Strumming the Soul: A Conversation with Gainesville’s Troubadour, Austin Brockner
By Conrad Centeno
In the bustling streets of Memphis, a city long revered for its rich tapestry of blues and soul music, you'll find the roots of Austin Brockner's potent musical prowess. The singer-songwriter, endowed with a sound that merges soulful blues with masterfully written lyrics, reminds you of the town’s alluring history while firmly standing in the present. Recently, Brockner unveiled his latest single, 'Sleep Talk,' a captivating teaser to his upcoming full band EP, 'Dreams,' set for release on the second day of June. For this exclusive interview, we manage to steal him away from his whirlwind European trip, to delve deeper into the man behind the music. We talk about everything from his inaugural first tour and the artists that shaped his sound, to his intimate songwriting process, the Gainesville music scene, the creation of his new music video, and even his favorite gas station snacks. A true testament to his multifaceted life and art, this interview sheds light on the intricate process that is the creation of Austin Brockner's compelling music.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us, Austin. Could you tell us about your journey into music? When did you start playing music and subsequently when did you start writing songs?"
“When I was growing up, I tried to emulate the heroes. The song that made me want to learn guitar was ‘Simple Man’. That guitar riff was everything for me. I was 15 when I started playing, then it wasn’t until 10 years later that I really started chomping at the bit to start writing my own songs. I had written poetry all through college and have always loved to write but I think I lost some of the thrill of guitar playing. After enough time I hit that plateau as I was going through a lot of stuff in life as we all do in our early 20s. At 27 years of age is when I sat down and took a hard look in the mirror and told myself I have to make an effort to start writing music.”
Where are you from originally?
I grew up outside of Memphis in a little suburb called Millington. I spent the first 16 years of my life there.
We just love the lyrics on your songs Lazy Wednesdays and Sweet Harmony. What is your songwriting process?
“For me, I’ll be inspired by phrases. I talk so much about my therapy when I get up there and sing. Therapy is one of the most emotionally open spaces for me. I’ll be talking about something or even my therapist will be talking to me and I’ll hear something that just clicks and I’ll say there is something to that and it’s something I identify with and at that point I have to grab a guitar and I can start chewing on one word or it could be a phrase. Then I’ll start playing around with different motifs on the guitar until one of them feels like it matches the emotion being evoked from that phrase.”
Now we saw somewhere that you love journaling. I also love journaling but don’t do it as consistently as I should. How has that introspection process helped you and how has it crossed over into your songwriting process?
“Getting back into journaling has allowed me to become honest and emotionally available. Now, I’m happy to write about anything. I hear so many musicians say I only write about sad stuff but there’s something about spending time in that sensitive space to where I can really sit with my sadness and that level has now allowed me to tap into these other things like my anxiety or the joy I feel just by being myself. It’s opened up the whole range of emotions not just sadness.”
I definitely feel a real soulfulness in your voice, and see you’ve been compared to a modern day James Taylor but I get more of a Ray Lamontagne vibe off of your sound. Who have been some of your musical influences?
The influences for me was the music that my dad would play growing up. It was every Saturday, he religiously played The Temptations, Janis Joplin, BB King, Dottie Peoples and Ray Charles. That’s the music that I learned so deeply to appreciate and that meant so much to me. Ray Charles’ song Hard Times was the first time I remember being stopped by a song and felt like this was my story being sung. This song is so powerful and so soulful.
But then when I started to write my own songs my influences became Dallas Green from City and Colour, Ray Lamontagne, Allen Stone, and James Morrison. I wore those albums out.
We just love your guitar playing, Let’s talk a little bit about your gear. What guitar do you prefer to play with? I see you switching off to different ones, electric and acoustic. Is there certain gear that you can’t live without during your performances?
“If I had to pick one I would say it’s my Fender Strat. It’s a ’97 model that I bought from a guy in Jonesville, out in Alachua County. Man, when you connect with a guitar like that you finally understand what people mean about finding ‘the guitar’. That guitar to me feels like home. I feel creative and loose when I’m playing that guitar. But I also love playing on my Martin Guitar, I’m not necessarily married to that one guitar but it’s the one I have. It’s a Martin OMCPA4. There’s a different expression and level to the performance for me when I can just very intimately sit with an acoustic guitar and a microphone. Those feel very personal to me. Those almost feel like I’m journaling to the audience when I’m playing with my acoustic. Now when I have my electric guitar, I’m just having fun and baring soul.”
As a Gainesville artist, how has the local music scene influenced your music and songwriting?
“It pushes me, as I see these people working hard and making incredible music. I feel I’m late to the music scene in Gainesville because I moved back here in 2019. When you start digging in, there is such a range from classic Americana and folk, like my good friend Kyle Keller does, or Quincy Flint. And then you have people like Tamayo Band and Madwoman doing this really cool full band, psychedelic rock group stuff. I’m just inspired to see how creative people can be. Gainesville is a small place but we are spoiled with talent here. Watching how hard everyone else is working here in the city, continues to make me want to write more, play more and really sharpen the iron.”
I know you mentioned local musician, Kyle Keller, and we saw you did your first tour with him in April. Tell me about how that musical relationship came about and any fun stories of your first tour.
“I feel like I owe a great deal to him because he hosts that Open Mic at The Bull. It was the fourth Monday of January 2019 that I went there for the first time. I remember performing at 11:30 at night. It was basically my girlfriend at the time, Kyle and the bartender. I felt that in the way Kyle listened, that for the first time, I felt listened to, if that makes sense. Someone was actually wanting to hear the story I was sharing. We became fast friends after that. We planned to have the latest tour in 2020 but we know what happened that year. I just wanted to joke on Kyle because the most fun parts of the tour were the times we were going 60 down the highway to our next gig and Kyle being a big time fossil hunter would come right off the road as hard as he could , come to a stop and say look at these rocks from so and so era. (laughter). He’s such a light hearted, loveable human and I wouldn’t have done as well if it weren’t for him.”
I saw that you stepped away from your engineering job to pursue music full time. I think it’s so courageous to make that leap. We see a lot of musicians struggle with that and remain on the fence so congrats on that.
Your label, 4Bits mentioned your part of the Arts in Medicine team at UF Health Shands. Do you have any stories that stuck out during your time with that program.
“Yes, I’ve been a Musician in Residence at Arts in Medicine since 2021. It’s easy for people to see the impact and benefit it can have for the patient but sometimes I think I get more out of it than some of the patients do. There was a visit we made recently to a patient, she has been in and out of the hospital for a very long part of her life. It was just a moment with her and her mother and one of the other team members. I sang ‘Change is Gonna Come’ by Sam Cook and it just felt like we were in a hallowed space. It felt like the perfect song to sing unprompted. After that there was just a silence in the room where I felt like we could have all just sat in silence all day. That was so special to me.”
Congrats on signing on with Brandon and 4Bits. Is there a reason why you went with them?
“I did look around but what sealed the deal for me with 4 Bits was the passion and just honest nature of Brandon and the way he loves and fights for music like he does. I want to trust in a local community-based label especially with all the work he’s done with Music GNV and then also when I saw how well everything went with The Housing Crisis I think I’d be crazy not to go with them.”
We love the new single to your EP, Sleep Talk that came out last week. We’ve had that on repeat. Tell me about that song and how the concept for the video came about.
“The song came about because I kept having a dream every couple of weeks where I would wake up and it left me feeling so exhausted. It’s so strange to me how a bad dream can leave one feeling taxed like you’ve had an emotional conversation with a best friend. I measured the idea of nightmares vs bad dreams. At the time, I was consuming a lot of content on societies relationship with nostalgia. And that just clicked that maybe it’s because I’ve become so obsessive with being in touch with things in my past, that I yearn for love, that maybe I don’t have control of what I’m unlocking when I go back to that place. That’s what made Sleep Talk become this thing about memories, nightmares and nostalgia. It was an exercise for me to say the least amount to get that idea across. As for the music video, I have my wonderful partner to thank for that. I told her about the song and the lyric “moments of my life” and from that we brainstormed to collect different moments for the video. We wanted to paste a story together, but you wouldn’t know which one is the present moment. Are these memories or is this the fantasy world? And then it becomes more clear as the song goes on and with the chorus you hear that there’s this person and this is their song but what really are they nostalgic about? Is it about the setting that they are sitting in? Is it about the people that show up at the end of the video that are in the band? What is that nostalgia they are experiencing?”
We love that you filmed some of it at The Bull.
“Yeah, I have to give my love for The Bull as much as I can.”
What do we have to look forward to on your new EP Dreams. Where did you record and how is this different from your past releases Chasing Sunsets or even your Live at Heartwood EP.
“First I want to say it was recorded at the beautiful Pulp in Gainesville, Fl. It’s really a dream, no pun intended. What sets this apart from everything I’ve released before? Obviously, The Live stuff I love and it’s raw and then Chasing sunsets was a very experimental dipping my toes in the water. Dreams is what I truly imagined what these songs should sound like since I started to think about becoming a musician. It harkens back to all of my heroes and inspirations growing up. It’s the most dynamic full sound that I think I could bring to these songs. It was a culmination to so many musicians and so much hard work between Kevin Bruchert, the producer, Pulp and all the amazing engineers there. You’ve never heard my songs like this, they are all big and powerful and I just think they have a groovability to them that has not been there for my prior stuff.”
What are your music plans for the future and where do you see yourself in the next 3 -5 years?
“Isn’t that the million dollar question? It’s been four very hard years of working away, quitting engineering and giving up some savings to make this album. This album is my definitive sound. This is Austin Brockner. Now Im trying to decide if I want to continue with the route I’m going on, and continue playing behind the scenes and fund a proper 10 song album or I’m thinking about, now that the album is out, expanding and going on the road more and putting more effort in making my way across the states and maybe outside of the states to widen my reach.”
Ok, last question that we try to tie into a number of our interviews. You’re at the gas station, what snacks are you leaving with?
“There are those little corn kernels that have seasoning on them. I can’t remember what they are called.”
You mean Corn Nuts?
“That’s it! I’m getting Ranch Corn Nuts and then I have a horrible sweet tooth so I’m getting something with caramel in it.”
As we conclude our conversation with Austin Brockner, it is clear that his journey has only just begun, and his unique blend of soulful blues and incisive lyrics will continue to leave an indelible mark on the music scene. The anticipation for his upcoming EP 'Dreams' reaches a fever pitch as we approach its release show on June 23rd at the iconic Heartwood Soundstage. Doors open at 7pm, and attendees are in for a treat with the added performances from The Housing Crisis and Lowly Worm, fellow stars in the constellation of Gainesville’s music scene. An evening saturated with bluesy riffs, powerful lyrics, and soulful melodies awaits – an intimate sonic experience under the Gainesville stars, a testament to Brockner's musical journey, and a glimpse into the future of his promising career. Don't miss it.
