Bass
Primarily a bass player, Justin has been playing and performing for nearly 20 years in over 20 different original indie-rock bands all over North America and Europe.
Justin’s main bass projects are currently SLOW TEETH - a dark post-rock trio from Carrboro that blends electronic and organic influences into a power trio format and Atlanta shoegaze group EASTER ISLAND (member since 2018). You can also catch Justin impersonate Rick Danko in CRAZY CHESTER, an all-star regional tribute to The Band that performs most of The Last Waltz on Black Friday, annually at the Cat’s Cradle, complete with horns and guests. Justin also plays with BLACK ZWAN, a local Smashing Pumpkins tribute act.
Justin primarily plays Fender Jazz Basses and uses effects pedals from Fender, Boss, Electro-Harmonix, Earthquaker Devices, and TC Electronic. He also uses Fender and H&H bass amps. Other instruments Justin plays include a Palatino VE-500 Electric Upright Bass, an 80’s Yamaha Fretless Precision Bass, a Douglas Violin Bass, and his father’s 1976 Gibson Ripper. His favorite players are John Entwistle, Roger Waters, Robert Sledge, Colin Greenwood, Ira Wof Tutton, and of course Paul McCartney.
Slow Teeth
SLOW TEETH formed and started writing songs in Saxapahaw, North Carolina in summer 2021, initially as an opportunity for Robert Chamberlain (drums, synthesizers), Justin Ellis (bass, vocals, keyboards), and Jeremy Haire (guitar, vocals) to start playing music with others following the pandemic lockdown while previous respective projects were on indefinite hiatus. As the band's chemistry and highly collaborative identity coalesced, they began playing live in March 2022, tweaking and adapting their improvised post-rock compositions into finished songs and performing them all over the East Coast. Four of these compositions appear on their debut record "I", which released 3/21/25.
Self-recorded and mixed at Jeremy's home studio in an old house in Saxapahaw and mastered by Mike Westbrook, “I” is a great introduction to Slow Teeth’s sound - cinematic and dynamic music made by three sets of hands and feet transfigured into a symphony of sound, with deeply introspective lyrics about familial relationships, disillusionment with our crumbling institutions, and the relentless passage of time in a world seemingly upside down. It’s not all bleak - other songs lean heavily into the band’s extensive and varied musical influences and favorite sci-fi novels and films, searching for a spark to light the way forward. Slow Teeth is at its core three people making music they wish existed, using the catharsis of live performance as the engine for creating songs and soundscapes whose reach exceeds their grasp.
Slow Teeth has supported such acts as Explosions In The Sky, Xiu Xiu, A Place To Bury Strangers, Holy Fawn, and more. Notable venues and festivals played/booked include The Cat's Cradle (Carrboro NC), The Ritz (Raleigh NC), Kings (Raleigh NC), The Pinhook (Durham NC), Motorco Music Hall (Durham NC), Fleetwood’s (Asheville NC), Berlin Under A (New York City), Genghis Cohen (Los Angeles CA), Pie Shop (Washington DC), The Drunken Unicorn (Atlanta GA), Bad Bar (Seattle WA), The Basement (Nashville TN), Kingsway Club (Vancouver BC), Turn! Turn! Turn! (Portland OR), Red Dwarf (Las Vegas NV), Skylark Lounge (Denver CO), the 2022 North Carolina State Fair, the 2023 Festival For The Eno, Bull City Summit 2023, Sleepy Fest 2025, and the 2022-2025 editions of the Carrboro Music Festival. The band will be touring the West Coast for the first time in late summer 2025.
Outside of their original compositions and visceral live shows, Slow Teeth has presented various music community events, including a one-off music festival (The Kraken, 2022), a month-long Durham performance residency culminating in an improvised film score to a classic silent film (“Metropolis” at Arcana March 2023), An original film score to the 1928 silent film "Fall Of The House of Usher" (Cat's Cradle, Halloween 2024) and a headlining show at the Cat’s Cradle in August 2023 to perform Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” front to back for the album’s 50th anniversary, complete with backing musicians and interactive visuals.
Easter Island
Though Easter Island formed in 2010, Justin didn’t join until 2018, happening to be visiting friends in Atlanta the same weekend the band had a show there. A sudden lineup change required a sub, and Justin was friends with the band from touring through NC years before. Two months later he was in a van with the band en route to SXSW.
In the two years since, Easter Island has toured all over the United States as a headlining act and as touring support for Cindy Wilson of the B-52’s, and have appeared at such notable festivals as SXSW 2018, Treefort Music Festival 2018 in Boise, the Underground Music Showcase 2019 in Denver, Athfest 2018 in Athens, GA, Hopscotch Music Festival 2019 in Raleigh, and Secret Stages Festival 2019 in Birmingham, AL. Easter Island have also appeared as themselves on an episode of the CW drama “Dynasty” in early 2019. The band has also shared stages with Bully, Valley Maker, David Bazan, White Rabbits, Wild Nothing, The Low Anthem, and more.
Though its five members are currently split between North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, and Texas, Easter Island still reconvenes regularly for shows, tours, and music videos, and most recently finished a successful Kickstarter campaign to independently release their second record, “Take All The Time You Think You Need” - which came out in December 2020. The band made unique videos featuring different band members in their respective cities for different songs on the album - Justin is featured in the band’s video for their single “Great Big World”.
Happy Abandon
Justin and the rest of Happy Abandon first met as undergraduates at UNC Chapel Hill, and formed the band well after graduating and the end of their respective college bands. Though the band hasn’t been active as of late, Happy Abandon was Justin’s main project from late 2015 to 2017. In those two years, the band independently toured nearly every corner of the United States and Ireland with a handful of shows in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Many of these shows were put together to help support their 2017 LP “Facepaint”, which was released on Triangle label Schoolkids Records and was promoted by an all-star team including Redeye Distribution, BIg Hassle PR, and Tiger Bomb Radio.
Happy Abandon have sold out midsize venues all over the Triangle (central NC) as well as sellout dates in Washington DC and parts of Ireland. They appeared at three separate concerts in the NC Stand Against HB2 benefit series and have appeared at SXSW 2016, the 2016 North Carolina State Fair, the 2016 Carrboro Music Festival, and the 2017 editions of the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, Athens Popfest in Athens, and Into The Wild Festival in Milton Keynes, UK. They’ve also shared stages with Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Rubblebucket, Saintseneca, Mutual Benefit, Mundy, The Love Language, and many more.