Exclusive Interview with 'L I F E / L I N E' as the project aims to appeal to not only fans of dance music, but also of traditional pop

Los Angeles-native Justin Nelson is fusing modern electronic sounds with alternative influence to evoke feelings of nostalgia and hope in his listeners. The contemporary sonic palette and sincere songwriting of the L I F E / L I N E project aims to appeal to not only fans of dance music, but also fans of traditional pop. The goal of L I F E / L I N E is to bring people to their own comforting headspace through music, just as other musicians did for Nelson. Follow L I F E / L I N E along as he prepares to release his debut EP in May of 2022 with Seeking Blue Records, an electronic record label born from YouTube juggernaut MrSuicideSheep. Check out the Exclusive Interview with ‘L I F E / L I N E’ below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how you got started?

L I F E / L I N E:

I grew up on the west side of LA in a beach city called Santa Monica. While no one in my family has any direct music background, I’ve always kind of been immersed in music. My mom had worked in the radio industry since the 80s, so she was constantly taking me to concerts growing up (which is such a blessing!). My dad was also a DJ in New York City back in the 80s and has always had a deep appreciation for music, so he always had some form of classic rock playing around the house. I think having that type of consistent exposure to music from a young age allowed me to see how much power music has in bringing people together, and I loved that.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

L I F E / L I N E:

When I first started on my music production journey 6 years ago, I had quite literally zero knowledge of music – I didn’t know what a chord or scale was, what a “measure” was, or the first idea of how to make anything that had a hint of musicality. Needless to say, I also didn’t know anything about the technical side of producing music.

Thankfully this was around the time when the internet was really starting to sprout with hundreds of amazing people who were posting tutorials and lessons about where to start learning these topics. I was a full-time college student at UC Berkeley at the time, so literally any down time I had away from studying for classes would be spent on YouTube studying music theory and production techniques. After about 2 years of this and realizing I would want to pursue music seriously, I decided to bump up my course load to graduate a semester early. With that extra 6 months of free time, I locked myself in my room and spent every waking hour trying to learn as much as I possibly could.

So in short – I’m entirely self-taught, but I’m always learning more and I don’t think that journey will ever end!

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘Artist’?

L I F E / L I N E:

My first and strongest influences are definitely the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Porter Robinson. That may sound kind of strange given how different their music is, but I swear it makes sense!

I vividly remember finding my mom’s “Stadium Arcadium” CD when I was 9 and listening through it over and over and over. That was the first time I remember music really evoking some serious emotion out of me (despite being way too young to understand some of the topics covered lol). Fast forward almost a decade, and I happened to run across a Porter Robinson set at a festival. He was an artist I had never heard of before, but by the end of his performance I had that same feeling I had when listening to the Chili Peppers for the first time. I thought it was so interesting because you could definitely dance to the music, but it felt like it was *so* much more than that – it was a true emotional and artistic journey. That was my “ah-ha” moment when I was like “How does someone even make something like this and can I do that?”

Music has always been one of my favorite things because it’s always been there with me during my happiest times and some of my hardest times. Whenever I need a mental boost for whatever is going in my life, I just pop in my headphones and listen to my favorite artists. It’s like my lifeline, and I want to be able to do that for other people, hence the name L I F E / L I N E :)

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

L I F E / L I N E:

I think melodies and chords are everything. If you can strip back all of the crazy production behind a track to just a single piano and still have a compelling piece of music, then I think you’ve got something special. Whenever I’m writing chords and a melody on the piano I’m always trying to get a specific feeling across. A lot of times I’ll dress those melodies up into a different sound (e.g. a vocal chop or a big synth), but at the core I really want the listener to just feel the raw musical phrase.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as EDM?

**L I F E / L I N E**:
I think this slightly goes back to the question about being self taught. During the learning phase, I ran across hundreds of tutorials that were titled something like “How to sound like Odesza” or “How to sound like Porter Robinson”. I think those are great learning tools and definitely can help you emulate some of your biggest influences. But at the end of the day, those artists have their own unique style and no one is going to do it better than them (nor did I necessarily want to). I think a lot of finding my own style has been trying to incorporate stuff from some of my favorite electronic artists while also taking influences from all of the other music I was exposed to when I was younger (whether that be classic rock, bands like the Chili Peppers, etc.)

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

L I F E / L I N E:

I could probably write an essay on this question because there are *so* many types of music, and many of those types have multiple functions. So I’ll just focus on how I roughly view L I F E / L I N E.

I think L I F E / L I N E is all about music that deals with “real-life” topics but in an overall mood-boosting way. I hope the music is something that listeners can emotionally connect with, but can simultaneously socialize over it and have fun with it.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

L I F E / L I N E:

Yes and no. L I F E / L I N E has only been out into the world for 3 months, and during that time I’ve received quite a few incredibly sincere and meaningful messages from people all over the world about how much my music has helped them – I literally can’t explain how happy that makes me, because that’s exactly why I started doing this whole music thing in the first place.

In the future, I really just want to take L I F E / L I N E into the live setting. I don’t think there’s any better way to connect with listeners than to do it in person. I already have some pretty large ideas both musically and visually for how to make a live show a pretty special thing, so I’m anxiously waiting for that to come around :)

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

L I F E / L I N E:

The creative process varies from track to track, but I think there is one common thread that links all of them together so far – I always start with an emotion in mind, and a default grand piano sound. I’ll run through *a lot* of chord progression and melody ideas until I get something down that I really like and that I think captures the original emotion I had in mind. Once I’m satisfied with what I’ve come up with, I’ll start playing around with sound design, samples, structure, etc.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

L I F E / L I N E:

I’ve dealt with a bit more loss than I would like to have at the age of 25. I think those experiences are a large part of what led me to be comfortable taking the dive into doing music full time, and also play a huge part in influencing what my music is about.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

L I F E / L I N E:

I mentioned this before, but receiving messages from people all over the world about how much my music has helped them during a hard point in their life is really just something else. Streaming numbers are cool and all, but I don’t think they hold a candle to those types of moments.