Eugene weekly., October 21, 2004, Page 53, Image 53

BY VANESSA SALVIA
Good to be the King
Eugene‘s Justin King sets up for success.
J
ustin King is an accomplished
singer/songwriter, acoustic gui-
tarist and sound engineer at his
own Blackberry Hill recording studio. Now,
he and his band are preparing for the next
level, as Universal Records courts them.
King has long been a popular solo per-
former, having played nine dates on a na-
tional tour with James Taylor and an entire
summer tour with Diana Krall. He has per-
formed on the same bills with B. B. King,
North Mississippi All Stars, Willy Porter
and Al Green. While he happily plays the
large venues, he’s seen his share of small
clubs and bars across the nation, and his
years of hard work are paying off.
“I started out writing songs,” says King.
“I didn’t start out as an instrumentalist.
Within the last year I put a band together to
play a lot of songs I’ve been writing. The
solo stuff is kind of half songwriting and
half acoustic guitar stuff,” he continues,
while describing his band’s work as “U2-
ish, Death Cab For Cutie-ish, kind of a mix
between an ‘indie’ sound and Coldplay-ish
stuff.”
His musical comrades are drummer
Ehren Ebbage, guitarist James West and
bassist Drew Dresman, who King has been
playing with since the age of 15.
King notes that he is known for a unique
style of playing that’s based on tapping. “It’s
a very percussive style where you play on
the neck with both hands fretting the notes.
It’s not like one hand strumming and one
hand chording. It’s both hands chording.”
King has merged that style into his band’s
stage presence, and since the band has taken
root they’ve played two months of bi-
coastal shows: March in New York and
September in Los Angeles.
One year prior, a Universal employee
saw a solo King show at The Knitting
Factory in New York City. That employee’s
co-worker is the brother of the owner of
Larrivee guitars, the company King en-
dorses. Thanks to that connection,
Universal reps watched a show of King and
his band, met with them the next day and
gave them money to record a demo with one
of Universal’s producers, a project King
says turned out “decently.”
Later, they recorded one by themselves
at Blackberry, which King is more im-
pressed with. King and drummer Ebbage
also have an instrumental side project in the
works with bassist Michael Manring and
Dutch guitarist Carlos Vamos, who flew
over to participate. The band will return to
‘…since our first meeting
with Universal we’ve
had Capitol Records and
Epic Records contact us,
so we’re flirting with the
majors at the moment.’
New York and the Northeast in November.
and Los Angeles in December “What we’re
doing basically is playing showcases for in-
dustry folks,” Says King, “and since our
first meeting with Universal we’ve had
Capitol Records and Epic Records contact
us, so we’re flirting with the majors at the
moment. We’re just kind of playing it by
ear, but we have a buzz going right now and
we’re trying to continue that by going out
and getting in front of these people.”
“And also,” he continues, “we’re just
trying to build a good solid fan base.” The
band already has plans to live part of the
year in New York, (“I have a deep, deep
love for that place,” says King) and part of
the year in Eugene. If a deal does material-
ize, the band will base their touring opera-
tion out of New York and record in Eugene
at Blackberry, which King will maintain via
a manager and engineer while he’s away.
In addition to stateside shows, the band
will perform in Japan in January, buoyed by
a Japanese distribution deal he inked for his
acoustic guitar record, Le Bleu. Throughout
all this excitement, King sustains a healthy
outlook. “I’ve learned from this process
over the last two to four years,” he says,
“that it’s important to just keep sights on
what you can do immediately. And what I
can do immediately is continue to try to
write good songs and work on the things I
can affect. And the rest of it is something
that just hopefully comes through!”
ew
OCTOBER 21, 2004 53