Over the last few months, Vancouver-based country singer Shawn Austin has seen his popularity skyrocket. His latest single, “Paradise Found,” is quickly climbing the Canadian country music charts, making him one of the top 10 most-played Canadians artists on country radio.
Austin is currently taking part in the Side Effects tour, making nightly appearances on stage with headliner, Dallas Smith. He spoke to The Charlatan ahead of his Oct. 18 show at TD Place.
The Charlatan (TC): How do you think people are responding to “Paradise Found”?
Shawn Austin (SA): To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this to be, for my first single, to chart at all. Once it broke Top 50, we were stoked. Top 40, it was amazing. Now we’ve broken Top 30, we’re sitting in the high 20s right now somewhere, and it still seems like it’s got some legs to climb a bit higher. It’s all icing on the cake at this point. It’s humbling. It’s good to know that people are responding to it and relating to it, and it just means we’re doing something right. I’m just excited to release more.
TC: What are you planning to do next with that single?
SA: It is the lead single for me with Steelhead Music now. We have an EP coming out in the spring, so it’ll be on there, but the whole purpose of this track is to give people an idea of who I was as an artist and what kind of to expect going forward. Yeah, it’s just we weren’t expecting it to do this.
TC: Do you want to talk a bit about the EP?
SA: Yeah, probably a six or seven song EP. I’ve been working with some great writers in Toronto. We’ve got two songs already in the can, ready to go, and more to come. We’ll probably release another single early next year before the EP comes out, but right now, I’m not playing “Paradise Found” on this tour, but it’s another opportunity to kind of show people what we’re all about.
TC: What’s it like working with Dallas [Smith]?
SA: You hear people say this about their mentors and people that they work with, but he is an absolute professional in everything he does. Everyone already knows that he’s an incredible musician, incredible singer, incredible performer, but as a businessman too and everything. The amount of hands-on stuff he does, he’s somebody that I’m very lucky to get to work with now and it’s just a wealth of knowledge that I get to pull from him. I’m biased when I say this, but I don’t think there’s a better team out there that I could be working with.
TC: How did you get connected with him?
SA: It’s a bit of a long story., I’ll keep it as short and sweet as I can. I was working independently with a friend of mine named Barry Jorgens, who had been a manager with a few different bands previous to this, and I knew Barry had known Dallas from previous relationships and previous bands that they’ve worked with and toured together. But, I told Barry, I said “Everything we’re working on, don’t send to Dallas. I don’t want him to know anything about this.” I kind of felt like it was going to take a couple years of me grinding out on my own before any opportunity of being signed was going to come up. But, Barry didn’t listen to a thing I said and sent everything to Dallas, and Dallas apparently liked what he heard, and a couple weeks later, we were chatting and signed not to long after that. And the rest is history now.
TC: What are some of the most important things you have learned from him?
SA: How important your fan interaction is. When somebody shows that they like the music that we’re putting out, or they like what we’re about, you gotta make sure those lines of communication are open. And I love doing that. For me, relationships are everything, so it’s nice to kind of be able to chat with people in all parts of this country. And we’re just talking about music. That’s what I love to do. On top of that, it’s just kind of understanding how the business side of everything works now and how much work it actually takes to get things to the next levels. But yeah, like I said, I’m with the best guy I can be with, so I can’t beat it.
TC: What has been the most fun part so far [of the tour]?
SA: I think just kind of being in the mix of things. This crew is great, the band’s awesome, we’ve got Andrew Hyatt out with us as well, The Cadillac Three is insane, we just finished the first leg of the tour with Cold Creek County, and now Lauren Alaina’s out here tonight. So, this is kind of what we all want to do, is just be surrounded by other musicians who love music. Yeah, it’s kind of a little bit surreal right now, but it’s the dream, it’s what we kind of strive to do.
TC: How would you describe [Canada’s] country music scene?
SA: It’s exploded in the last few years. It’s a family, and that’s the best way I can put it. I was at the CCMAs (Canadian Country Music Association Awards) for my first time back in September, and for me, like I said I’m a rookie, I’m brand new to this level, and there’s no egos . . . Everybody’s just in it for the same reasons. And you want to talk to the Dallas Smith’s and Chad Brownlee’s and the Tim Hickses, everyone’s willing to chat and hang out. It’s just a really great group of people to be involved with now.
TC: How would you compare our country music scene with the one down south?
SA: It’s scale, I think that’s the only thing that changes. The American music industry is so much larger just because of population . . . It’s definitely tight-knit, but I don’t think it’s as tight-knit as Canada’s is right now. This is built around a lot of people in this industry that have taken a long time to get to get the country world to this level, and now it’s surging faster and bigger than most people thought it would, and yeah, now that I can kind of get in and grab a piece of it myself is great.
TC: Is there anything I haven’t covered that you’d want to add?
SA: I think for me, it’s just that live music is so important. There’s listening to music on the radio–, and I mean radio is everything for us as well, but you can’t beat a live show, and the difference of kind of being right in front of those speakers when you’re seeing the guy you want to see on stage . . . I get to see my favourite bands every night right now, even though I get to spend a little bit of time on it myself, but yeah, everyone should be going to as much live music as they can and supporting it as much as they want.
