Today we’d like to introduce you to Justine Cruz.
Hi Justine, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Music has always been very natural for me. I started writing fun little jingle / songs about my dogs or anything silly at a very young age and naturally always have been able to pick up singing harmonies or coming up with melodies on the spot. The first instrument I ever learned how to play was the piano. i started out by taking piano lessons but later on quit and continued to just learn songs by ear. I moved on to teaching myself how to play the ukulele and then later around 12 years old I taught myself how to play the guitar. During my senior year of high school (2020 or the year of COVID) I started taking music writing a bit more seriously. I started writing music as a way to express my feelings whether that was about little crushes, feeling trapped inside the house, or deeper lessons I was currently learning at the time. One day bored stuck in the house i decided to sit in my backyard and song write with my ukulele. I came up with a little song called “Little birdie” (which came to me by staring at a bird of course) And decided to pull out my phone and record a tik tok of me singing it. I posted it not expecting anything from it and a few hours later it started blowing up! I was overwhelmed with all of the attention but excited that people genuinely liked what i created. That was definitely the day that started off my whole “music career”.
While this video started popping off it inspired me to try recording it and uploading it to Spotify. This also began the start of me self teaching myself how to record, produce, mix and master on a DAW (Logic pro). Of course at that age i had no idea how much hard work and time and patience goes into it, i thought it would be as simple as clicking record and uploading it to Spotify right away. And with my many attempts of trying to understand the software and trying to get the song how i wanted it to sound, nothing good was coming out of it. Granted I am a bit of a perfectionist so I wanted it to sound exactly how I was imagining it and that was getting me absolutely no where. I eventually burned out and gave up.
Later down the line i got in touch with some producers from LA and that began the “second stage” of my musical journey. I brought them the song and they loved it and we began working with each other right away. Once the song was ready to be released I wanted to have a debut show since this would be the first ever song I would be releasing and showing the world justine! I successfully put together my first ever house show called “justines world” which began the journey of me performing! After posting things on Instagram and starting to market to the world as an up and coming artist I was starting to get my first ever gigs. I continued working with the producers for a while to try releasing more of my original songs but something didn’t feel right. I started to realize that my music wasn’t turning out the way that i was envisioning for it to be. After a few more sessions of trying to get that sound to fit i decided to break away from the producers and try working on music again on my own.
A few years later of continuing to write music and learn production I started finally settling in on what I wanted my music to sound like. In 2024 I released 2 songs on my own and also did a few shows! Today, I am currently still learning more and more about producing and working on a few projects. Im currently working on releasing another original song and also working on scoring music for a short film! It definitely has been a long journey to get to where I am today and have had a lot of bumps in the road and many lessons learned. Im happy to be where I am and excited to see where this musical journey will take me!
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?
It definitely has been a very bumpy road with a lot of learned lessons. Some struggles i’ve faced have been learning how to not compare myself to other artists. I struggle a lot with that especially when it comes to scrolling on social media and seeing people you know pursing musical things that you want to do. It definitely takes a toll on who I am as an artist, who I want to become, and how I want to be perceived by people, but also not letting society choose for me. I often go through the ups and downs with my music thinking if people will like it or not, but now recently facing the struggles of thinking, will my music take me where I want to be in todays society. With constantly fighting this mindset while also having a perfectionist mindset it stunts me in releasing music. So in my recent lessons that i’ve been learning is to just let go and create no matter how your music sounds, someone out there will listen and love it.
Since I never went to college I truly have just been lucky with the musicians that are currently in my life. Connections is something very important in the music industry so not knowing too many musicians (esp where I live) has been very hard when it comes to wanting to collab and casually make music with people.
Although these thoughts are always in my mind, I have to take a step back and remember where I first started and how lucky I am to be where I am today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So outside of my music, im working for the City of Ontario as a senior recreational leader. In simpler terms I work at a community center for teens! Im very lucky to be leading their teen studio, which is a free program for teens (12-18) who can come into the studio with a bunch of musical equipment and create music! We offer free recording and production, free studio time (if they want to come in and play the instruments or practice with their band), or even podcasting which we upload to spotify! I love this job very much and very grateful to have a career in music.
In my personal life or being the artist “justine!” Im very proud of the music that i’ve released. Although it might not be everyones cup of tea, these songs mean a lot to me and are always released from a very vulnerable side of me. I feel what sets me apart from others is definitely releasing the type of music that you would cry too, or listen to when you need to feel something deeply.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Some qualities or characteristics I carry with me has to be being confident, vulnerable, open minded, charismatic, and making other people feel seen. This is still a work in progress and Im still learning what exactly it takes to be successful in my own way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_jst.ine/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4BrRWlTVP9uqM1bkksF9oD?si=QXa9xe_QTIaFzQwGe7bNXg
