Early life and education Born in Southern
California, Elswick served as a missionary for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in
Texas and received a
B.A. degree in History from
Brigham Young University. Throughout this period, he became a self-taught musician. Justin also studied in Ireland, graduating with a master's degree in philosophy at
Trinity College, Dublin followed by a Juris Doctor degree at
J. Reuben Clark Law School. He is also a practicing
attorney in
Provo, Utah. In addition, Elswick wrote for Musical Discoveries, a music website dedicated to female vocalists, as an associate editor.
Music career Elswick began working on songs with Israel Curtis around 2003. Russell Elliot, editor-in-chief of Musical Discoveries, put Elswick in contact with singer Jody Quine in December 2003. Vic Levak, who worked with
Balligomingo along with Quine, also worked with the group. Sleepthief has released three albums:
The Dawnseeker (2006),
Labyrinthine Heart (2009), and
Mortal Longing (2018) as well as several singles from all three albums.
Other projects After releasing
Labyrinthine Heart, Elswick released two new tracks included in the compilation
Beauty 2 - Music That Touches the Soul, which was released on October 25, 2010. The first track, "
Another Day", was sung by Kyoko Baertsoen and is a cover of the original song by
Roy Harper. The second track, "Empyrean", was sung by
Suzanne Perry and was performed with the
glossolalia technique. Sleepthief's website site was launched on June 11. He also worked on a remix and a song for
Nicola Hitchcock's solo album. Another version of "
Send Me an Angel" was released in December 2012, featuring strings by Caroline Lavelle. Both of Sleepthief's albums have been available on
iTunes since April 12, 2013. Sleepthief also has a side project with Caroline Lavelle and Israel Curtis called Spythriller, and the first video and related single, a cover of
Nightwish's "
Nemo", was released on November 15, 2011 with remixes of the song by Jamie Myerson and Treatise. Two more tracks for the album, "Cold War Kisses" and "Aftermath", can be found on the Spythriller official website and official
YouTube channel. The next single was "Asleep in Metropolis", and featured a video shot by Hugh Marsh. Curtis also worked with Roberta Carter-Harrison on her solo album and with Carla Werner on her own solo dance album. Sleepthief also releases spiritual and
Christmas songs on his
SoundCloud page which appear on the Christmas album
Echoes of Winter, released on SoundCloud on November 30, 2016. ==Discography==