Daily Inspiration: Meet Justin Douville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Douville.

Hi Justin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My journey as a electronic music production teacher began 9 years ago after purchasing a guitar and looping pedal to teach myself how to play. This turned into long nights learning how to improvise over various chord progression which I started recording for sampling material on Logic Pro X to be turned into beats. Not long after I picked up Ableton and dove into music production, heavily focussed on Sound Design with the software synthesizer Serum.

Now almost 10 years later I’m playing shows all over the country, have a number of students I teach regularly 1-on-1 and have collaborated with organizations like Synthesis.Audio to teach seminars of over 500+ students internationally. I have a deep passion for learning and abstracting technical music concepts for creators with ranging levels of experience, it’s a blessing to have found a way to connect with people through an art form that has given me so much since I started engaging with it. My goal is to get as many people excited about their creative process as possible so they can go off and develop their identity as an artist, a pursuit that’s given me so many gifts in my own life.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life happens! We lose jobs, we lose people, we move locations, the experience of being uprooted and made uncomfortable is one that all human beings share.

Music and art have always been there for me as an outlet in my most difficult times as a way to take those difficult experiences and transmute them into something tangible, to mark a milestone in one’s journey through life. This transforming of experiences into art has been my main focus in the last 3 years of creating, something I love to chat with fellow creators about because it has opened up a world of possibilities to bridge life experiences and technical process. It’s also introduced me to other mediums that give me more ways to express (writing, drawing, video editing/animation, etc.)

I’m certainly not an advocate of the idea that life needs to be difficult in order to create, we should always be working on ourselves to more effectively traverse through life and support the people around us that prop us up – that requires a healthy mind and body. That being said, tough stuff is a great source of inspiration in times that can seem painfully bleak so we can keep our heads above water and work through things to a better place. Art is like the life preserver that brings us up top when we’re drowning as well as the float tube we can relax and appreciate from when things are going well.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At this point I’d describe my work as using writing music as a focal point for visual and narrative art along with teaching other how to create. I love to tell stories and create metaphors, I’m most proud recently of a release in progress that contains 4 short stories paired with tracks that are metaphors for how people interface with themselves and the world around them titled, People With Faces. Being able to pull inspiration from short story writers like Ray Bradbury and Ted Chiang to weave themes into songs has been such a fun undertaking. In this specific instance, I’ve been recording myself and friends reading the stories and sampling those readings to use as vocal samples in the tracks – bridging my techniques with life experiences and collaboration with friends, some who may not typically work on creative projects like this.

I think what most separates me as an artist is my burning inclination to share information with others the second I learn it. Helping enable the creative process for others has been a driving force for me since I started making music. Even now having moved across the country into the wildly disorienting Brooklyn, New York – I stay in touch working remotely with clients in Denver and all over the country to help musicians overcome writer’s block and expand their palette for creation. Collaboration is fun and cool! I always learn something while chatting with fellow artists so I basically want to spend as much time as possible nerding out with like-minded folks.

Any big plans?
In the near future I would love to hold in-person meetups all over the country as a companion event for shows I play. I’ve done this in the past at the Black Box and KMGLife in Denver and it was always a great time. Being able to hear music on a full sound system, meet fellow artists and ask questions in a live group environment is an invaluable experience that helps expand the community around the art.

Other than that just keep making music and learning other forms of art to help support the message from that endeavor

Pricing:

• Lessons $80/hr via Video Chat

Contact Info:

• Website: Lesson Booking: https://calendly.com/backleftmusic/60min
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backleftmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Backleftmusic/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/backleftmusic
• Other: https://backleftmusic.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Julien Deroeux: https://www.instagram.com/dead.leaf.arts/
Ethan Klement: https://www.instagram.com/ethan_klement_/
Ethan Hubchik: https://www.instagram.com/midtonevision/