Photograph by Tony Navarro

Justin Joyce: drummer with a (music) theory.

San Diego drummer Justin Joyce released his debut album as a bandleader, Story Tales, last year, although he actually cut it back in 2019 — in one day (May 6) up at LMP Studios in Claremont, California. Joyce has been involved with music since he was a kid, but he didn’t start playing the drum set until college. “In high school, I was in drumlines,” he recalls, “and I was in concert band in middle school, but I switched to drum set when I got to San Diego State, because I wanted to learn jazz.”

He’s always been interested in writing his own music. “I would fool around on piano, and I would experiment with beats and stuff when I was involved with this hip-hop collective, but I never really composed, because I didn’t know much about theory until college. When I got there, I was put in the ‘remedial theory’ class, which was like the lowest rung on the ladder. But I just started really grinding away at it, because I really hated being the butt of every ‘bad drummer’ joke. I worked very hard, because I wanted to know theory better than everyone else. It became a passion to understand harmony and know how chords move. I started sitting at the piano, which has become my altar. I’m not a great pianist by any means, but I can make my way around it pretty well. I love to orchestrate and arrange music, and all of that starts at the piano and just messing around with ideas. These days, I’m more of a melody-first type person. When I was younger, I was definitely more of a harmony guy, but now I hear a melody and build off of that.”

Joyce earned his bachelor’s degree in 2017 and his master’s in 2020 — also from San Diego State. The latter provided the material he needed to record Story Tales. “All of the music [on the album] is tunes that I originally played for my graduate recital, so it was a perfect opportunity to make a record.” He took his time in releasing the project, for various reasons. “I was dealing with a lot of personal stuff, like my dad dying in 2018, and trying to process that. And having the money to put it out was a big hurdle as well.”

Many musicians felt like their careers got upended by the pandemic, but Joyce has a different perspective. “The pandemic saved my life. I was on a really destructive path after grad school, and I kind of went missing-in-action. I didn’t know how to break back into the scene. When covid hit, I straightened myself out. I quit drinking and I quit drugs. I had been on such a bad path and blind to so many things, and now I feel so clearheaded. I’ve been clean for four years now, and the music community has really welcomed me back. So, my reality is that the post-pandemic world has been way better than the pre-pandemic world. I’ve been picking up a lot of gigs, things have opened up, and there are more places to play.”

He hopes that his first album of all original music leads to “the beginning of Justin Joyce, the composer. A lot of people in my immediate circle had heard these tunes at jam sessions, but it feels like an accomplishment to have it documented.” Meanwhile, Joyce is keeping busy teaching at Santee Music Academy and tutoring private students. Gig-wise, he’s playing with a funk group called The Boogie Buena, with vocalist Kaylee Daugherty. “I see myself gigging even more, that’s for sure. I want to be performing more of my own music. I see myself writing a lot. I’m already in the working process of developing music for a second record and getting it ready to go. I see myself staying in San Diego, but I hope to travel and take my music outside of San Diego as well. I’m one of those people who believes we have something special here in town: there’s a great community, with a lot of camaraderie. So I just want to keep at it and keep getting better.”