Today we’d like to introduce you to Justine Griffin
Hi Justine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started playing violin when I was 10 (4th grade music class) and fell in love with it. I grew up in Spokane, Washington and went through private lessons and after school orchestras all throughout school. In high school I took a break and tried some different artistic avenues like jewelry making, fine art and ceramics, but eventually came back to violin again. I’ve always been into creative stuff but music is kind of my calling!
As an adult, I was scared off from pursuing music because my violin teachers had always told me my only option was orchestra and teaching. So I decided to try different office jobs. I hopped around for a few years, never feeling satisfied. Then my younger brother, Jake suggested streaming on Twitch. I had never heard of Twitch before but saw other musicians live streaming and thought it looked fun. I saw they were making tips doing it, so I thought… Why not?
I did my first live stream in Spokane, WA and my channel started growing quickly. So much that I decided to drop down to part time hours at my job, which at that time was an advertising agency doing project management. I was playing with local bands around town in the evenings, working in the agency during the day and streaming on days I wasn’t playing shows. I picked up guitar, piano, bass and singing to try to expand my expertise to grow my audience more. Things were great! Then BAM. Covid hit.
I had gotten sick and didn’t want to expose myself to it at work anymore so I thought, what better time to try live streaming full time. I wouldn’t know if I didn’t try.
I quit my job and went full time. I streamed 3-4 days per week playing live music on Twitch for anywhere from 3-6 hours at a time. My channel quickly grew due to how much time I was able to dedicate to live streaming. I started a YouTube channel making cover song videos and audio gear reviews to try to grow my following across other platforms too. I had started looping songs, where you record different instruments live and on the spot and layer them up to make a full song that you can sing or solo on top of. My following was growing and I was safe from copyright infringement because I was creating songs entirely from scratch.
After Covid, and as a full time musician, I was able to move anywhere there was good, stable internet. So I left Washington, went to Colorado for a year and then decided to try out Costa Rica. I lived there for 2 years, live streaming and exploring the country. I fell in love with riding horses while I was in Costa Rica, which is what ultimately led me to Utah. When I decided it was time to move back to the US, my husband and I picked Ogden because of the proximity to the mountains and horses – mine and my husbands two favorite things. So now here we are – I’m live streaming on Twitch and YouTube, continuing to make videos and live streaming. My current following now is 83k on Twitch and 13k on YouTube and I’m still loving performing and making videos. I plan on continuing streaming 3-4 days per week, taking opportunities when they come up and seeing where it takes me. I’ve also branched out into doing more IRL (in real life) live streaming, like painting and cooking. Maybe I’ll start playing some live shows around town again too, who knows 🙂
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I mentioned before, COVID was an adventure and stopped me from live performing at venues but it also lead to a lot of growth on my Twitch channel. Living in Costa Rica was difficult too because the internet was not always stable, which effected my live streaming A LOT. My connection would drop and stop my stream mid song and I’d lose viewers. It was hard.
Another challenge as a musician (and a live streamer) is dealing with people on the internet. I deal with a lot of criticisms and negativity from people on the internet, anything from my appearance to my skills as a musician, to my competence as a person (especially as a blonde woman). Some people are always trying to tear you down. I’ve learned to ignore it, have thick skin and keep a smile on my face, despite how hurtful it can be.
Being self employed comes with a lot of challenges too. Like coming up with different content to post, staying ahead of the curve with music performances, etc. For example, I combine a lot of digital instruments and unique effects with classic instruments like violin to keep things interesting for my viewers. But it’s not always easy figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a singer and multi-instrumentalist. I loop different instruments (record individually and stack on top of each other to create a full song) and sing/solo on top of it. It allows me to always have a unique version of the song I’m playing and it’s different every time I play it.
I’m really proud of how much I’ve learned as a musician over the years. I was classically trained in violin, which I think attributed to my ability to teach myself other instruments. I’m self taught at guitar, piano, bass and *mostly* self taught as a singer. I’ve taken a few lessons here and there. I also taught myself how to use Ableton (the software I use for performing and looping) as well as Davinci Resolve (video editing software) that I use for my YouTube videos.
I produce my own songs; covers and originals, record/film my own videos and edit everything to post online. It’s a lot and has taken me years to learn and I’m always learning new things. It keeps my work interesting 🙂
How do you think about luck?
I think my channels (Twitch and YouTube) grew a lot during COVID which felt like good luck. I was streaming at the right time. Twitch was promoting musicians during that time as a lot of people were working from home. I was on the Front Page almost every day, streaming to 20k viewers at a time. It exploded my channel! As a live streamer, I’m at the mercy of the platform to promote my stream. My channel can grow drastically (being on Front Page) or stagnate due to a lack of new viewers.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinegriffin_music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustineGriffinViolin
- Twitter: https://x.com/justinegriffin_
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/justinegriffinmusic
- Other: https://www.twitch.tv/justinegriffin
