How It Started: Places Like Home
The Korean-American Los Angeles native began making music at 17—a junior in high school, he described it being the moment he considered himself a professional. Through the years since then, he’s seen a lot of movement in his career with labels coming and going, he finally settled into his home of six years—5A Label. As an artist being vulnerable can be cathartic. For Justin, penning a complex album inspired by the stories from his heart was tough, especially for a debut album. “How do you comprise yourself, how do you package yourself in a way where people are going to like you or mess with your music, or you or your vision. For me, for the first album, I actually didn’t even know,” Justin laughs. As he shared not really knowing what the outcome would be but having to just do it and go along with the flow. Places Like Home, was drawn from the personal experiences of the artist’s life. Combining elements of R&B, Pop and Hip-hop, the album features slow-tempo, romantic tracks such as “Dates In LA,” along with R&B-Pop laced “Like We Used To,” and the hip-hop influenced track, “Sicario Melara,” where he confidently shows off his own swag. From the heartache of relationships to the feelings of happiness, he bared it all in this album, providing his audience with a more intimate and healing experience.View this post on Instagram
Nothing But Vibes, Music, and Thriving Creativity
There’s something special about immersing oneself completely into their craft, to capture the essence of the art that’s created without the distractions of the outside world. It welcomes an opportunity for the artist to explore a different aspect of their creativity while strengthening the connection with their art. It was this feeling Justin felt while working on his latest single, “You Don’t Know,” as he secluded himself in the calmness that Joshua Tree welcomed along with producer/songwriter Dirk Pate. “For that song, I actually wrote in the studio with good friend Dirk, he’s a really talented writer, we were writing together, tossing–like he had a really good idea already and it’s just like man if you came on top of this and injected a little bit of your soul and idea. And I’m like, ‘heck yeah bro,’ he had such a good base,” Justin told EnVi. “We were shooting in Joshua Tree, and recording a lot of the song there, and we had a lot of album ideas come out of that experience.” It’s his smile that really lights up the screen, as he gushed about his time in Joshua Tree and the way his music video illustrated the album coming together, a concept he felt fans would enjoy seeing. “The music video shows the actual album composition coming together, when it does come out the fans are going to see for the first time what it’s like making music, what it looks like for an artist to be deep in the work, in the artistry, in the lyrics. Because it really takes a long time to be honest.” The singer explained the process of composing an album takes time, describing it as being a moment of contemplation and reflection, to ensure that the message that the story is portraying is the right one. “That was my first time really working away from the city, secluded and having no distractions. You know–wifi was pretty bad and all that stuff, it was cold and you couldn’t even go outside. It was snowing so, we were inside writing, working, you know–it was cool,” Justin beamed.The Art of an Artist: Continuous Exploration
An artist never stops creating. Even through dispiriting moments, they strive on the constant exploration of their craft as they continue to improve their artistry. Justin detailed this feeling as he described what his art means to him and how he pushes to become a better version of himself. “The person that I am, the artist that I am today is nowhere near where I was two years ago. I’m much better today. I’m more driven, I’m more passionate,” the artist expressed. Surprisingly enough, Justin admitted to having fallen out-of-love for music for a short time during the pandemic, a moment he shared was filled with unmotivating thoughts.
Intertwining Cultures: Going Back to His Roots
Aside from writing for himself, Justin also dabbles in writing for other artists as an international writer with Mister Rocks Music Group (MRMG). Where he’s written for Kpop artists such as B.A.P, and worked alongside fellow friend and artist Amber Liu, on various projects such as the track “XL Uber,” and the “Like We Used To,” music video.The singer opened up to EnVi about always having an interest in Korea, and not wanting to shun his roots by not working there as an artist. He shared wanting to be able to create music not only in America but also in Korea. Having the best of both worlds is one ambition he’s ready to partake in. “You’re getting rid of your whole Korean fanbase–your possible Korean fanbase and your roots necessarily so. For me it’s like I can do both, that’s what I told myself. I can do both or everything, I’mma try to do everything.” Continuing on, he detailed the endless opportunities for him as a songwriter in the Asian Music industry. From attending K-pop writing camps in Korea to writing for Chinese artists in China, it was an experience he grew from and welcomed with open arms.View this post on Instagram
“Traveling the world, going to Korea and China, all sorts of places–it’s hard. We had like really hard flights–transfer flights 24 hours and 30 hour flights, just because we had to save money, that was really smart. And it gave me a lot of experiences,” revealed the singer. “Because you can be in first class sitting by yourself not really experiencing what’s around you. But that’s not an artist.” For Justin, an artist is one that immerses themselves into the experiences around them, unafraid to retell that experience into a story, a story that teaches them more about the world around them.View this post on Instagram
Finding His Love For Music Again
If there’s one thing this pandemic has shown Justin is the art of perseverance, the notion of continuing to strive to perfect your craft in the midst of an ever-changing world. Justin shared with EnVi how adapting to living through a pandemic made him realize just how much he loves being a musician. “It was just so weird to me to be stuck in my room, a place I was never at. So I became so unmotivated, so lazy– I was like ‘man am I even an artist?’ because I’m not doing shows,” he said. “I haven’t seen the people that have been listening to my music, it was almost like a fake idea to me, you know? That’s how crazy I was going.”
Believe in Yourself and Strive for Your Dreams
Perhaps what’s so relatable about Justin’s entire journey, is the way he’s shown resilience through it all, continually challenging himself and his craft, while never losing hope of what he aims to achieve. Something he’d like others just like him who have a dream they aspire to achieve, to remember to never lose hope in themselves or their dream. To remember that they hold the key of their dreams in their hands and it’s up to them to take the step forward and do something about it.
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