Two years ago, local singer-songwriter Justin Hopkins hung up his guitar and took a day job.
The Redondo Beach resident and music industry veteran didn’t quit entirely, but he did dramatically reduce his performance schedule. Eager to be present for his baby daughter’s milestone moments, Hopkins went from booking over 150 shows per year to around four shows per month. He accepted steady employment as a solar panel consultant and settled into family life.
On Monday night, Hopkins stepped back into the spotlight in a major way. His rendition of David Gray’s “Babylon” on NBC’s hit reality talent competition “The Voice” earned him one of 12 coveted spots on musical coach Cee Lo Green’s team. Hopkins performed the song as part of a “blind audition,” during which coaches Green, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton sit with their backs to contestants and select team members based on vocal merit alone.
Just prior to taking the stage, Hopkins characterized the audition as “do or die.” And despite an impassioned performance, Hopkins only narrowly managed to “do,” with Green rescuing him in the final seconds of his allotted performance time. With the clock winding down, Hopkins grew skeptical someone would choose him at all.
“I tried to start singing to the back of the chairs,” he recalls. “I knew [the judges] were considering it, but that I wasn’t doing anything to blow them away. …When I hit the end of my chorus, I thought I was pretty much finished.”
Fortunately for Hopkins and his fans, the audition was only the beginning. He will now compete in weekly elimination challenges against other vocalists until just one remains. At stake is a $100,000 recording contract, which would considerably advance Hopkins towards his longtime goal. When he left his native Oregon—and a planned matriculation into law school—for Southern California in 2004, Hopkins remembers: “There was no doubt in my mind I wanted to work in entertainment [and] music.”
Upon selecting Hopkins for his team, Green promised to “help polish and refine” the singer’s natural abilities. Hopkins is thrilled at the opportunity to grow under Green’s tutelage.
“The music that he makes is just so avant-garde and really cool,” Hopkins enthuses. “I’m totally fired up!”
Hopkins, who says he’s been a Green fan since the artist’s Goodie Mob days, takes his musical inspiration from broad range of sources. A multi-instrumentalist, trained in piano and self-taught in guitar and drums, Hopkins values good songwriting. He cites Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen as two major influences, admiring both for their narrative prowess.
“Lyrically, for me, that’s something I try to accomplish,” he says. “Telling a great story.”
Having a daughter radically altered Hopkins’ own approach to songwriting, especially in terms of subject matter.
“I don’t think there is anybody who will debate that [during] the first five [or] six years of my life as a professional musician, most of the songs were hell-bent on whiskey and gasoline and road stories,” he concedes. “And now, it’s about going to a much deeper place.”
Among newer artists, Hopkins names Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as a musical inspiration. “That’s the level of artistry I want to achieve in what I’m doing,” he says of the recent Grammy winner. “I don’t want to settle for making something just to please someone for the moment.”
While his song choices on “The Voice” will comprise primarily covers, Hopkins will continue to have a forum for his original work through weekly gigs at Café Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach and a Friday-night residency, beginning in March, at WitZend in Venice.
No matter what the outcome of Hopkins’ trajectory on “The Voice,” he is grateful for the opportunity to build on what he’s already established and share that journey with his fans.
“It’s me just becoming a little bit more rounded as an artist,” he says of his participation in the show. “Whether I get to win it all, or wherever I end up, I want to be able to take [my fans] with me.”
“The Voice” airs Mondays on NBC at 8/7c.
