Music is very important in Justin's life, having been lucky enough to have parents who immersed him in good music his whole life. Singing and whistling were his first instruments, and he taught himself how to play guitar over Christmas break at the end of 1996, using a chord book and the amazing resource of OLGA (the Online Guitar Archive, which, unfortunately, has been closed down for some time due to a stupid legal battle they're being forced to fight). He and Byron got together as a band back when they were both in 1st year university (1996), and the first song written together was Ficos Et Olivas (track 21 on the CD). While Byron is the principal songwriter in Ticklish Brother, Justin actively co-writes many of the songs. He also comes up with pretty much all of the harmonies. Finally, he is the tech person, the one who (for better or worse) recorded and produced the CD, and who begs, borrows, and sets up the equipment for our live shows. Justin has a huge amount of fun as one half of Ticklish Brother. He wrote this paragraph in the 3rd person.
Musical influences (in no particular
order)(and incomplete)(and he doesn't claim that you'd
necessarily be able to actually hear the influence in his music):
Seals and Crofts, Beck, Jeff White (not the country
singer one), Pentangle, Bert Jansch, Chieftains, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits,
Richard Thompson, The Pogues, Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Portishead,
Leonard Cohen, Modern Jazz Quartet, Stan Rogers, Weird Al, Nirvana...
Other musical bits and pieces:
- sings, plays guitar, tin whistle, clarinet,
japanese bamboo flute, mandolin (a little), percussion,
- member of the SOFA Band, a celtic band now
dissolved.
- contributed a song to the Beck tribute CD.
Find out about it here.
- presently in the process of recording a CD
involving contributions from every member of his immediate and extended
family.
- owns a Simon
& Patrick SP-6 Cedar guitar, bought in May 1999, which he is very
pleased with.
For a fuller look at Justin (and no, I don't mean
nudity), you can visit his personal
page. You can also e-mail
him.