An Interview with Justine Kay
It was inevitable that Justine would make music her career – her parents were both classical guitarists and she was brought up in a creative, musical environment.

“Both my parents always encouraged me with my love for music, right from an early age. They bought me a piano and a guitar when I was seven years old and paid for piano, flute and music theory lessons. It was a childhood passion that I simply never grew out of. I feel the same today as I did then. Certain pieces of music, certain artists, singers and bands just make me tingle or bring tears to my eyes when I hear them. I always wanted to be part of whatever magic it is that they weave...”

Justine went on to describe classical guitar lessons with her father. She confesses to being a lazy pupil, only really wanting to play folk songs and to learn accompaniments to her voice. So that's exactly what she learned to do, and by the tender age of fourteen she was part of that age-old tradition of street entertainment in England - busking.

“I don't know what my parents thought of that, nor even if I told them! But it was a lot of fun and I got a real buzz out of playing to hundreds of people. My friend Isabel and I both played guitar and sang in harmony, performing songs by artists such as Simon & Garfunkel. We were so young and often dressed in our school uniforms, so we kind of stood out in the crowd.”


After playing and singing in bands for several years, Justine then put her music on hold to go away to university to study for a law degree. But the lure of music was too strong and at the age of nineteen, halfway through her degree course, she took up an offer to sing and play keyboards in the rock band “Red Abyss”. It was an exciting time and the gigs took her overseas to Holland and France, playing many concerts and recording an album at a studio in France. Justine left the band after several years, deciding to pursue her own solo career. She had begun to write her own songs and wanted to express herself as a solo performer and songwriter.

“Soon after I left the band, I finished writing a few of the songs that appear on the “Dreaming In Colour” album. “I Thought”, “I End Up Crying” and “You Say” were some of the first songs I wrote on my return to England, and it's very satisfying to hear them now, recorded and produced, bearing in mind their humble beginnings.”

It was at this time that Justine began gigging intensely in a duo with her partner Darrell, singing and playing in clubs and pubs, often four or five times a week.

“It was hard work and I often had to swallow my pride and sing songs I really didn't like. We played anything and everything and had a repertoire of over two hundred songs! It meant we could play in almost any kind of venue, and we had more bookings than we could handle. It was a wonderful experience and my voice and vocal style benefited hugely from the range of songs I was singing.”

Justine and Darrell became involved with a business man and singer called Gary Wilson who introduced them to several celebrities including the legendary actor Christopher Lee. Darrell produced Christopher's debut single “Wandering Star” and Justine sang backing vocals. Publicity was intense and included many television appearances and performances.

“It was a good time, working with Christopher Lee. He had been one of my favourite actors for many years and it was an honour and a privilege to work with him. He came to our studio several times to record his vocals and it was a privilege to spend time with him. I must confess that I asked him to autograph my video of the Wicker Man. He was really sweet about it and I still have the video tucked away safely.”

Life was exciting but incredibly hard work. On top of the gigging and other musical projects, Justine had a fulltime job in the office of a local charity and Darrell was running his recording studio, so their work schedule was intensive. They were burning the candle at both ends and something had to break. Eventually it did – over-worked and disenchanted by the minimal success they had achieved with various musical projects, they folded the studio and moved abroad, heading back to France. They continued running a small mail order company to earn a basic living and made time to take stock of their lives.

Justine and Darrell also started doing a few rough recordings. They produced rough versions of “If You Want Me, Tell Me” and “Where Do I Begin?” and posted them on mp3.com – the response was surprisingly good and many listeners wanted more.

“So many people wrote to me asking where they could buy my album. I was amazed, as the recordings were rather basic and we'd never even recorded the final vocals – they were just guides! I immediately wanted to record the album that these people wanted, and “Dreaming In Colour” became a reality, at least in our minds.”

This was way back in 1998 and “Dreaming In Colour” was finally released in December 2002. The album had already been tentatively entitled "Dreaming In Colour" but no song of this name existed until June 2002.

"I had already had the idea of naming the album “Dreaming In Colour” but we had no song of that title. Then Darrell recorded this quirky slap bass-line and layered some guitar and synths over it and I just adored it – I wanted it be on the album. When I came to writing the vocal line and the lyrics, Dreaming In Colour just worked. The song is surreal and dreamy anyhow, and it just became the title track there and then. It quickly became my favourite song on the album and I think it still is.”

Regarding the delays in releasing "Dreaming In Colour" (it was originally due for release in the autumn of 2000), Justine is as candid as ever.

“The album took much longer than I ever imagined. I think we'd had the stuffing knocked out of us a little in England, with the heavy workload and some professional and personal set-backs, and it was hard for us to put our heart and soul into the music. We gathered our energy slowly and then in 2002, it all came together really quickly. We had ten songs almost completely recorded and were considering making it a ten-song album. Then I wrote "Lady" and none of us could bear not to include it on the album, even at this late stage. We looked at all sorts of production and arrangements for this song but it ended up as the simplest arrangement on the album, guitar and vocals, just as I had written it."