Shawn Austin’s career has taken off over the past year, since he last visited the Enmax Centre with Dallas Smith.
Austin has a lot to be excited about in 2023 including building a new house and plenty of opportunities to build his career ever further.
“Every step of the way, every corner, every turn this year has brought opportunities I didn’t think were going to happen,” said Austin from Vancouver, taking a breather after returning from vacation in Cabo before embarking on another busy year.
His breakout single “Tailgate to Heaven” was recently certified Gold and was nominated for single of the year in the 2022 CCMA Awards. He is a flagship artist for Dallas Smith’s Local Hay Records.
His latest single “Slip” is his fastest climbing release to date.
And he is currently about to start the western Canadian leg of the No Bad Vibes tour with Old Dominion which stops by the Enmax Centre March 9 with Frank Ray and Steven Lee Olsen
“I’m good, I’m good, recently back from a week in Cabo, just kind of a nice little reset. But I have a hard time relaxing, so it’s nice to get back to work,” said Austin, getting ready to begin the next leg of the tour, in Edmonton, March 2.
Austin was excited about “learning from the best” on the first leg of the Old Dominion Tour.
He is excited to be touring with Old Dominion and fellow Whisky Jam members Frank Ray and Steven Lee Olson, a group of performers who have helped launched most of todays modern country scene according to Austin. They will each be playing an opening set of about 25 minutes each.
“It’s a full opener set split between Steven Lee, myself and Frank Ray. We basically give an hour of full on tunes to get everybody warmed up before Old Dominion comes up,” he said.
“ My set’s about 25 minutes long within the hour. It’s one of those deals where we like to say we just play the hits. But there’s a little bit of stuff people will have hopefully have heard of before. There’s a little bit of stuff that might be new because we love testing new songs on crowds because ultimately they’re the barometer for what’s a good track and what isn’t. It’s a fun, slammed hour. We all throw our best stuff on the table. We leave everything out there and from top to bottom it’s going to be a great one . Even if I had nothing to do with it I’d go to it as many times as possible. I promise it will be a great night for everybody,” he said, adding there isn’t a jam session planned with Old Dominion.
“ There’s nothing at the moment. We have this opportunity. It’s a privilege to be on stage, but I’ve said this a million times, but I’m a country music fan first, and when we’re done doing our job, we jump down, grab a drink and we just learn from the best that is Old Dominion and we’re just one of the fans taking in every second and it’s like going to school every night. And I don’t think there’s really much better opportunities than live shows to learn how to do your craft better,” he said.
“Any time you get a chance to tour is a special one. This is a little bit different though. These guys have been so great in so many ways and just opening so many doors. I love seeing how different bands especially at this level how they operate their business and their live show and all that. So it’s only three shows so far and seven more to go, and I’ve got a lot more questions and a lot more things that I’ve got to learn. But it’s been great. It’s been a really special experience and the shows have been phenomenal,” he continued, adding he always learns a lot from touring with people like his mentor Dallas Smith.
“ It’s just after being able to tour with Dallas Smith and being on the road with a few other different people . Everybody has their own way of operating. In Old Dominion’s case, they‘re just so incredible making sure they have a great hospitality aspect to their show for their VIPs and their fans. And it's something that I think makes such a huge amount of sense. And something I’ll be definitely doing in the future. I’ll steal that idea all day long. That’s just one of many things that are starting to come up. We’re about to take the turn at the end of the month on the west coast part of the tour and play my home town of Vancouver before we do the rest of Canada. And I know there’s going to be umpteen things that I’ll try to learn in the process there,“ he said.
He is excited to play his home town after having such a successful year.
“Playing home town shows I think for for every artist is a really special thing. This one though I’ve never had the chance to play in Rogers Arena. And this is the place I’ve seen so many of my favourite musicians over the years and the home of my Vancouver Canucks. So it’s particularly a special moment. It’s a bit of a milestone for me. And the whole friends and family everyone’s coming out to the show. So it will mean a little bit more,” he said.
He has had an exciting year, including getting a gold record for “ Tailgates To Heaven.”
“ You don’t expect anything like this. I’m a guy with a guitar. I’m a musician that just loves to play music. When you can put out songs that people connect with to such a degree that you can actually hit professional milestones like a gold record. It’s hard to put into words . It’s hard to wrap my head around, but it makes me want more,” he chuckled.
“It’s just such a privilege and such a compliment to get from the community as a whole. Radio streaming and fans. That we’re doing something right. It just helps us to continue to push the bar higher. I always love striving for more so it’s nice to hit those milestones and get that notoriety and it just makes me want to push higher now,” he said.
“ Tailgates To Heaven” earned Austin a CCMA award for best country single of the year in 2022.
“That to me is a huge accolade for me. To be involved in that list of songs was so amazing. I hoped Tailgate was going to be a great song and I hoped that people connected with it because of how much I did . In the realm of that your peers think that it is one of the top of the year of all songs in country in Canada . It’s compliment, its a privilege , it’s an honour. It’s win or lose but the win is there simply because of the nomination. And it’s kind of like song of the year nom, the gold record from this song, being able to do it with Chris Lane, all of the experiences we’ve had because if with it on stage, connections with fans because of it . This is the most special song we‘ve done. It’s heart fulfilling and soul fulfilling in so many ways. For me, you understand why we push so hard and why we work so hard to write these songs and find these songs, record these songs just because it creates connection. And when you can humanize the world over a song, it‘s a nice thing,” he said.
The new single “Slip” written by Jessie Jo Dillon, Jon Nite and Zachary Kale has been a surprise hit.
“Slip was a song that I was not expecting necessarily to be a single. I thought it might be a little bit too envelope pushing. I’ve loved the song from the start because I know it has been such a phenomenal live show. But then with radio, you know is this going to be too much maybe. But there’s one thing I love being is proven wrong. And this one has proven me wrong a million times over,” he said, adding it has really been fun to see the vibes people are getting from it.
“The things that they gravitate towards, the stories that this song reminds them of their past. So it’s been a kind of an eye-opening one for me. It’s something that’s just changed all of my expectations for it and in the best ways. And it’s going to make me as we go on in the future be a little more thoughtful in new ways of what songs may be single worthy,” he said, adding he thought it might be a little more rock forward to be a hit.
“It’s a song that’s a little bit outside of the typical country sound box still. I think we still maintain a very strong country backbone to it. As my career has gone on and you learn the industry you start to try to paint a picture of what you think might be a country single. As the genre progresses it’s ever evolving and ever changing and it’s kind of nice to to be able to have song like this fit now, whereas six or seven years ago, that probably wasn’t the case . So it gives us as artists room to play and be artists and see what lands and what doesn’t. Ultimately the fans will tell us what a good song is so it’s nice to have that connection that way too,” he continued, adding he didn’t write that songs.
“I’ve been lucky enough to write with Zack Kale before. I’m a huge fan of him. He‘a a great guy. And then Jessie Jo Dillon and Jon Nite, any time you see their name on something you know there’s some heat to it. These are writers that I’ve looked up to for many, many years now and more so as I continue in this world. You’re seeing if these guys can write songs that are a little bit outside the box now, then maybe I can venture down that road too and strengthen that muscle too and just become more of a round writer hopefully as time goes on,” he said, noting he is always working on new projects and writing new songs.
“We’ve got one deeply in the works at the moment that’s building faster than I thought it would. Just for some reason I feel like a few stars are aligning right now. And these songs are turning out really great even at the early stages. I’m excited to continue down this path and see where we can take these tracks. I know I’m biased but I think it’s going to be the best yet. But I think it ’s going to be the best yet by quite a big leap. There’s a lot of growth that I think has happened over the past couple years and I’m massively, massively excited for this one to start shape up as we get closer to what we look like this release will look like. It should shape up to be a fun summer because of it,” he said, adding he doesn’t know if it will be a full length record or an EP and doesn’t know the release dates.
“ Everything is certainly in the air. Anytime you release and album it’s quite fluid. I’m hoping optimistically that we’ll have at least part of the project released before the summer,” he said.
“ We’re talking full length but also talking just EP. But it depends on how the powers that be and the strength of the project and how we decide to do it and what we think the best strategy for it. I’m hoping in the next couple months I’ll know better. But so far it’s just a whole bunch of ideas on a white board,” he said.
He is enjoying touring with Frank Ray and Steven lee Olson.
“We’re part of the Whiskey Jam band. Whiskey Jam is phenomenal program in Nashville that is notorious for breaking basically some if not most of the major country artists on the radio today. And they’ve been doing this for years and years and years and this part of the show has been nice because they’ve been featuring some of their favourite acts from the whiskey jam and I’m incredibly honoured to be one of them. Kassi Ashton and Greylan James are been doing the American leg. Steven Lee Olson and myself are doing the Canadian leg and Frank Ray is on the whole thing. We’re all doing full sets each, so everyone gets to see hopefully the essence of who we are each and it rotates a little bit. The Dallas Smith tour had quite a bit more more rotation, you see all of us every night to quite an extent. It’s been a really cool thing to be part of this. this organization is amazing. And I will forever be a Whiskey Jam fan until the day I’m done,” he said, adding the artists’ teams are mostly responsible for connecting the Whisky Jam members.
“ It’s mostly because of the teams and I think at the same time as an artist you try to stay relevant and in front of the curve and make buzz where you can. And it was a privilege to know that my name was in the hat for a while and the business behind it helps things come together. But these guys are credited with now for giving me my first U.S. play. When they announced this tour back in October in Nashville it was on the Whiskey Jam stage outdoors, first time I’d ever played in the U.S.. And what an experience, what an adrenaline rush. I got off stage my heart and was ready to find a defib because my heart was going a million miles a second,” he said.
“ So to be involved in the little family that is whisky jam, it’s fun it’s pretty special. And I hope I can work with them for many years to come,” he said, adding he is looking forward to 2023
“We’ve got a great summer lined up of new shows. We’re talking about plans for the fall and talking about plans for 2024 . The ball is starting to roll at a speed I didn’t think was going to get that quick. But I’m so excited that it is and this year has kicked off on such a high note already that I don’t know where we can take it but I know we will take it somewhere. 2023 is going to be a blast,” he said.
Old Dominion’s No Bad Vibes Tour stops by the Enmax Centre, Thursday, March 9.
The music begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $116.95, $94.95 and $74.95.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
