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About
Justin is an experienced freelance music producer, sound engineer and independent recording artist.
Justin Richards
Starting work long before the advent of computer-based recording, Justin honed his engineering skills in a variety of Northwest studios as well as Island Records Publishing studios, SARM (Hookend & West), Gracieland and notably Revolution Studios where he based himself for 10 years. Justin has worked alongside producers such as Guy Chambers, Johnny Marr, Andy Macpherson, Simon Franglen, George de Angelis and many others. This, combined with having a wide variety of musical skills, led to more production work and quickly becoming an early adopter of the ubiquitous Pro Tools environment. Aside from working as an engineer or producer in many genres of music, he also spent 5 years as part of a team creating a unique sample library for Apple & Sonivox.com. This consolidated his vast experience in editing and mixing.
Outside the studio, Justin also spent many years live engineering for PA companies and venues around Manchester. His quality of work quickly got him a world tour with London Records-signed Marion. This led to engineering monitors and front of house for bands such as Snow Patrol, Lion Rock (supporting Chemical Brothers), Gold Blade (supporting The Offspring), Buffalo 66 (supporting Ian Brown) and Rialto.
After teaming up with production company PP Music, Justin wrote music for a range of their products that encompassed orchestral scoring and sound design for film trailers and a variety of TV program music. His catalogue of work is used world-wide.
Justin’s teaching experience at several schools and colleges in the Northwest contributed to the provision of a consultancy service for the government scheme ‘Myplace’ – delivering seminars and support to organisations wishing to set up new recording studios in youth centres all over the UK. Following on from this, he secured a part-time lecturing role at Salford University, teaching music technology on the BA Music degree.
Just
Justin’s multi-instrumental and composition skills have paved the way for several side-projects. ‘Just’ has generated two albums ‘10 Rooms’ and ‘12 Gaps’ that sit comfortably alongside his film & TV output in establishing his ability to write dynamic and original atmospheric music for picture. ‘10 Rooms’ has a collective integrity, with each piece being a sonic representation of a physical space. They are emotionally charged instrumental soundscapes, music for your inner films and described as a “carefully balanced marriage of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, whose offspring hint at other places, other spaces and other rooms”. ‘12 Gaps’ moves away from relying on electronica, combining wistful and wily cinematic music and songs, that range from sublime spaciousness to powerful punches.
Messrs Kelly I.A. & Richards J.V.M.
Having known and worked with Iain Kelly for over 20 years, their collaborative project produced the artful debut album ‘Something Remained’, under the aptly titled pseudonym ‘Messrs Kelly I.A. & Richards J.V.M.’. Released on the Rural Audio Club label in 2014, it has a distinctly vintage, yet timeless, sound. It draws on sounds of England in the first half on the twentieth century, and combines sonic landscapes with a mainly traditional set of instruments to create a beautifully balanced set of musical vignettes. Not standing still for long, the duo moved swiftly on to their second album ‘Tweaking The Bloom’. Taking their time to make more use of rhythmic energy, the album has spawned two singles – ‘Computers?’ and the more commercial sounding ‘Pressure Cooker’. With accompanying videos, they both grabbed the attention of Radio 6 as well as specialist radio stations.