As the deadline on Friday inched closer, Justin Lamb was getting more excited.
Since May 16, the 2001 Clarkston High School graduate, has looked for supporters to help him fund his upcoming album for $5,000.
He glanced down on his phone at his project on Kickstarter on June 25 with a few more days until the deadline and breathed.
“A little over $500 to go,” he looked up.
When the clock marked 4 p.m. on Friday and would not accept anymore – Lamb reached his goal with $5,369 and 151 supporters for the album.
“I am very grateful and overwhelmed,” he said about the support he has received. “It is overwhelming people came out of the wood work and donated. I don’t know how to take it. I have ‘thank you’ cards but I don’t feel like that’s enough.”
Lamb added the whole experience has made him a believer.
“It shows there is still a belief in orginality coming out of an area a lot of the country has forgotten,” he continued. “Detroit used to be huge for music – Bob Seger to more modern musicians like Kid Rock and Eminem. I hope my project is part of the wake up call.”
With his music project now funded he will head into the studio in late August or early September with his acoustic guitar, a drummer and a bass player. Once all the mixing and mastering of the tracks is done 1,000 copies of the album will be available.
“People are going to hear a new style of rock,” Lamb said. “I took a history of rock class last semester. The album is more reaching back to the roots of rock and roll.”
He recorded two albums previously – one was in his friend’s living room and another in his own living room. This time he will have two musicians with him and has a five years worth of songs he has written to chose from.
He also knows what he wants the songs to be and what sounds best. He described himself being a lot like Adam Duritz, the lead singer from The Counting Crows, one of his top five bands.
“I have always wanted to reach out to a large number of people and have them connect to my music somehow,” Lamb added. “Like Counting Crows and my other top five bands, I go back to them and I can always relate to them at an emotional level when I move past that and focus on the music I want to know how to play that. My aspiration is I want to have the same effect on people music has on me.”
Music has always been a part of Lamb’s life. He can remember whenever he spent time with his mom and older brother it was always related to music.
“Even if it was listening to a cassette tape in the living room,” he smiled. “We would sing along with Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer.’ Singing was always huge. Singing led into song writing.”
He continued singing on a school level as being with the choir. He picked up the guitar in his mid-teens when he was introduced to punk music and it branched out from there.
“I was drawn to more emotional music like Counting Crows,” Lamb added. “Each Crows’ song is an emotion the lead singer had when when he wrote it. You can hear it in the vocals, in the music.”
He has written his entire life. Looking back he described the songs he wrote during high school had more of a comedic flavor and were geared towards parodies, which he still does during shows.
“I still do the same thing,” Lamb smiled. “I will improve a song if something funny is going on in the crowd. People laugh. The comedy piece is a part of me.”
When he graduated from high school the songs became more emotional especially when he moved out on his own.
“As you grow up you see what is important and what is not important,” Lamb said. “As I grew up I found more things revolved around love, girls and other things I was connected to and started writing lyrics. The writing evolved, too. When I was writing punk music in high school it was just lyrics which fit together. There was no emotion behind them.
“In my early twenties, I had the relationships I would remember for the rest of my life,” he continued. “You think about how it ended and you start evaluating yourself as a person and in a relationship. When you write it down you relive thed experience and are able to have that emotional connect ability to your own past I don’t think anyone can do when you are in high school.”
Lamb is playing at the Crofoot in Pontiac on Aug. 4 with his bandmates for their first debut together before they go into the studio. He also has a performance scheduled at the Blackthorn Pub in Holly, July 27, 9 p.m., and he is keeping busy with studying Business Administration and interning at 93.9 during the summer. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/music.justinlamb or www.justinlambmusic.com.