By: Makayla Dilliner
Creativity can connect others together in the most unforeseen ways. While division may seem to overtake, it may only take one good song to bring people with unparalleled views to a close center. Music can change lives and for one class of 1996 graduate this rings true. With a career spanning almost 30 years, Justin Kawika Young has established a name for himself in the music industry. Ranging from local music to country with the band Gone West and Brett Young, Young spoke about his career in the entertainment business.
In the past, Kalāheo offered economics as a way for students to learn about marketing and selling. As a junior, Young, who already had a love for music, was assigned to create a product and sell it around campus. He chose music. After calling around local studios, one agreed to donate their time. “A lot of us students would carry our ukulele around school and just jam during lunch. And then, for economics class, we needed to market something for a project. We needed to all come up with something to market, produce and sell around school. After somebody suggested that I record music, that's how I got my start. We called around local studios and ended up making cassette tapes to sell around school,” he said.
What started as a class project soon turned not only into an album for Young but a music career. “When I was a senior, the studio that I did the economics class project for us was doing a songwriting contest. They asked me to do a whole album,” he said.
From releasing albums and number one hits during 1995 to 2003, Young began to find his writing and music style when it came to producing what he loved. After moving to California and releasing multiple number one hits, Young collaborated with another singer named Colbie Calliat and was even invited to perform for the White House. Later, moving to Tennessee it was there that they formed the country band Gone West.
“I moved to Nashville around six years ago and after we made a record we signed to Sony. The first single we made was on Country Radio. After being in the top 25, COVID hit and that was when everything changed,” he explained.
After creating music with Gone West, Young shifted into producing music on his own. Back to the Blue, which was released in 2022, features songs that reflect upon his time living in Tennessee. “When the world kind of stopped, I ended up moving to Santa Barbara for a year, and that's when I wrote the Back to the Blue album, because I had been collaborating as a band for a while, which was the first time I'd really done that in my life. And I just had an opportunity while everything was shut down to record mostly at home. I was able to record and send stuff back and forth between friends and collaborate with a producer in New York on some of the songs. People that I still have never met in person. I put all of myself into it and really tried to just make music that I loved,” he explained.
Aside from creating music, Young shared his work as a documentarian. In 2022, My Hero the Hitman told the story behind the 1990s controversy of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. With competition being neck and neck, events took a turn for the worse, when a man was hired to assault Nancy Kerrigan. The film took a different approach however, and showcased the relationship between the half-hawaiian hitman, Shane Stant, a man who his younger sister, Maile adored. “Sheʻs around 20 years younger than him and growing up she did not know of the attack. All she knew was that was her brother, her protector and her hero. And so the story is about their relationship and shows another side of someone who maybe is only seen two-dimensionally as this one defining moment in his life, that he was able to kind of redeem himself and change the life of someone else in a positive way,” he explained.
Now, touring alongside country music singer Brett Young, Young shared what it is like to constantly be on the road doing what he loves. “Iʻve been on tour with him for the past year playing keys. I've done about 90 shows this year and I’m gone most of the time on the road. I'm used to touring like you're just out for a month and then you're off for a couple months. But the Nashville touring style is just like you're out Wednesday to Sunday every week. So you're just constantly kind of coming home and leaving, coming home and leaving. It feels more like a real job because you're always kind of in the routine of a work week,” he explained.
For students, everyone has a dream that they may feel is out of reach. Whether it be from fear or doubt, Young shared that giving into that fear can limit many beautiful experiences that you could have. “I never would have performed at the White House, I never would have met people that I love now. And it doesn't diminish how I feel about my home because it will always be home. And when I'm back, I can appreciate it on a different level. While living away is not a lifestyle for everyone, the key is getting out of your comfort zone, whether it's moving or trying new things or learning a new skill or enrolling in a class or you never know what you will experience. So if you're someone who is curious about living on the Mainland, I always encourage people to do it and just go because you can always come back home. It'll always be there,” he explained.
Young stressed the importance of creating something that is real over something that will bring in the most traction or revenue. No matter what you are doing, the more passion, authenticity and love you have in the work you do, not only will create a better product, but have a deeper impact. “If I'm not expressing something that feels important to me, then I just really have a hard time putting energy behind it. One thing I recently learned about myself is that, maybe it's because I've been doing it for a long time but I can't get motivated to write or create things that I'm not feeling moved by in some way and it could be something that's happening to someone I love or even something that I've heard about, but it has to be something that feels like it has to be expressed,” he said.
“Thatʻs what I'd rather spend my time on instead of just coming up with clever phrases and catchy melodies. And that's what I appreciate about artists, too. And you can kind of tell, I think, it makes its way somewhere in the music, even in some, like, intangible way, when someone's really being honest and being vulnerable and sharing something real.”