Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Myles.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started dancing at the age of three. My mom was teaching recreational dance classes, so I was titter-tottering around the studio and always watching what she was doing. As soon as I was the accepted age to begin formally learning how to Tap dance, I did.
When I was seven, I picked up my first set of drumsticks after watching a family friend play the drums in a garage music jam. I became obsessed with the instrument and began expressing a desire to play. My parents bought me my first drum set shortly after that for Christmas. I didn’t have any formal lessons at that time, but I took to the drums instinctively.
I continued taking dance lessons at my family dance studio and other studios around the DMV area while still pursuing music in high school. That led me to join marching band, Jazz Ensemble, and choir.
At that same time, I started a Rock band called Haze with some high school friends. I was the drummer but was interested in the guitar, so I started teaching myself how to play it while my friends taught me basic chords.
After high school, I got my first professional dancing gig at Paramount’s King’s Dominion as a dancer in the Nickelodeon show. After King’s Dominion, I auditioned for and played the role of Frankie in “42nd Street” at Toby’s Dinner Theater in Columbia, Md. During that time, I auditioned and was accepted at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, and double-majored in Jazz and Ballet. Meanwhile, I was still playing music and doing solo gigs around campus, which led me to start a band called The Original Plan, as the singer and rhythm guitarist.
I took a leave of absence while in college to join the national tour of Tap Dogs. After that tour ended, I graduated from Point Park and auditioned for Disney Cruise Line and was hired as a main stage dancer, singer, and dance captain. Once that contract ended, I auditioned for the off-Broadway show STOMP, touring throughout North and South America.
While I was on tour with STOMP I recorded my first album. Using a laptop, a microphone, and an acoustic guitar, I would set up shop in my hotel room for weeks at a time to lay down tracks, and write and record.
Moved back to Md., after the STOMP tour and joined several bands as a drummer while still playing solo acoustic gigs. At that time I realized I should be Tap dancing during my solo shows, so I would create moments to insert Tap dance breaks during certain songs.
During that time, I was still doing choreography and rejoined Tap Dogs in 2015 and again in 2018, while still playing music that incorporated that element of Tap.
Balancing music and dance throughout my life, I self-produced two solo full-length albums, 2006’s This Genre, followed by Catching Thoughts in 2015, while touring the world with various dance productions.
Today, on the dance front, I travel nationally to choreograph at several competitive dance studio, and teach workshops and dance conventions across the nation, while continuing to instruct and choreograph at my family’s dance studio, Gracie’s Guys and Gals Dance Studio.
In music, I perform around the DMV area with my band, Myles Deep Band. Myles Deep Band is a blend of jam-band meets funk-a-delia where I use Tap as a rhythmic instrument to our interpretations of reimagined classics.
The band has spent over a year-and-a-half building a reputation for high-energy performances, explosive jams, and unexpected mash-ups that transcends music genres. We have successfully captivated audiences from small clubs to big stages and festivals by carefully selecting classic Pop, Rock, R&B, and Funk songs and interpreting them the Myles Deep Band way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Art is always challenging. There is rejection, missing time at home and your loved ones, and a short amount of time to perfect your craft, to deal with.
Let’s start with being in a band. There is always a challenge when you work with different musicians who have different artistic option and methods. Especially in my younger years playing in bands when there was a lack of maturity and we were all trying to just figure it out. Pan to present day, I now work with professional seasoned musicians who have also toured and know what it takes to make a band work as one unit.
On the dance side of my career, I personally had major challenges and obstacles to overcome. Being bullied and teased for being a dancer up until high school was certainly a hit to my confidence, but it taught me who was really in my corner, and I started surrounding myself with arts folk who accepted who I was and what I did.
Doing two professional shows before even going to college was an eye-opening experience, but it was attending and graduating from Point Park University that fully prepared me for the world of entertainment.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I like feeling good about anything I create. We do what we do because we’re passionate about it. I’ll come up with choreography and I’ll present it to my students and I challenge them, but they work it out and that’s a satisfying feeling. In music, we play what feels good. When we create art, any kind of art, it’s almost always improvisation until it becomes something substantial. We mess around and come up with a groove or a move or a riff and we improve upon it. My favorite part is that thing that sticks when you’re feeling that moment and you lay it out on a timeline and it just fits with what you’re trying to accomplish.
I am most proud of where I am as an artist today. I’m proud of my students when I see them building something from the ground up. I’m proud of the music I create with my bandmates who are some of my closest friends. I’m also proud of knowing that I didn’t have to use any cheat codes to get to where I am now. I knew it was the journey and not the destination. I didn’t cut any corners to get to where I am today and that feels really good.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The music and dance industries are always going to be present. It certainly has a stronger presence now than it has in the past due to social media and technology as a whole. But as art becomes more reliant on technology I hope that what sets us apart as torch bearers of the purest form of art is that we continue to look to the past and bring it along with us.
I personally observe artists both dancers and musicians leaning into technology a little too much for my comfortability. And at one click of a button this tool spits out a complete songs or literally, choreography; however, we must remember that this tool has never been rejected, heartbroken, teased or bullied, to be able to compose a song that most humans can relate to or choreograph a composition that will bring you to tears.
So when I say, bring the past along with us, I mean keeping art organic and true to human form.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mylesdeepband.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mylesdeepband?stkn=NDR6N285NWE4bjhn&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573093644448
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mylesdeepband
- Other: https://www.justinmyles.net
