Justin Renaissance Encourages People to Find Their Inner Hero
In this day and age, there’s negativity everywhere you go, even when you look for joy. Everyone thinks they’re right about everything and there’s a stark divide when it comes to topics like diversity. On the flip side, there are an equal number of people working toward bringing together a bigger sense of inclusion and awareness as we move toward a broader and more accepting society.
Among those out there making a difference is Justin Renaissance, a San Diego-based pop star who oftentimes works alongside The Trevor Project and other local LGBTQ+ non-profits to bring forward the topic of queer inclusion and self-love.
Photo by John Anthony Sutton.
The Early Years
As for Renaissance, he grew up in a conservative Catholic family in New Jersey, where “the priests were like gods, and they got to tell everybody everything,” he says in an interview.
Growing up in the heterosexual church environment showed Renaissance that he identified with something different. Where the pressure of partaking in sports was placed on his shoulders, he always had a love for music that drove him to display his creative expression.
After his mother offered him piano lessons, Renaissance also took on any musical instrument offered, and he found that his time would be better spent on the stage than in the sports arena.
Photo by John Anthony Sutton.
“My first-grade talent show was my first time ever singing on stage,” he says. “I sang ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ and I narrated the whole story in those little foam hacks that have the American flag around them and my mom dressed me up in this vest and I had these little glasses because I had bad eyesight. It was really cute, but it was also validation that what I was doing was right.”
It wasn’t until attending a Catholic high school, where Renaissance found himself hanging out with the goth kids and rocking black lipstick and eyeliner, that he found his creative voice. He joined the theater and understudied the lead in The Crucible, which also helped him realize his interest and talent in acting.
“From there,” he says, “my parents started to see it. While they were going through their divorce, they had to do something with me. I went off to a theater camp during the summer where I performed like seven shows a season, where all we did all day long was sing and dance and act. And that’s where I started to really discover my sexuality.”
Being around other theater boys who shared an interest in other boys, Renaissance aligned with the safe space of being creative and open about his attractions without “the hand of religion or, you know, my parents overseeing everything.”
Photo by John Anthony Sutton.
Photo by Ricardo Bahena.
Becoming Justin Renaissance
As to the name “Justin Renaissance,” the man behind him, Louis Trenta, is also a junior, so “J R” is already a part of his name.
“I took that and as I was going through my late 20s, a friend of mine told me that because I had done so many things in my life already, that I was a 'Renaissance Man.’ I thought it was cool, but there are a lot of ‘renaissance men’ out there, so I connected with the type of music I was writing, which was stuff I wanted to be relatable that people can sing and dance to. It’s pop because it’s silly, because it invokes joy. So I looked and tried out Jay, Joseph, Jordan, Jeremy, but no pop artists out there are current named Justin Renaissance.”
Prior to taking on the pop identity, Renaissance was part of an angsty grunge rock band, where he bleached his hair and brought out his inner Kurt Cobain. “I wore flannels and torn jeans, but there was still that essence of performance involved,” he says. “My band’s name was Bad Movie, and the first album I ever released, we wrote a bunch of shitty grunge rock songs, but they’re fabulous. I shouldn’t say it’s shitty or crappy, it’s just not well produced or well written.”
Photo by John Anthony Sutton.
The Future of the Renaissance
Leaving the past where it is, Renaissance has his sights on a new adventure: The future.
Coming up in 2024, Renaissance has a new track, “Pride,” that he’s going to release during the first day of Mardi Gras in Sydney Australia on March 1, one of the first yearly Pride festivals around the world.
“I feel like all of my songs have the capability of changing the world, and what I mean by that is giving people the idea that it’s not just them, and they don’t have to be haters,” says Renaissance. “They can be open-minded. But this song comes from a place of inner strength and really speaks to wanting to be the best you can be and being so confident in who you are as an individual.”
After the release, a local San Diego television network will also air the live performance of the premiere.
Renaissance also recently released the song and first music video for his track, “Accessory,” which admittedly has been stuck in my head for a number of days since hearing it. He released his first EP, Once is Never Enough, back in 2017. In regard to his logo, Renaissance says it’s set as a triangle with a circle and a hummingbird for a reason.
Photo by Ricardo Bahena.
Photo by Ricardo Bahena.
“All of this is in the design of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Man’ and I use the hummingbird because I love The Hunger Games and I felt like the Mockingjay was a symbol strength,” he says. “I used that concept and took a hummingbird which is a symbol of peace and made the hummingbird fly and look like it was struggling to reach a destination. The circle is its safety, its strongest point. The triangle represents courage, hope and unity as the three pillars, and the fourth pillar is love, which is the unspoken pillar in the logo.”
For those out there who are still struggling to chase their dreams, Renaissance says, “I wasn’t always as confident as I am now. If there’s any other artist out there that feels like they’re struggling, trying to move forward or make something of themselves, my suggestion would be to find something you’re so passionate about you’d die trying to do it. It means it’s literally oozing of your soul. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a point where my music has changed millions of people in the world, but I will die trying.”
Check out the Video for “Accessory” below
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