PropertyOfZack had the chance to talk with Austin Gibbs not too long ago for a brief interview. Austin and I discussed touring throughout the year, response to his debut album, rearranging songs from Charlie, and more. Read up!

You’ve done a good amount of touring this year and especially in the past six months. How was The Maine and Augustana tour?
It was a lot of fun. It was a blast. I had one of the greatest summers of my life when I went on tour with The Maine last year. Going into this one, it was going to be hard to top, but it definitely topped it. It was a great time.

You sort of bounce back and forth between larger and smaller venues depending on whether you’re headlining or supporting. Do you like that vibe?
Absolutely. I’ll play just about anything I can get. I don’t have a problem with that; it’s fun. It’s great to have the opportunity to go on tour with some of our friends and to play these venues and to come back home and just play a bar. It’s a lot of fun.
POZ: A lot of bands have issues bouncing back and forth.
Austin: The energy levels get larger when there’s a bigger crowd. It’s fun and it’s a great time.

Just days after a summer tour with This Century started you unfortunately had to drop off. Can you talk about that at all?
It was just for some personal reasons. We made the trip out to Florida and some things just didn’t work out. It was all personal stuff with me. It had nothing to do with This Century or the tour or anything.

All of the touring you’ve done this year has been in support of Charlie, your first full-length. How has the reception been behind that album?
It’s been pretty awesome. I could finally release an album, and it was pretty exciting. I didn’t know what to expect. My mom likes it, so that’s the best feedback I could get.
POZ: Was it stressful creating it, since it was your first full-length?
Austin: It really wasn’t that stressful. I was thinking about doing another EP, but my manager said we should do an LP. We kind of ran with it and did it. I had four or five songs for an EP, and we did four or five more for a full-length. It wasn’t stressful at all.

How was the writing process for that album compared to your prior smaller releases?
It was more fun. With EPs, I’m kind of just putting out songs that are individual songs. With Charlie, I wanted it to be a full body of work that was one piece. All the songs aren’t their own thing. There’s a good flow throughout the album.

Have you seen growth over the past few months from fans since the release?
Sure. We got some new fans on the summer tour, which was awesome. The response has been great.

You’ll be heading out on tour this fall beginning on October 19^th. How excited are you to jump back into touring?
I’m so excited. Over the past month or two I’ve been taking all the songs and rearranging them and coming at them through different doors. We have a few songs that we’re playing a little differently. I always want to be writing and stuff, but all I’ve been doing is rewriting the songs that I already have and I’ve been coming at them differently.  The set list will be filled with new ones, old ones, and in betweens.

Some of the dates you will be playing will be with Lydia. Fans haven’t necessarily seen you open up for a band with that sound. Should that be an interesting environment?
It’s going to be a lot of fun. Years ago we played with Lydia. My very first drummer used to be their first drummer. We played a show or two with them in town. I’m very excited to go on tour with them.

The tour finishes up in November. Should we expect to see some more dates announced sometime soon or what?
I’m not sure if we’re doing anything else for the rest of the year. Maybe I’ll do a little run somewhere.

Is anything being worked out for next year?
Nothing’s planned yet. I’m just wrapping this up. I’m not sure about next year. I’d love to tour the whole year, so we’ll see what happens.
 
Charlie was obviously just released in May, but have you written some more at all since the release?
We had about fourteen or fifteen songs that were pretty much done and we chose our favorites. Me and my buddy go back to those and mess around with the others. The last month we’ve been focusing on rearranging the new ones. We do have a bunch of songs though. I was listening to them the other day and I’m getting excited about them. I’m not sure if I want to do another EP real quick or what. We’ll absolutely release music next year.