Justin Blau

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

• Born in Syosset, New York, Blau grew up in a creative family and began singing and playing guitar and piano in his youth. 
  
• At age 13, he moved with his family to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he continued playing music. 
• He attended college at Washington University in St. Louis and this is when he developed his love for electronic music.
  
• He started to produce his own music in 2011 following his travel to Sweden. 
• He eventually returned to the United States and began to really focus on electronic music.
• He started to do shows at local colleges, touring from college to college 5 days out of the week and the last 2 days were spent studying and getting ready for classes. 
• He soon decided to drop out of college and began to focus all his efforts on producing house music. 
• His decision to drop out was surprising due to the fact he was half a semester from graduating college and already had a very successful job lined up for himself.

MUSIC

• Initially producing mashups during the early 2010s, Blau soon concentrated on original songwriting.
• His emotionally charged dance tracks are meant to uplift listeners and help them overcome feelings of being lost. 
  
• He has toured throughout the world and performed at major festivals like Electric Zoo and Lollapalooza.
• He has collaborated with producers such as Botnek, Audien, and Bright Lights, releasing material on dance labels including Dim Mak, Armada, Anjunabeats, and Astralwerks. 

PHILANTHROPY

• Blau is dedicated to a number of impactful nonprofits.
• His primary focus is education, and he is involved with a nonprofit that funds school construction in the developing world, Pencils of Promise, which used the funds donated to build a seven-classroom school in Guatemala, as well as to fund clean water, education, and teacher development programs. 
• He launched Blume Records in 2016, an independent label with a ground-breaking model that harnesses the power of streaming to raise money for charitable causes.
  
• He donated the profits of his 2018 full-length Ultraviolet to cancer research. 

• Blau has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.