Justin Dilgard

Captivating the heart and soul, the music has no set standards other than it is based on ones feelings. Moving from a soft melody to a harder rocking tune and everything in-between. The music can take a person from a guitar filled state of ecstasy to a feeling of the deepest emotions, and come out asking for more! Emotional but not Emo. Heavy but not Heavy Metal. Radio friendly, but not crap friendly. This is Justin Dilgard.
Growing up listening to the Moody Blues, U2, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Oasis, Pink Floyd, and Frank Zappa just to name a few, Justin Dilgard is one of the few who's music is a perfect match of influences from the old school, adding modern effects and unique sounds, and creating something different from it.
From day one, Justin has always been an individual about being one self as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon of the current hype. As Justin himself said about when he was in 7th grade, "I was into the Beatles and Pink Floyd, and had Beatles hair. Everyone else in my class had mushroom cuts and was into Nirvana." Although he's always been concerned about only doing his own thing, his music is certainly capable of starting something else that's far more interesting and different than the bandwagon trends of Emo and Screaming Metal.
Born in Rochester, NY on May 15th 1983, Justin grew up being exposed to the classic rock music of his parents, and the oldies from his Grandmother and Uncle. Justin claims to have been a Pink Floyd fan since age 4, hearing it from his uncle. “I remember staying at my Grandma’s house and my uncle Terry would listen to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’, and I absolutely loved it. But it was a random event that got Justin interested in playing music. “A friend was over at my house, and we wanted to record a cassette of some skits and stuff, and realized we needed some music. I didn’t have any instruments available, so I went into my parent’s cupboard of coffee cans they used for recycling and used the top end as the drums, and the bottom metal end as cymbals, and banged away at them with a pair of pencils, and really enjoyed it. I eventually got a real drumset a couple years later, and made recordings with cassettes and made my own liner notes, and then moved into trying to overdub instruments by plugging in one cassette deck into another to put keyboards and stuff on top of what I did before so it would be my own one man band.”
By 5th grade, Justin dove headfirst into the music of the Beatles, and other oldies music. Eventually losing interest in the Beatles' music and getting tired of the oldies, Justin's musical interests evolved. Moving into the music of Pink Floyd and other progressive rock bands like Emerson Lake and Palmer. But it was one band's music that completely changed the musician’s outlook on things, which came from a chance incident. "I came home from summer camp, walked into the living room, and my Dad was watching Hard Rock Live on VH1. I asked my Dad who the band was performing on TV, and he told me it was the Moody Blues, who I vaguely heard of before. I didn't know any of their music, so I asked my Dad if he had anything by them. He had a copy of their album "This Is the Moody Blues" on CD. I listened to it, and absolutely loved it! I loved the emotion of the lyrics, what they sang about, and loved the sound of the music, and how it always motivated me creatively. Not just musically, but more so with other hobbies and things in life. It was the first time that I realized that it wasn’t about trying to sound like other people as it was that you have to write what’s in your heart, and do your own sound and not try to jump on the bandwagon of what’s the current trend. They're my all time favorite band, and they always will be."
Justin's been writing songs since age 11, but claims that none of it was anything "real" until he entered 9th grade at age 14. Although only Justin's first album is out, he already has all of his 2nd album written, and most of the groundwork for his 3rd and 4th album done, plus many other poems and ideas to be used for future albums. His current album "Journeys of the Soul" was written mostly during his 11th and 12th grade years in high school, and was influenced from a lot of personal feelings. "I moved to a new house and went to a new high school. Unlike my past high school, which was an extremely cliquish conformist environment, my new high school was more diverse and virtually non-conformist. That’s when I started becoming more honest with myself, and began writing songs that reflected me, and my own feelings. My songwriting was really starting to bloom around this time. When I wrote these songs, I had no intent on actually attempting to do music as a career. It was just a hobby for me at the time."
After borrowing books from his cousin on how to run a record label, and doing extensive research, Justin went on to start his own record label Mooncastle Record