Justus West: Soul Survivor
He’s too small to drive a race car, too tough to die from a spider bite, too smart to get suckered in L.A., and way too talented to not be working. Meet Justus West, the 21-year-old Kansas City, Kansas-based multi-instrumentalist/producer crushing obstacles like a superhero while making waves with a cadre of world-class heavies - from Mac Miller, Ariana Grande, and Jazmine Sullivan to Chris “Daddy” Dave, Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Timbaland, Ty Dolla $ign, and John Mayer.
E.E. Bradman: Did you want to be a guitar player right from the beginning?
Justus West: I wanted to be a racecar driver, and if you want to go NASCAR, you have to start out driving go-karts - but I was too short. That was the end of my race car career.
EB: But the beginning of your guitar career.
JW: I was home-schooled, so after my mom bought me a $100 guitar kit from Walmart, I played guitar all day, every day.
EB: Who or what inspired you to practice so much?
JW: In the beginning, it was more about achievement, and then I really fell in love with guitar. By the time I was 11, I was playing for my mom in church and starting to do club gigs around Kansas City. A couple years later, I was playing every night. And then in 2015, I got bitten by a brown recluse.
EB: No way! How old were you?
JW: I was 15. Brown recluse bites usually show up within 24 hours, and the whole process of eating your flesh away starts in 48 hours. It was 10 days before my bite actually showed up. My immune system freaked out, and I ended up with organ failure.
EB: Whoah!
JW: In the first 10 days, they were trying to get a diagnosis, but I was allergic to a lot of medication. They tried to give me a blood transfusion, but I’m allergic to my own blood type. My body rejected it, and then they tried to do three more blood transfusions of O, and that didn’t fix it. They had to do this thing called plasmapheresis.
EB: Sounds expensive.
JW: It’s a $250,000 operation where they take the blood out of your body, mix it with artificial plasma running through a machine, and then put it back in.
EB: Damn!
JW: In the pediatric ICU, my neighbor on one side was a four-year old with leukemia; my neighbor on the other side also had a rare blood disorder - and I still had the lowest expectancy survival rate. There were days when they were sure they were going to lose me. They’d tell my mom to prepare, then I’d wake up, and they’d be like, “How are you feeling?”
EB: So intense. How did you survive that?
JW: One of the doctors finally figured out that if they stopped poking and prodding, my body would naturally heal itself. Crazy, right? They let me out and put me on steroids. I was literally eating Thanksgiving-sized meals every day. I started playing again right after my 17th birthday.
EB: What was your first gig?
JW: With a gospel artist from Kansas City. Everybody thought I was a high-infection risk, but we went to Barbados and Norway. My body mass index went through the roof because of all the weight I put on.
EB: Was the gig worth it?
JW: It paid $300 [laughs].
EB: How’d you meet Vince Gill?
JW: I was at home scrolling through Instagram, and I saw something about a competition to play to a backing track on video. Whoever got the most views would get to go to Los Angeles and meet Vince Gill. I did it, and I saw that some of the other people had like 50,000 views. I think I had a total of about 320. A couple months go by, and I get an email saying that I’m in the top 100. I was one of the five finalists.
EB: So you go to L.A. for Guitar Center’s “Onstage with Vince Gill” contest, and...
JW: Vince tells he really liked my video, and to not be discouraged because I wasn’t the main winner. I visited him in Nashville, and there is nothing like Vince Gill showing you around Nashville. It was as if I were a foreigner and the President was showing me around the United States.
EB: So you stayed in Nashville for a minute and then made the move to L.A. How long were you there?
JW: A couple of years. I got in and got out.
EB: And if the pandemic hadn’t happened, would you have stayed?
JW: No.
EB: What didn’t you like?
JW: The overall attitude of people who are trying to “make it.” I got caught up in that whirlwind for a little while.
EB: But you were chasing the dream!
JW: I thought I was chasing the dream.
EB: What was the attitude of the people around you?
JW: “Move to LA, get screwed over for five years, and then sign a deal. Work nonstop until you’re an insane person for another five years, and at the ten-year mark, you finally get the credit, respect, and money you actually deserved the whole time.” That’s the timeline.
EB: How was the business treating you?
JW: I’d play guitar on a song with major artists, the song would come out, but when I’d ask about getting paid, they’d tell me to focus on relationships and not be so entitled by expecting to be paid for work.
EB: Crazy. Now that you’re back in Kansas, you don’t miss it, do you?
JW: Not at all. That being said, I’ve probably driven to L.A. eight times since I moved home.
EB: What advice would you have for someone about to move to L.A.?
JW: Know your priorities and don’t budge. I got thrown around a lot during my first year in L.A. because I didn’t set my priorities.
EB: For somebody who’s so self-guided, how do you think about practicing?
JW: Early on, I would learn any song I could find, and I learned a lot of guitar solos. I do a lot less learning other people’s tunes now, and I’m not really worried about building my speed anymore. Consistency, execution, and creativity are much more important to me. I do a lot of arpeggios, a lot of metered practice with a metronome, to make sure all my picking is pretty even.
EB: How did you develop your methodical approach to effects?
JW: A lot of that came from playing in church. I played in black churches, but I also played in a lot of white churches doing contemporary Christian music. That helped me reign in my effects setup and be intentional about stuff like tone and reverb. I’m a super geek when it comes to anything tech and effects.
EB: But I don’t see you with tons of pedals.
JW: I think less is more, so I try not to have more than five or six pedals on a board at a time.
EB: You use the Afterneath, right?
JW: The Afterneath, Avalanche Run, and Rainbow Machine.
EB: You used the Levitation for a minute, and the Palisades, too, right?
JW: Yep.
EB: Tell me about your faves.
JW: Well, the Avalanche Run has been and will always be my favorite reverb/delay combo of all time. I’ve been able to get a wide range of things out of that pedal in particular. The Rainbow Machine I use primarily for background sound design. If a track lacks that thing that makes you go, “what the heck is that,” I’ll break it out. Sometimes I don’t want to have denser musical elements, but it’s easier to add some crazy pitch-up madness.
EB: How do you use the Afterneath?
JW: For drones. I use it on my Rhodes a lot and for resampling instruments out of Ableton and back to the pedal. I’ll create different drones and effects and then I’ll go into Ableton and volume-automate it to create spaces where I can really take deeper control.
EB: The Bit Commander is a trip!
JW: It’s awesome. I used one at a studio that had a whole bunch of EQD pedals, and I want one. Some of these pedals are not necessarily “gig pedals” - I use them in my creation time, when I’m making samples for different artists or working on my own projects.
EB: I read somewhere about your guitars having personalities.
JW: They all kind of have their own kind of thing. Wood type, weight, balance - there are so many little factors.
EB: What are your main axes? You’re using the Abasi Larada 6, right?
JW: Yeah, definitely the Larada, and then I have a few Fenders, like the American Ultra Strat model with a single humbucker, the blue one. I love that guitar a lot. I have another Strat I use sometimes for recording, but I’m actually going to change out the electronics on that one soon. I’m waiting on new pickups to come in the mail.
EB: You don’t use the PRS anymore?
JW: I have one PRS, my Core Custom 24, but I don’t use it very often.
EB: What’s next?
JW: I have some records coming soon by other artists that I produce, and I’ll be credited as the sole producer, which will be great. I’ve got an agent and a manager so I can start doing pop-ups and appearing on digital festivals. From there, I’ll probably drop another project at the top of next year.
EB: What do you think you’ve learned from all those experiences?
JW: I’m learning to trust the process and not try to be so in control. I definitely believe in time, timing, and alignment, and just getting in and doing what you got to do. I’m a Christian and I’m fully assured that I’m straight on the other end; whatever I do here, I knock it out of the park. If I’m alive, I’ve got something to do.
E.E. Bradman is a word nerd and music journalist, Grammy-nominated bass fanatic, stage/studio/touring musician, and musical midwife for childbirth and the dying. Currently based in the Bay Area, he designs sonic environments for theater, film, animation, audiobooks, and radio plays. Stop by and say hi at eltonsounds.com!