“Lovechild of Chicago House”

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JUSTY is Justin Marcoviche-Garnett — Trinidadian-American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and director. Chicago based, JUSTY is a true Lovechild of the Chicago House music movement: his parents met and fell in love within the walls of legendary House music venue ‘The Warehouse’ after one of his father’s (Brian J. Garnett of Porschealack) performances at the iconic space.

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While facing the tragic deaths of both his parents before age 3, Justy’s grandparents adopted and exposed him to music as a way of coping and connecting with his late parents. By 17 his musical training spanned 7 instruments, and his classical piano career especially flourished with a total of 6 awards at both national and international levels from The American College of Musicians.

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Following his more formal music education, Justy began to explore his own sound and identity as an artist and vocalist. His early adulthood was spent developing this as he traveled across the U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean. While living in his late mother’s homeland of Trinidad, he eventually made the decision to wholeheartedly pursue his own musical aspirations. Debuting his first single upon his return to Chicago in June 2014, the singer released his self-titled EP in December of that year.

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Justy has since been involved in collaborations and performances. In January 2019, the artist released his featured single ‘Blue Dreaming’, a feel-good, dance bop inspired by his Trinidadian heritage, with influences of House, Disco, and RnB. Partnering with Mindy Sherman, Justy released a cosmic-inspired music video to celebrate the record which premiered on YouTube in February 2019.

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In the midst of learning music production and engineering in the Summer of 2019, Justy assembled and released, ‘RESET’, an album inspired by classic Reggae and 90’s Pop featuring 6 original songs, an interlude featuring Reggae legend, Beres Hammond, and a cover of Major Lazer’s ‘Can’t Stop Now’. Written, recorded, and produced in just 2 months, Justy released the project without promotion exclusively on SoundCloud on August 28, 2019, the birthday of his late father. A month later following his album release concert, the artist released 'RESET' on Spotify and additional platforms. Justy finished out 2019 by closing 'Hippy Holy Daze' music festival at Elastic Arts in Chicago.

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In 2020, Justy began working with Australian musician and producer Sean McKenzie on new material. Around this time, Justy embarked on social justice activism and worked with several political non-profits and grassroots organizations. He created and hosted the podcast 'Conversation Z' which was sponsored by NWSOFA-Indivisible. The show was aimed to elevate the voices of young voters to encourage participation in the 2020 Presidential Election. The podcast reached all corners of the world, spanning over 480 cities. Each episode featured a musical guest — all of whom were local Chicago artists.

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In January 2022, Justy was nominated for Best Pop Artist for the Chicago Reader's "Best of Chicago" and awarded his first Artist Residency by Dark Matter several months later. Though it would become a difficult year for Justy after losing his grandfather Vincent in the summer, he continued to power through and performed a set dedicated to him for Elastic Art's Afrofuturist Weekend. At the end of the set, Justy debuted the lead single 'Hands' and announced his upcoming studio album. 'Hands' was released on all platforms on December 16, 2022 with the album to follow sometime in 2023.

 

Justy was recently featured on Zambian artist Muso's debut, self-titled EP on the song Ache(19). The EP featuring Justy was distributed by HBX Productions on November 30, 2022.