Interview: LIV AUSTEN, The Islington

I sat down with the multi-talented singer, songwriter and actor Liv Austen ahead of her show at Back to Back Country at The Islington in August 2016. Check out my interview below to find out Liv’s thoughts on honesty in songwriting, crowdfunding and Humans of New York!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m here with London-based singer songwriter Liv Austen ahead of her show at the Islington in London. Liv’s just spent the summer performing at festivals and shows around the country spreading the word about her latest EP Who I Am Today so I’m really pleased to finally catch up with her. So first of all Liv, are you excited for tonight’s show?

Liv Austen (LA): I’m very excited for tonight! I love The Islington – I’ve been to many a gig but I’ve never played here before so it’s my first time actually being on stage. I’m super excited.

CC: It’s also my first time at The Islington so I’m looking forward to what I assume will be a great gig tonight, and I take it that you’ll be sharing some songs from your latest EP tonight. How do you think that this EP differs from the first EP that you released back in 2014?

LA: I think what’s changed is that I’ve really gone very far in the whole experimenting with writing really honest lyrics, that’s really important to me, and I think that I just really braved it with this new EP. I kind of did touch on it with the first EP, but I’ve really gone all the way with this with really honest lyrics on the second one. I think Who I Am Today more kind of describes a little bit of the journey that I’ve had, you know, I’ve changed my sound a little bit, I’ve changed as a performer, all of that kind of stuff. I’ve heard a few people say to me that they think the second EP is a lot more country than the first one. I’m not sure if I agree with that! It’s so weird to think people see country as so many different things but I guess it’s because of the lyrics being more honest, so that might be it!

CC: It’s interesting that you say that because of how much country is changing, so I guess that means that your sound is evolving.

LA: I guess so, exactly!

CC: Can you tell me a bit about your creative process what it comes to writing songs?

LA: You know, it’s really funny because as I write more and more I have so many different approaches to how I write, but I guess the standard way, the Liv Austen style of writing, is usually that I get an idea for something that’s related to my life – I write very autobiographically most of the time – so it will be sort of a phrase about something in my life that will pop up in my head, and I’ll usually go ‘oh, that’s a song!’ and then I can’t stop thinking about it until I’ve got usually the chorus, and then I kind of build around that. I do write lyrically driven most of the time, and the lyrics come first, but I do feel that as I’m writing the lyrics, the melody sort of comes naturally. I don’t usually think ‘what melody would go with this?’ – it just kind of comes organically with words. But then I have had more lately I’ve had a few times where I’ve just written an entire song with just the melody and then found the lyrics which is completely new to me. I’ve started co-writing, which is brand new to me in this last year, so all sorts of different approaches now. But it’s all to do with my life really, and what happens in my life.

CC: I suppose that’s a very country way of writing a song.

LA: Yeah, definitely!

CC: Do you have a favourite song that you’ve written, or an experience that you’ve drawn on that’s really helped you to write songs so far?

LA: I think actually, I usually say that one of my favourite songs as a songwriter is Two Choices which is on my new EP because I always strive to say as much as I can in as few words as I can – a bit like a Tweet, you’re trying to condense it, because we use a lot of words, like I ramble on as you can tell, and I’m trying to sort of keep it focused in my songwriting and try and see how few words I can use to say something that’s really important. So, in that one, I feel that I really say something really important in just a few sentences, but then I do have a new song which is not recorded yet, but I have started gigging it. It’s called Detour and that is a song that I’ve had really good reactions to, I think that it’s one that I’m quite happy with because I think I took the honesty even a step further than I had before and it was like, it sounds maybe a bit cheesy, but it was really meaningful to write just because of what it meant to me, which makes it all the more rewarding to perform it because other people go ‘I get exactly what you’re talking about’ which is really cool, so Detour is my new favourite.

CC: Well, I look forward to hearing it soon! So I imagine it’s quite an experience to share your own life stories with so many people. Do you ever feel nervous about sharing that side of your life?

LA: Definitely, it’s quite nerve-wracking especially the first few times when I don’t know how people are going to react to it, but I have learnt that the more personal the songs, the more people love them and relate to them, which is incredible, so that’s got me a lot braver, and also when I’ve written them, and I’ve rehearsed them with my band, they’re a song rather than my story, so I kind of think about it as well, I’m kind of just performing that song. You know, I can’t live through the emotions every single time I perform them, so I do kind of manage to separate myself from it a little bit, but it is hard sometimes. There are a few songs where I’ve gone ‘I need to not think too much about what I’m singing right now’ because it’s very emotional and hits close to home, so it can be terrifying as well.

CC: And I suppose in terms of being brave in front of your fans and the public as well, am I right in thinking you used PledgeMusic to release your first album? 

LA: That’s right.

CC: What was it like putting your career so much in the hands of the people out there?

LA: That was definitely terrifying! At the time, nobody really knew who I was, which makes a crowdfunding project quite challenging. It’s kind of easier I guess if you’ve already got a big fan base and they’re really to support you no matter what you do, but it needed a lot of work because I needed to push really hard for people to trust me. Saying that, people were incredibly supportive because you know, studio hire is incredibly expensive and time consuming, so I had to get the funds to do that, so I had to get people to trust something that hadn’t even been recorded yet. Really really terrifying, and hard work, but also really humbling when it actually worked, and it did gain me a lot of fans because I was working so hard to get my music out there and hyped it up a lot so it did gain me a big fan base to begin with and then I was lucky enough not to have to do it for the second EP, so you know, it worked! But it’s very hard work, definitely.

CC: I’d say it’s a really good way for aspiring artists to get their name out there for the first time.

LA: Yeah definitely, I would absolutely recommend it. Just be prepared that it’s a full time job to do crowdfunding!

CC: So in terms of country as a whole, I wanted to know who you think is the most underrated artist out there that people should really be listening to?

LA: Ah, that’s a great question! Logan Brill – she’s Nashville based, and I mean she’s doing very well but she should be a hundred times bigger than she is. It’s been really funny – I’ve been speaking to my friends in Nashville about Logan Brill and they don’t know who she is, I just came across her randomly. Her album Shuteye is just incredible, and I’m a huge fan. And also I would just like to mention, playing tonight, Robbie Cavanagh. I don’t know why he hasn’t completely blown up in the UK because he is so incredibly talented both acoustically as a solo artist and as a band – he’s amazing, so everyone in the UK should go and see him, he’s incredible.

CC: It seems like you’re a big advocate of UK and European country artists in this American dominated industry, but I think a real issue over here is convincing people that country is more than just trucks and banjos. Do you have any ideas as to how we could do that?

LA: You know what, it’s a slow and painful process. It is kind of happening slowly and steadily, I think that we have a lot of responsibility as country artists and promoters of these festivals, it’s how we market it, we need to be smart enough to understand that it is an industry so if we market things with Stetsons and cowboy boots then people are going to think that’s what it’s about. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just a tiny, tiny part of what country music is, so I think we need to be very aware of what our image is, not just as individual country artists, but as the genre is seen to the public. It’s all about just trying to get country music into mainstream festivals, mainstream events throughout the year, which is really great – I mean places like The Islington, The Troubadour, they’re taking on quite a few country artists, so London has been quite welcoming to the new country wave but it’s a long and painful process. I mean, even my friends, I’m trying to convert them into country and it’s taking a long time but they’re kind of thinking ‘oh, is this country?’ and then they love it, so you just need to push as much as you can! 

CC: So I take it music is very much your life now, but do you have any ideas what you’d be doing if you weren’t a musician?

LA: Well I am also an actor, so I have a bit of a split personality! Like this morning, I got up at 6 to shoot a commercial and I’m going to crash so hard after this gig, it’s going to be a long day! So I am kind of juggling the two, but the music has taken over completely, it really has. I’m always saying that I want to do both but it’s really hard because there’s only so many hours in a day and all that. I actually went to drama school so when I left drama school three years ago I thought that I was going to be acting and then singing more on the side and then it’s kind of flipped and turned to be the other way round, which I love, but I think if the music wasn’t happening, I would be an actor full time. There are tons of other things that I’m interested in but I think the acting is what I would be doing.

CC: Well I think all of us are very pleased that this is the path you chose! My final question for you tonight is what is the one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?

LA: That is a brilliant question – so, that! You kind of get used to certain questions and are ready to answer them but you have very good questions though! But I think – you know Humans of New York? He doesn’t really do this anymore but he used to ask people ‘what would you say to a large group of people?’ – I think that’s just a wonderful question, so maybe turn that into ‘what would you say to a group of people who want to do what you’re doing’ because you know, I’m learning – that’s what Who I Am Today is all about – I’m learning all the time about how to run a band, how to promote myself and how to write all different kinds of songs, so I feel like I’m learning a lot that I’d want to share with people who are starting out now but I don’t really have the platform to do that, so I have a lot of advice that I’d want to share with people.

CC: So what’s the one biggest piece of advice that you’d give?

LA: Do not compare yourself to anyone else. That is the best thing I can say, cause it’s so hard not to do that, but do not compare yourself to anyone else because it does not do you any good.

CC: Excellent end to a fantastic interview. Thank you so much Liv for taking the time to talk to me.

LA: Thank you for talking to me!  

Big thanks to Liv for chatting with me, and for a fantastic set at The Islington (you can read my review here), and don’t forget to follow myself and Liv on Twitter at @CiarasCountry and @LivAusten to keep up to date on all things country!