Two young boys, dressed in Abercrombie sweaters and steeped in a sepia filter, sit in front of a piano and introduce their song about standing up to bullies.
They warble about sticks and stones breaking their bones but words won’t break them down. “Stand Up,” as the song is called, is just one of many in their adolescent discography.
“There's another song called ‘Redemption’ about redeeming your love for someone. And we're like 12, so it's pretty funny,” said Boca Raton native Justin Koolik.
Justin Koolik and his older brother Brett have always been making music, and they’ve come a long way since the days of their grainy, 480px YouTube videos.
Now the 22-year-old is posting videos in HD quality, where he’s seen playing guitar with a full band atop a moving trailer. The performance is his entry to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, which aims to highlight unsigned, independent artists from across the country. Koolik joins a pool of more than 100 musicians in South Florida vying for a chance to win.
The aspiring singer songwriter traded in a future job on Wall Street for a life behind the microphone.
“If I don't bet on myself, no one will. I'd rather say ‘oh, well’ then ‘what if,” he said.
He was slated to finish school at Vanderbilt University a semester early when he chose to pursue his music professionally. He challenged himself to dedicate his free time toward his craft.
“Trying to figure out how this is not gonna be a hobby is definitely a feat or a big task to figure out. But I'm really excited and I wake up every day more motivated than the day before, which is a really, really, really good feeling.”
READ MORE: From folk to funk: A sample of the South Florida talent competing in NPR's Tiny Desk Contest
Koolik treads a path paved by his older brother. Both grew up playing instruments — Justin on guitar and Brett on piano. They attended Vanderbilt where Justin studied finance and Brett biomedical engineering. Justin once again follows in the footsteps of his brother, who is now a music producer in Los Angeles, by foregoing a 9-to-5 job as an investment banker.
“[I] started posting consistently and more and more opportunities came. I saw little wins, little wins, and then I realized maybe there's something here. So it wasn't, I can't do this job, it was. I need to do this.”
It helps that he’s based in Nashville, or “Music City,” where there’s an established music scene and has been working to prove his true mettle as a musician. He’s regularly posting videos of him busking on the street and producing original songs on Instagram. A lot has changed in the years since the “Stand Up” song, but he’s still writing music with thoughtful lyrics.
His song Home, for example, talks about the loss of his childhood dog, Pumpkin. It’s a reminder, he said, of growing up outdoors in South Florida.
For his Tiny Desk entry, he chose to perform his song Love Remains. Reminiscent of folk pop artists like Noah Kahan and The Lumineers, Koolik’s song was inspired by the hardship endured after he was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis.
“Love Remains is basically a reflection of that period of my life where it's like no matter what, no matter what you're going through — if the love remains, you'll find your way,” he said.
He underwent four surgeries and spent his sophomore year of high school in a wheelchair. When he couldn’t play sports, he turned to music as a creative outlet.
“When you lose one part of you, you gotta rediscover another part,” he said.
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