Jdav
Writer
My name is Justin Davis and I’ve been writing and composing works for as long as I can remember. I discovered my passion for writing when I was just about to enter my teenage years. It started out as a form of relief, where I would spend time working through my emotions and scribbling whatever I could onto the page. From there it took some time, but soon enough I separated from journaling and it transitioned to poetry, for lack of a better classification.
It was something I held close to me for awhile and never showcased it publicly, or even privately. I can’t remember exactly when I started to share my works, but somewhere along the line, I ended up revealing this dark secret to my good Buddi Bone.
I graduated college with a degree in Writing. I learned how to interpret works, read them from different lenses and perspectives, research, and dabbled a bit with screen writing. I was a member of the Lyrically Speaking Club on campus and that’s when I began feeling more comfortable and confident with the art of Spoken Word.
James and I shared works over the years, across state lines and through many different platforms. Around 2015, he came to me with this idea to compose a work that was later completed and titled The Funnies in 2022. The idea behind it was to mesh together his musical aptitude with my spoken word tendencies. We wanted the listener to feel and experience both of our styles and to come away with a “wow, never listened to anything like that before,” type of reaction.
Afterwards, Bone, my biggest fan and supporter came to me with another idea (this guy is endless with the creative thoughts) to release my own spoken word album. Originally, I was like “nah dood, that’s cool.” Persisting, and after many conversations, he convinced me to start compiling some of the works that didn’t make it onto The Funnies and to get behind this notion of releasing said spoken word album.
And so guess what…that’s what we did! With the help of him, Michael Watters, Tory Van Dine, and various other artists, Bone created the masterful music behind my audio recordings. And as of February of 2024, I released my first (and only) spoken word album titled The Leftovers.
The Leftovers is exactly titled. It is a culmination of a lot of leftover pieces that were in contention to make it onto The Funnies album, with a couple pieces that were written to fill in the gaps where it was lacking.
The Leftovers is purposeful in its design. Its chronology has been discussed at length, and so from the intro of Impoverished War Machine to the outro of I Write, it is intentional how they sequent one another. With that, I do believe the individual pieces can stand alone, but are better served collectively (like a pin collection). Those last parentheses won’t make sense to the most of you, unless you take a dive inside that volcano with me.
As of now, I’ve taken a break from writing as that’s a common tendency in my life after I’ve produced a lot of works. I plan to work in tandem with James and also by myself and hope to continue to create work that challenges the status quo, brings smiles to peoples faces, and connects with those who may feel as though they don’t have much to connect with.
I appreciate you taking the time to read, listen, and support. I will conclude with my common phrase, as I always do…
“One love, friends!”
- Jdav