Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin H. Wright.
Justin H. Wright is a Southern California-based composer and producer that specializes in telling stories through music. Every composition he releases is carefully crafted to take the listener on a journey. Each album is intended to be like a book, leading the listener along a path of transformation through music and emotion. Instrumental music has the power to lead people through a story that they can individually create in their minds as they listen.
Over the years Justin H. Wright’s compositions have been synced in thousands of videos via licensing agencies. MTV, Progressive Insurance, TBS, GoPro, Harley Davidson, Square Inc., and countless other filmmakers have found that his music fits perfectly with film. Using his extensive knowledge in audio engineering, and wide experience working with other composers, Justin H. Wright blends together classic tones of acoustic instruments with the progressive sounds of the digital world.
Justin H. Wright provides the soundtrack to your story that is unfolding in the here and now.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
For the most part, I compose my own original material that is released via music distribution networks (iTunes, Spotify, etc.), but also is used for music for films, commercials, tv spots, etc. through licensing agencies. This has led to a lot of custom scoring (soundtrack) work over the last few years. I also produce/engineer/mix other artist’s material, whether that is in-studio or live-performance (my studio is relatively mobile and I have done a lot of on-location recording).
I’ve always been a huge fan of instrumental music, and so about nine years ago I started writing my own material. I was touring a lot with other bands at the time but noticed that I had quite a bit of downtime when not touring. As a result, I decided to start writing my own music. After six months of writing, I released my first album “A Narrative” in 2010 as the moniker “A New Normal”. I was a literature major in college and this directly affected my writing process.
Most stories have a narrative structure, often based around Freytag’s Pyramid. The pyramid consists of five sections: exposition (introduction), rising action, climax (conflict), falling action, resolution (denouement). I would say that 95% of stories out there (literature, film, tv shows, etc.) follow a similar narrative structure. We are introduced to a protagonist; that character needs to overcome some sort of difficulty; said character completes his/her task or goal; character is transformed because of the experience; character returns to a state of rest but has a new, more wise perspective on life.
Whether I’m producing a band/artist, composing a custom score for a film, or writing my own material, ALL of my work is influenced by this framework of narrative structure. I believe that all art (music, film, photography, literature, poetry, etc.) is telling some kind of story. Mostly what I do is try to empower the listener to think about his/her own story and hopefully open him/her up to experiencing life more fully due to the music that he/she is listening to.
Most of my music is instrumental, which provides (I believe) a relatively unique experience for the listener. Instead of giving them words to focus on, the listener is given a feeling and they are allowed to create their own interpretation of the music. There’s nothing wrong with lyrics, and they are very necessary in artistic expression, but I believe there is also a need for some space in the music that we listen to. Culture can be very fast and I believe that is important for each of us to more fully think about things that are going on in our lives from time to time.
My first album “A Narrative” was laid us literally like a novel: it begins with “Foreword” and ends with “Epilogue”. Every song in between is “Chapter one”, “Chapter two”, “Chapter three”, etc. You are being led on a journey that hopefully allows you to experience something authentic and personal. Each record, EP, or single I have released since follows this kind of structure, although may not be quite “on-the-nose”.
Even though I mostly write instrumental music, over the years I’ve collaborated with a lot of singer-songwriters and have featured vocals on a couple tracks on each record. I really enjoy collaborating with other people, as it brings a lot of different, unique, and rewarding elements to the songwriting process. Most recently (April 2018) I released an all-collaboration album entitled “Look and Listen”. I had been writing new material for over a year and eventually came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a record featuring other artists. That record ended up being an album with all-female vocalists/songwriters. I launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finish the album as well as put a lot of money towards human-trafficking non-profit organizations around the globe. “Look and Listen” has definitely made a big impact and I’m excited to continue pushing forward to what’s next.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I feel like every artist has their own goal and/or purpose even though we all may be a part of one big artistic “collective”. I think that this is pretty great because there is beauty in diversity. If we all had the same style of music or perspective, I think that things would be pretty boring.
For me, I feel like I try to influence people on a very personal level. I truly believe that it is equally important to influence the world on a “small” scale as it is to influence on a “large” scale. The whole “pay-it-forward” mindset. I think that we all have a choice to make the world a better place in the ways that we are able. In a world of ever-expanding digital separateness, it’s important to consciously choose to lean into the thing’s life throws at you. If I can help someone else experience something beautiful and fun and deep and exciting and silly than I know that my work is not wasted.
David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” speech has influenced me a lot in this regard. If you haven’t read or heard it, I would highly recommend it. It’s a commencement speech at a prestigious university and brings up ideas surrounding how we experience life and how we can or should influence it. Most of it comes down to how we choose to interpret life and how we choose to respond to what life gives us:
“And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course, there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Spotify. iTunes. Bandcamp. All the usual outlets for music online. I am currently scoring a cooking documentary-style tv show entitled “Her Name is Chef”, a program that’s focusing on female chef’s in an industry that predominantly features male chefs. It’s not released but you’ll definitely be hearing about it soon.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.justinhwright.com
- Email: jhwright102@gmail.com
- Instagram: @justinhwright
- Other: www.anewnormalmusic.com
Image Credit:
Garret Richardson
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