New Zealand musician Christopher Justin, 19, is a rocketman turned musician – literally.
The teenager from the North Shore, Auckland, won a Presidential Scholarship to the University of Miami, but in an unusual achievement, he also won entrance to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and was also invited to study Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University in Indiana.
In fact, Christopher Justin secured and accepted a much-prized place at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, to study for a four-year Bachelor of Music degree. “I understand that USC’s Popular Music Program has a mere 5% acceptance rate and studying alongside their stellar faculty staff has made my acceptance all the more valuable.”
Christopher has over a decade of experience as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist. Writing his own music since the age of eight, he later formed the Auckland- based band Slipstream as their guitarist/songwriter/vocalist, playing only original material. At 16 (2017), he co-produced their self-titled debut EP.
Music icons such as AC/DC, Deep Purple, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer, Guthrie Govan, strongly influence his personal style and numerous original compositions.
In late 2019 (at 18), he recorded and produced his self-titled solo debut album ‘Christopher Justin’.
His debut album has been played on radio stations in Singapore, Europe, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, USA, Canada, South America, and New Zealand. Comments like “What a superb album that is! It’s absolutely fantastic” (Nigel Harris, Radio Caroline, UK), “Chunky classic blues-rock” (Daniel Pearn, AMR radio, Australia), “ … a thoroughly enjoyable audio experience” (Jay, SLE Radio, UK), are only some of the many memorable comments received.
At the close of 2020, tracks from the album ‘Christopher Justin’ made it to ‘Featured Tracks’, ‘Best tracks of 2020 Show’, and the ‘Best Music to come out of 2020 Show’ on legendary Radio Caroline.
Christopher is the composer, singer, guitarist, bassist, percussionist, and producer of his singles and self-titled debut album, Christopher Justin. Drums are performed by James Armstrong on all tracks with the exception of ‘Miles Apart’ and ‘One Last Time’ where they are performed by George Brakovich.
This solo debut album is a culmination of a fresh youthful take on rock and roll, and it has been said that if his music was food, it is a ‘decadent dessert platter”.
The success of Christopher Justin’s debut album has been overwhelming in:
(1) receiving acknowledgment from New Zealand’s AIMES Awards, winning the Emerging Talent award with a cash prize of $7500;
(2) reaching the upper echelon – top 20% of 9000 applicants from 84 countries, for The 2020 UK Songwriting Competition. All 7 songs from his album received 5 out of 5 stars from the judging panel, and 4 went on to compete in the competition’s semi-finals
(3) the track ‘Brilliance’ making the semi-finals for 2020 International
Songwriting Competition, which attracted 26000 entries from all
over the globe – the top 9% of all entries made the semi-finals list.
Alongside making music, Christopher Justin is currently pursuing his music degree remotely but when COVID-19 conditions improve, he would join his cohorts at USC (Thornton School of Music), in Los Angeles.
For more information and updates, follow Christopher Justin on his Instagram
@christopher_justin_nz and at www.christopherjustinofficial.com