Justin Berdeguez

My mom always tried to keep me active as a kid, between sports and music there was always something to do. Having passion for both, I struggled with the balance. If it wasn't basketball, lacrosse or soccer, there was guitar lessons, piano lessons or even playing cello in the school band (kind of nerdy but it was only a phase through middle school guys:). After high school I went to CCBC in Essex to study the guitar and music theory, but after 2 years my love for sports took over and I transferred to UMBC to play Division 1 lacrosse. In 2006 I was fortunate to help my team reach the NCAA tournament.

After a great collegiate career, I graduated from UMBC with a sociology degree in 2007. I picked up a job as a waiter and I tried to figure what I'd do with my life. In my down time I started practicing my guitar again and began taking lessons. I practiced harder than I ever had in my earlier days, sometimes I'd start practicing in the morning and before I knew it the sun had set and I was still jamming.

Those of you who ever spent any time in the restaurant industry know it's a tough business. My experience helped me learn that I needed to do something with my life that I was truly passionate about and so I came to the conclusion that I had to play guitar for a living. I couldn't take waiting tables anymore and quit without having any back up plan. Amazingly enough, only a few weeks later I came across an ad from a touring rock band that was looking for a lead guitar player. I got in touch with Jordan and came in for an audition. All those years of practice, lessons and music theory classes finally paid off - I played my first concert with Fiction 20 Down only 5 days later and we've been jamming ever since!