30 Dec

SO excited!! Paul Frank called me to be featured on their Academy of Awesome Compilation.  This was a great honor to begin with, but grew to be an even greater honor when they announced their album (that my song "Drains All My Energy" is on!) to millions of national TV viewers during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  Click the CD cover image for the Paul Frank Academy of Awesome Compilation on iTunes.

4 Mar

"Justin Froese’s radio-ready voice soars perfectly over this five-song alt-rock gem. Sometimes bluesy, sometimes driving, sometimes romantic, this five piece showcases a stunning musical vocabulary, as well as a fat pocketful of talent and an apparent shared love for Jeff Buckley."  —Justin Roberts, San Diego CityBeat

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-8805-san-diego-citybeats-2011-great-demo-review.html?current_page=4

7 Jan

Froese finds meaning, growth via music

By JIM TRAGESER - jtrageser@nctimes.com | Posted: Sunday, January 2, 2011 12:00 am

Times may be tough all around, but don't expect to hear Justin Froese complaining. The San Diego-based singer and guitarist (performing Wednesday at the Belly Up Tavern as part of Michael Tiernan's New Acoustic Generation) is a model of optimism and opportunism.

When asked via e-mail if he has a day job in addition to his active performance schedule, Froese replied, "I don't believe in the whole 'starving artist' thing. The only starving I experience is the craving to be continually more deeply connected into and through my art. But why would what I'm meant to do not sustain and support me?

"Music is my full-time vocation and elation. I teach music privately, produce artists (local and national), and perform for a living. I also do a variety of studio work, from performing to engineering, mixing and mastering.

"I've only ever had a couple non-music/sound jobs, and they were all short-lived. I once worked at a Buca di Beppo for four months before I realized that I could make at least three times as much in half the time. I also worked a handful of summers as an outdoor adventure guide in the Rockies, helping kids discover their inner strength. It was definitely fulfilling, but even then I knew I was called to music on a deeper level.

"I know with absolute certainty that it's part of my life's purpose."

That certainty helps explain Froese's focus and energy, reflected in his busy schedule.

"I'm working on two new albums simultaneously ---- one that's a full-length, fully produced project and one that's an EP of just vocals and guitar. I'm especially excited about the latter because after all my time in the studio, I've come to long for a recording with no tricks, editing, tuning or overdubs ---- just the real deal. I want to be able to bring it on that level.

"My band Taming the Fox continues to perform in support of our debut fall release. As for producing, I just take it as it comes. I don't really seek that work out, it just comes to me when it does.

"I'll also be working on packing the next six months with the most performing, recording and songwriting I've ever done ---- something hopefully like Van Gogh at the end of his life. Then a summer tour in Germany, Ireland, Spain and France. Then in the fall I plan to more thoroughly feel out some other U.S. music scenes."

Froese wrote in the e-mail exchange that he finds himself continually learning through and from his music, and that constant state of education keeps it fresh and exciting for him, something he believes comes through in his music.

"Sometimes just playing six gigs in four days can bring a breakthrough. Or playing with other players. Thankfully, I've realized that I learn by absorption, so all I need to do is be around great players and singers and I pick little things up that improve my craft.

"I believe strongly in collaborating, in finding relationships that inspire us and bring different things out in us, show us different parts of ourselves, show us what's possible.

"I think the greatest contributor to my growth has been awareness ---- coming not only to realize something has moved me, but also be aware of why it moved me, what about it was moving, what musical and expressive elements created that. I try to bring these expressive realizations into my craft.

"Music should move your head, your heart and, if you're open to it, your body. If it doesn't, then I completely believe the point is being missed."

Michael Tiernan's New Acoustic Generation with Derren Raser and Justin Froese

When: 8 p.m. Jan. 5

Where: Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach

Tickets: $8-$10

Info: 858-481-8140

bellyup.com

Web: justinfroese.com

----

Link to article

6 Dec

Wed. Jan. 5th BellyUp Tavern (Solana Beach) New Acoustic Generation featuring Michael Tiernan, Darren Raser, and Justin Froese.  This will be Justin's first full band show featuring his solo material in a long while.  He'll be joined by some exquisite San Diego musicians.  8pm, doors at 7pm.  $8 / $10 day of show.

more info: http://www.bellyup.com/show/detail/36004

17 Aug

By: JIM TRAGESER Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 12:00 am

ENCINITAS -- He's recorded and issued three CDs before, but his latest -- "Here Rules" -- is the first on which he sings.

Ask Encinitas' Justin Froese what led to the change, and he says it reflects a change in direction to his musical career.

"I learned finger-style guitar, played Michael Hedges and Phil Keaggy, that kind of stuff," Froese said by phone last week. "I think for a long time, I felt my voice was really in the music. It's only recently that I've found my voice in songwriting and lyrics. Now it's coming more to the message and lyric.

"I'm also facing the fact that people connect more easily and quickly sometimes to words and singing than they do to straight instrumental music.

"I'm wanting to speak more directly to people."

Growing up in Encinitas, Froese's first exposure to music was learning guitar from his father beginning at age 6. He said he began writing his own songs while learning to play his father's compositions.

"He kind of taught me a few things: Basic chords, a scale. I just started writing my own little songs. I kind of had nothing else to do with music.

"I always learned his songs and enjoyed them," Froese said of his father's musical efforts. "He's just kind of an amateur hobbyist; he wanted to be a professional but chose the business route instead."

Froese said his father works in commercial real estate, and "he's very supportive of my music; both my parents are.

"He's probably somewhat vicariously living through me."

Today, some 20 years after he first began composing, Froese said there's no set pattern for how he writes new songs.

"Sometimes I'll just think of a lyric, with no music. Maybe it's the hook, or the opening of a verse. Then, based upon my mood that I feel, out of that line, I'll know if it's got a major or minor key, mellow or upbeat, and I'll kind of let that rhythm in the line -- the rhythm of the syllables -- let that fall into place.

"Often for me, it starts as poetry, but then some other times I just hear a groove or I start singing a melody. Often I'll let the mood of that speak to me of the subject."

Froese also said that when inspiration comes, he pays attention.

"When it hits, I try to sit down and let it come because it's hard to make it happen. … I keep a notebook in my pocket, and I was trained classically so I can write down the key or a melody."

His classical training came during the only time Froese didn't live in Encinitas.

"I went to college at a place called Principia College; that's in southern Illinois, about an hour east of St. Louis.

"It's not a music school; it's a private liberal arts college. My grandmother offered to pay some of my tuition if I went."

Back home, Froese said his parents have been helping him establish his music career.

"I teach guitar part time and I have a film-scoring business that is kind of slow-going, but it's a partnership, so we do a few jobs here and there, and we're trying to get that built up, too.

"I've always done music for work, whether it's teaching or performing at a wedding or as background music. That's been my main work since I was 16."

Copyright 2010 North County Times - Californian. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/music/article_98080156-2362-57db-b3ab-26fcbc5db9f9.html