Justine Dorsey is an award winning singer/songwriter who has had her music featured recently on the new MTV series “Big Tips Texas”. Justine also released a new EP in October of last year titled and MediaMikes.com had the chance to speak with her about the creation of the EP, how she got in to music and about her popular YouTube channel.
Adam Lawton: What was it that interested you in pursuing a career in music?
Justine Dorsey: I actually became an actor first. That was something that I really loved and one day my mom took me to a musical theater audition and I think by doing musical theater that’s really where my love for music came from. I started singing first and then learned guitar and piano in my early teens. I paired those things up and began writing music which has been my love ever since.
AL: Can you tell us about your recent EP release and why you chose to cover the song “Put on a Happy Face”?
JD: In October I released a new EP titled “Under Construction”. I am excited for people to hear this as it is all original music that I wrote except for “Put on a Happy Face”. I am really proud of how the EP turned out and I finally feel like I am in the right place for my music. I ended up choosing “Put on a Happy Face” because I had been working with a licensing company who had the rights to that catalog. They gave me some options of songs to work on with “Happy Face” being one of them. This was actually how I met my label. I was paired up with producer Bruce Witkan and we ended up working really well together. Bruce became a big fan of my music and that’s how I subsequently ended up with my label.
AL: What types of steps do you take personally when creating a song?
JD: I don’t stick to one particular formula when I am writing. Things can be very unpredictable as to when and how they come out. A song might start with a simple phrase or I have a basic chord progression that I start with. I love that it’s never the same way every time.
AL: You have a song featured on MTV’s “Big Tips Texas”. How did that opportunity come about?
JD: I work with several licensing companies that send out my songs for consideration to be used in commercials and television. This was the first one that we had gotten back asking to use the song. I had never heard of the show but once I was able to see it I loved it. This ended up being a really great feature for my music and I am very happy about that.
AL: You are very involved with your YouTube channel. Can you tell us about that?
JD: I started out doing videos for some friends of mines YouTube channel and that sort of opened my eyes to some new ways of making videos for the site. I want everything that goes on there to look and sound good. I think when you take things to a higher level of production it makes things just that much more exciting. I have started to film my own videos for the channel and it’s a way for me to explore the visual side of music. I have a video on the channel for my song “Under Construction” and that’s probably one of my favorite. Working on that was such a great process. I didn’t come up with the idea but I really love it and recommend people going to check out.
AL: Have you started planning to tour in support of the release at all?
JD: I have a lot of shows planned in the Los Angeles area however nothing really has been set up outside of California. Right now I am focusing on local shows but am definitely looking forward to the day where I can travel around playing my music.
