I first saw Justin Nozuka last year supporting Crowded House at the iTunes festival. I was really taken by him and was surprised to see that within a year he was playing The Roundhouse which is a huge 3,000 capacity plus venue. What I did’nt know was that the lower part of the Roundhouse is made up of a number of small spaces where up an coming musicians and artists can perform intimate shows to small audiences. The Roundhouse is one of my favourite venues and is becoming the Barbican of the North (London that is).
Justin who is half American/Japanese was born in New York however grew up in Canada. Musically the obvious comparisons would be Jack Johnson, Ray LaMontagne and Damien Rice however live he is much less polished and has a rawness that some of his contemporaries lack. His album has had critical acclaim in Canada however has fared less well in the UK despite having some favourable reviews in the broadsheets and the more serious music press. Although I had problems finding a physical copy of his debut “Holly” iTunes are selling it for a very reasonable £5.49 and is well worth picking up.
Justin is one of those artists who really deserves to be getting more recognition and I hope that he gets picked up by Jools Holland as I feel confident that he could sell to a much broader audience if he had the exposure. It’s a shame that there are not more avenues to break artists such as Justin in the UK. The Jools Holland Show is great and has been responsible for breaking some very leftfield acts such as Seasick Steve however until mainstream radio stations start supporting new acoustic acts I fear that they will continue to struggle.
Written by John Rahim