Spotlight: Jocelyn Justice Send Us to Space With New Single “Space Cadet”
☆ BY Marilù Ciabattoni ☆
“JOCELYN JUSTICE IS JUST… ME” — the neon-pop artist introduces herself to Luna. Her style is so explosively unique that you’d never guess she used to be a chiropractor student, a career she had to interrupt due to health issues.
A newborn artist, Justice released two singles last year, “Sick Sad World” and “Space Cadet,” which really feel like the introduction to a dystopic new world.
A human being with big dreams and ambitions, the singer-songwriter’s origins are grounded in authenticity. “I thought about having a fun name for my solo project, but at the end of the day, it’s just me unfiltered,” she shared. “It’s me in my own world where I pretend I’m living somewhere between our current reality and one made of fantasies and magic.”
Starting off in middle school band playing the alto sax, Justice then took a few years off from playing while she was attending college, not picking the instrument up again until lockdown kicked in, when she began learning how to produce and write her own music for the first time.
“I’ve always known it’s what I wanted to do deep down,” she reflects. “It’s been a hard journey, but the most fulfilling one too.”
A peculiar character, Justice’s influences are just as eclectic: besides Björk, whom she picks as her dream feature (“If that ever happens, I’ve made it”), she enjoys any artist who takes their aesthetics as seriously as their music. Other influences she mentions are Lights, Crystal Castles, New Order, Imogen Heap, and Paramore, as well as genres such as classical music, emo, heavy metal, and everything around her that makes “silly noises.”
Her debut single, “Sick Sad World,” was a statement from the beginning: the unapologetically grungey guitar accompanied by angsty yet soft lyrics conveys both a story and a message. With the playful “Space Cadet,” Justice believes she’s captured a special kind of magic she wants in her sound, imagining herself in a spaceship in outer space making beats.
Inspired by her struggles with maladaptive daydreaming, a mental health issue that causes a person to lose themselves in complex daydreams, which affects Justice’s life daily, “Space Cadet” describes how her brain goes into survival mode. The song is the artist’s attempt to feel safe and unfamiliar at the same time.
Justice co-produces her tracks with friends Dakota Blue and C4ndyjack, who helped bring the track to life, mixing and mastering it.
It took Justice three years of learning production to get to the point she’s now. She spent a lot of time analyzing her favorite songs, trying to figure out what elements make them so memorable. In the same way, Justice wants her sound to feel other-worldly.
So, what now? The artist currently has multiple musical projects going on: her band Dumb Luck Club recently released a cover of “Hex Girls” for Halloween, and they’re currently working on their first original single, which she describes as dancey, hyperpop, and Y2K-inspired.
While she balances her music with her day job as a barista, she also sells her art under the name of @dangerous.disco. The next step in her career will be to find more streams of income to support her goal of being a full-time creative. Justice also hopes her future brings her on stage, an EP early this year, and an increased viewership.
“My dream is to make money doing this and keep making art with my friends,” she concludes. “All I want to do is tour and see the world.”
