Justin Nozuka

0:03Hey, man, how are you good? Where are you? I'm in Toronto not doing on tour or what? You just live in there? Cool Wonderful really wonderful right now feeling really great Just set up my own studio of class couple days and Sun is out today So I've been creating music and just enjoying my family and friends Creating music do you find it you find it easier to write at home than on the road? Definitely Sometimes we're playing bigger shows in the in in like in the summertime It's all inspiring to write in that kind of confident zone, you know, right?

0:48Where do you need to go to write? Can you just write anywhere like in front of people or are you self-conscious about that kind of thing? Sometimes I mean like if I'm right in front of people usually a whole bunch of things will come to mind Like I thought jumping into different characters and just kind of kind of Tittering a little bit, you know, what are you writing about these days? These words I'm writing about Good love About you love I'm learning about releasing releasing anxiety and I mean truth becoming more intuitive than feeling more calm in my body and experiencing the frequency of peace and love That I color sounds very Zen or you have very Zen kind of guy. Do you meditate or yoga or anything that?

1:39Yeah, I've been meditating more recently I'm listening and just focusing on the big picture look at the sky and and look at the birds and watch the birds move and Listen to the sounds of the universe nice How did how did it well? It's very hippie, but I like it. How did how did Africa change your perspective? I feel like that that might have changed things for you well, they just put things in it made me realize that Africa is a very rich place Africa and the people in Africa are very rich in other ways than what we consider rich culturally and socially and Intuitively I got that out of out of the experience and you know I acknowledge and recognize that

2:30Africa has contributed so much to This modern world that we live in and so much to music that we listen to nowadays and Have you ever thought about that about putting and putting like an African choir on like Paul Simon? Oh No, I haven't thought about that actually I don't have some friends from Africa that live here now, but I'm thinking but I'm thinking It's influenced it's influenced my music deeply So I feel like you know the music that I create comes from a very Africa Vibration yeah, well even a song will go back to Holly even after tonight kind of has that that interesting kind of rhythm to it Yeah, yeah sure because I grew up listening to that kind of music

3:16You know Music soul music and hip-hop music right yeah in the live show I saw you when were you here in September? I think was sweet thing maybe October doesn't matter in the fall at some point Yeah, very very rhythmic driven show very it crosses a whole bunch of genres Back to after tonight because I mentioned it and you had mentioned soul and I heard Hayden wrote with you Hey, Neil other people. Oh, Miss Jack soul who passed away unfortunately not too long ago What was working with him and writing with him like really wonderful Really easy quick focus Those are really a light experience and I learned just from his presence his confidence and his strength Can you give me a sound clip about that so like a storyteller is kind of bit about after tonight after tonight the inspiration of it

4:08Okay from rambling. I was just rambling. I had my school one night without doing rehearsals there and as soon as I got outside the moment I went outside the stars were lit bright and I just started singing this thing And I just stuck that hook stuck for a long time and I put it on the bridge to another song that I was working on and then finally I said I should use this as a course for something, you know And so I put it in there and then and then months later I met with Hayden you through a workshop. I was I was doing and I saw with him and I played in that song and he said amen How about saying I know by the end of tonight you'll be looking down upon them from heaven

4:59And I thought that was really clever and really beautiful So I use that as the end of the end hook of the song the end line nice and that's kind of how the song came about That's cool things have changed since Holly though You I've noticed people know who you are nowadays you now have a radio hit single things Have you noticed things change or is it just more from the outside looking into people see things change maybe For me, I feel like things have become more normal How so I was touring I was touring for four years and I was Traveling all the time and chasing this thing, you know and the past few months I've settled down more so at home. I finally got my first place I'm living in my own space not around a whole bunch of people all the time

5:48And I feel more focused to never feel more grounded than ever and I'm breaking on the street And I'm you know living my life here and feeling feeling very grounded The success allow you the feeling to be grounded though because you don't need to worry about other things as much well I still think there's so much for me to do I Have a lot more to accomplish to really fulfill my dream So I still feel like I'm not I'm not resting yet and I don't feel I feel like yes a lot of work has been done And I feel great about it, but I also feel a lot of intention For the future You know I don't feel I don't feel rested really yet Do you feel like you need to always strive to be better than your brother George always have one more hit than him? Are you guys competitive?

6:36I was kind of like doing that whole thing and now nowadays It's still intuitively inside of me or habitual being part of me. Yeah fair enough I hear you do very well in France though like France is the big market for you Yeah, I took off a couple about two years ago. Why why France? Actually there man, um, they really dug after tonight and And then it just happened and they're pretty loyal over there Nice when are we gonna see you again? When are you are you doing a big tour again? Are you are you now in like writing mode for a new disc doing the new disc? Can we can we talk about you I win land and see for a little bit though the the last record that just came out about a year ago? Sure well, why don't you tell me about writing it coming up with the with the title like that?

7:24Where does that title come from? Yeah? Well the line is harmony is what we need between both you and I win land and see and You know the way that I there where that I look at it is that everything is interconnected Everything is playing off off each other and everything is evolving together simultaneously all over the world in space and Everywhere, you know the vibrations are all around and although we can't see them. They're very real So so this is kind of the connection you I win then and see is kind of the connection between all things Between the trees and and the air and the rain and our bodies It also

8:09represents the necessity That we've we've kind of lost touch with living off to land and living harmoniously with the land Because we live in such a capitalistic kind of mentality and So so we produce food we kind of create created food and food food and and that's kind of the food that we've been eating and so You know when they didn't see is my reach out back to the earth and back to the fundamental of of where we come from and You know living harmoniously with the earth to ultimately find find You know highest potential of health and and well-being Good living, you know, yeah, and it's kind of like a blues song on the record almost yeah

8:55We listened to Navy staples. Oh, yeah one. Yeah We kind of wanted to capture that feeling I've built out introduced me to Navy staples and I really really Tucked the five guitar and built in the major five guitar players. So it was I didn't know did he do he produced this record as well The new one yeah, yeah, cuz it stylistically they sound very different. Holly's very bare-bones stripped down sounds like it was done in his house This one sounds like it's done in the studio exactly a little bit more approach that way the first one was kind of just It was spontaneous Mm-hmm kind of did it, you know and and this one was a little bit more thought out and Mapped out and then we kind of attacked it that way. How do you prefer working? Do you like it spontaneous or do you like it mapped out and really planned? I actually you know, I've been I've been really feeling the spontaneous

9:45Approach because there's something like that's captured in the air when when you're just kind of doing it and not thinking about it You know, I find this there's there's more there's more. I don't know. There's more natural feel that gets in there So I hope to do this next album more spontaneous, and you can't write anything you have to go in freestyle everything like Jay Z does No lyrics You contrast the blues well with the song like heartless which is the big hit single now everyone hears it all over the place Tell me about heartless Yeah, I just comes from the root of the song comes from my brother Christian because my adopted brother and He gets a really sort of writing music the first time he's saying to me he was on tour with me And we grew up together so we succinct together, you know

10:32We sing boys to men together and a lot of R&B songs together going up and then when we played guitar We would you know compose songs and I'd see him every once in a while and even I get checked this out I said check this out and he was always very talented I remember the first time he came on the road with me He sat in the back and he started singing because he wanted me to you know give me his opinion that for some reason I don't know what it was, but I couldn't help myself laughing. I was laughing laughing laughing I think just because he was so vulnerable and Singing his heart out So anyway, she walked into my room with this song with the root of it I've been working on the next album at this point and I said, you know man, I really love this song You know, they were something very special in it

11:18I asked if I could I could put it up my album and he said yes and the song it gives obvious to me that he's writing this song for his mother and You know sending his love out to his mother and so I took that perspective on the song and And wrote some some more things with the song and then put it on the album But it's a song that me and him share And I'm really I'm really happy that I share a song with my brother. Yeah, that's cool Must have been in people can go check it on on your website There's a video of you playing it in Africa for about 10 minutes with a bunch of kids who start singing it It's that must have been something else. Yeah, it really is man. It's Beautiful before I let you go we do something on the show called five questions five quick questions one word answers

12:04Yep, road or studio Studio for now, but the road long term Lennan or McCartney Lenin most important thing in a song lyrics melody or rhythm Oh, I'd say rhythm song you've written you're most proud of doesn't need to be one word What's that? Cool and in one word just in nazooka One word That's good. I like that