His practices of space making and music are intertwined, aligning to create moments for community and catharsis. Among his tools are turntables, his voice and records that create either vast, detailed scenes in the mind, the deep urge to move the body, or both.
In his early teens, Justin started playing guitar and spending his nights at underground shows at makeshift venues in his small town in the southwest of Virginia. Arriving in NYC in the late 90s, he started performing at and organizing events in the early Brooklyn DIY scene, starting to DJ in 2003.
He soon became a resident DJ, booking person and the label manager at Nublu and the Music Director and a resident DJ at APT, two of the last bastions of underground dance music in the wake of 9/11 and the 90s culture wars.
Between 2009 and 2011, Justin and fellow DJ Eamon Harkin started Mister Saturday Night and Mister Sunday, parties that happened mostly in friends’ loft spaces and back yards. In 2015, spurred by a need for more permanent space for their own parties as well as a desire to create space for the larger nightlife community, they opened Nowadays.
Justin runs and regularly performs at a series called Planetarium, an event where people bring pillows, blankets and sleeping bags, lie in silence and listen deeply to music. He also co-owns Mister Saturday Night Records, a label that's released music and mixes by Suso Saiz, Esteban Adame, CCL, Anthony Naples, Musclecars, Avalon Emerson, Rena Anakwe and Floating Points.
As a musician, Justin has released an album of solo material called "The Leaves Fall" (2017) as well as collaborative EPs with The Twilite Tone and Move D. He also performed in the Chorus of Poets conducted by the late downtown experimental jazz musician Butch Morris.