Justin McRoberts Biography
Over the past 10 years, songwriting has served as an on-going journal for me; a way to log the miles of my life and remember more clearly. My songs serve as benchmarks that help me keep some bearing as to where I am and, perhaps more importantly, where I’ve been. My hope in sharing my songs with others is that my story will help to shed some light on theirs.
In the latter part of 1992, I went on staff with Young Life in Northern California and spent the next 3 and 1/2 years connecting with teenagers and teaching others to do the same. Songwriting became increasingly important to me over those years as I found music to be an effective way to process and remember the multitude of things going on in, through and around me. Over the next two years, I recorded two albums with 5 Minute Walk Records. The first, Reason For Living, is a collection of songs written about Young Life leadership and stories of teens I had the privilege of knowing. Father is a more personal dealing primarily with my father’s suicide in 1998 and the struggle to see the good in dark times.
Despite the recording of an album just about every year, I believe that touring is the true heartbeat of what I do. Sharing my songs and stories with an audience is where I feel my gifts are most fully realized. While my audiences can be quite diverse, from playing for congregates in a small rural church, to teenagers in the Czech Republic, most of my schedule is made up of shows on college campuses in the continental US.
I have also recorded five independent studio projects since 5 Minute Walk Records disbanded. The Untitled EP, recorded in 2001, is a collection of songs written in spiritual devotion. The simplicity of the recording is intended to highlight the human side of faith, wherein life is not often refined.
In 2002, I recorded Trust with which I have portrayed the mind-set of the un-churched and disinterested teen I was in high school. In 2003 I recorded Intersections. After numerous requests for a live recording, I released the Live At Grove City bootleg in 2004.
Most recently, I released Grace Must Wound... in November 2005. The album’s title is part of a Flannery O’Connor quote that reads, in full; “Grace must wound before it heals.” I hope the songs that make up Grace Must Wound… help listeners to see the difference between Jesus and christianity.
Being independent since 2001 has granted me the opportunity to apply the principles of service I learned through Young Life and 5 Minute Walk Records to all aspects of my music career. The most pertinent of these principles is that good business is good ministry. Because my wife Amy and I are involved with every facet of this business, we can live that principle out completely. I believe that my responsibility extends beyond my “listeners”, to every promoter and tech; to any and all who are involved with a show, an album, a festival, etc… More than being a musician, I am a communicator, and everything I do communicates a message. I know that that who I am is far more important than what I do, and that the quality of the music I put out is dictated by the quality of the person I am.
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