Maybe there’s a little bit of destiny. It was really neat. I went through Thailand and Indonesia and around Asia. I met some amazing people. I think everywhere, there’s good and bad. Just traveling in general really broadens you. You don’t really know what it’s like until you get to walk among the people; it just gives you a different perspective on everything.”
“When I came back to the States, I started playing all over southern California from L.A. all the way down to San Diego, all the little beach towns in between. Actually got a touring show in Australia and I was there for 8 months touring the east coast.”
“In Australia I was traveling with a bunch of golf pros and sleeping in these little pup tents on the side of the road and wherever we could put them, like in national parks where you’re not supposed to be camping. These guys I’m with know everybody, so we go to this bar and they are going to try and get me to play, cause if you play you always get free drinks. So they are pumped, ‘you gotta play so we can order what we can.’ So we go in there and this guy has this private party at his house. And his house was up in the hills, overlooking all the water and it was just breathtaking. These tropical islands are like stars that have fallen from the heavens, just gorgeous. So the band that was supposed to play had gotten food poisoning, apparently, the night before so he’s got no music. We go in the bar and twenty minutes later we’re off to this mansion out on the water. And I’m getting paid and whatever we can eat and drink the whole night. That was pretty cool and unexpected.”
“I got back to the states [in June 2007]. Our lead guitarist actually lives in Kenmore just north of Seattle. He has three girls and a wife, so I had to come up here for him, so here I am in Seattle now. I totally got lucky, all that was blind luck.”
“The music is taking the vast majority of my time, especially when I’m marketing and doing most of the stuff on my own... I’m actually working on a book of romantic poetry; a couple of poems have already been published. So I’m kinda continuing to write, but I’m doing poetry and every once in a while I’ll do a short story, but a novel is way too in-depth for how busy I am with the music right now. We’ve got a lot of things going on in Seattle. Most of my stuff is in the Northwest for now, while we get on our feet.”
“I really love music, whatever’s good. I don’t have a lot of bias, but my mom shoved John Denver down our throats growing up as kids. She loved him. So I really had a lot of that. I really loved the way that guy wrote. Being able to travel, I started really getting into music outside of the States, people that are really amazing.” “To me it’s about the words. The melody and vocals and all are great, but to me it’s really about the message I try to convey with the words. It’s all about therapy for me, but also I think it could be therapy for other people as well.”
“My favorite song of mine to sing is “Tangible Proof.” I came back and I was getting kicked in the teeth with the writing. The music was kind of nothing was going through. The tangible proof was about how that when I give my entire self to it, it tends to give me something back.”
“I’m about original thought most definitely. I tend to try and not quote things that I’ve heard, but that whole ‘sing like no one is listening, dance like no one is watching, and live everyday like (it’s) gonna be your last’-- I really, really, really believe that and it’s a lot easier to say it than to actually do it. Because life is life, ya know? I think we get caught up in the wrong stuff, especially in the Western world a lot of times, but I just try to live like ‘this is the day; this is what I’ve got.’ I’m not trying to keep up with the Joneses. I’m just trying to be the best that I can be.”
“I have pretty lofty goals. I try to find the middle ground, but I seem to have a pretty hard time with it. I haven’t given up anything, but I’ve chosen this, I’m college educated and I’ve kinda cast all that aside... if I don’t write, I feel off. I want to keep traveling. I want to meet people. I want to hear their stories, I want to give them my stories, and I want to write. I want to leave a print on this planet, but in a good way.”
“I dream of a world filled with hope, that’s color blind, that’s gender blind. It’s amazing to me that we’re so similar everywhere. Even if you go to Thailand, if you’re in London or Ireland or Spain or Italy, Australia, Fiji, it’s amazing to me how similar we are even in our differences and you know people. People, even in the States, southern California hates northern and the West coast hates the East coast. So of course people in America’s not gonna like this place, and this place isn’t going to like that place, and you know what I learned? We’re all just people man, we are all just people. I don’t care where you’re from. It’s not about where you’re from; it’s about who you are.”
| written by Krystina Rene' Miller
