#2 mix-taped: Austin Albright

Austin Albright on Madden NFL 2005's soundtrack, mind-reading, rowdy houseshows, bittersweet love for his hometown Pennsylvania, Bigfoot and more!

Somewhere in the depths of the internet on my search for exciting new music I came across Austin Albright. His sound reminds me somewhat of a mixture of The Babies and Teenage Cool Kids: that stress-free kind of indie rock full of charming imperfections. This seems like a guy I would love to talk influences with.

Time for a chat with Austin!

Austin Albright, 28 years old, has been living in the same two story house in Philadelphia for the past two years. Originally he grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but he left his hometown for college nine years ago and decided to stay.

When he turned 14 he got his first guitar for his birthday. One of those Fender Squier Stratocasters, black and white. ‘When I asked my parents for it, I remember my dad saying: “Austin, when I get this for you, are you gonna start growing out your hair and painting your nails black or something?!” I didn’t grow out my hair until like two years ago though.’

Austin really got into music because of a videogame called Madden NFL 2005, which is an American football game that had a pretty solid soundtrack, including the songs ‘Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones’ by The Hives and ‘Take Me Out’ by Franz Ferdinand. ‘I was like: what is this music?! It was like nothing I’d ever heard before. I tried to play those songs on guitar and I couldn’t at all… Didn’t know what I was doing. I’d look up tabs and be like: what does this even mean? But still, that just really got me into playing music and wanting to make my own.’

Back in October of 2021, after finally putting a live band together, he started playing live shows. His backing band, unofficially called ‘The Nephews’, includes members: David Skovron (lead guitar), Dan Shade (rhythm guitar), and Tom Flamm (drums). Besides releasing music as Austin Albright, he’s active in a band called Hot Mart.

This month he released his second EP called Living Room Life. Originally he was going to name it ‘Austin’s Comfort Diner’, after a little toy diner that his ex-girlfriend gifted him for their first anniversary. But after breaking up right around the time the EP was being mixed and mastered, he decided to name it something different: ‘I was looking through these old photo slides that I bought from a thrift store. They were someone’s old slides from the early 60s I think. The one that you see on the cover is this really cool double exposure. It’s someone in their living room, but it also got covered with someone standing in a field.

‘Living Room Life’ just came to mind as soon as I looked at it. It made sense, because these are songs I wrote about the small little parts of life that I feel get overlooked a lot. Whether it’s small talk or the fact that I wear glasses and I don’t like wearing glasses. The title really encapsulated everything.’

Makes you curious what his own living room looks like, huh? Don’t worry, I asked him to snap a picture:

Talk me through your influences for Living Room Life!

‘Even though it’s not my favorite Parquet Courts album, Sunbathing Animal really influenced the first song on the EP. Especially their song ‘Black and White’. It has a drumbeat that repeats through the entire thing. I liked the idea of having this drumbeat solidifying an entire song, even as it evolves over it. And then there is a messy instrumental section, which isn’t as messy as Parquet Courts, but they were an influence for that.

There’s also this band called The Okmoniks. They have a record called Party Fever!!!—it’s very surfy indie rock with a fun organ sounding synth on it. The song ‘I Don’t Need My Glasses’ kinda sounds similar. When we recorded it, the guitar riff sounded too hollow… We needed something else. So I got this organ that really filled it out nicely. It almost feels cheesy but I like that.

The song ‘Of Pennsylvania’ is about the bittersweet love you have for your home area. My family has lived here for a long time, a couple of generations. No one leaves Pennsylvania. It’s weird that we only know this part of the country—this part of the world. There’s this band called John Andrews and The Yawns. I saw him like two weeks ago. He played in someone’s living room in Philly. I went there and sat on the floor of someone’s house, as he just sat there with his little keyboard. He’s from Pennsylvania as well. I had never really heard many positive songs about Pennsylvania, but he sang about it in a very sweet way. He has two songs: one is called ‘Pennsylvania’ and the spiritual successor to that is called ‘Old News’. One night I couldn’t sleep and wanted to write a song about Pennsylvania and so I put those two songs on repeat and spent about half an hour writing all the lyrics. I finished the song in a night. I’d never written like that before. Even though it doesn’t sound like a John Andrews song at all… It’s heavily inspired by his fondness of the homestate that we share.

Other than that, the first record of The Babies is one of my favorite records of all time. Kevin Morby in general really influences the EP. His first album Harlem River especially. Although I don’t think I necessarily encapsulate it.’

What is the Philadelphia scene like?

‘I love it. The one big thing is: in Philadelphia there’s a lot of colleges and universities. So there are a lot of people in their early-twenties starting bands, throwing shows. Pretty much all over the city they have shows on the weekends in people’s houses—in their basements and in their living rooms.’

I’ve never seen a band perform in a living room…

‘It’s a cheap fun night! For a few dollars you’ll get to see a few bands and bring your own beer. People just set up banners and lights, make it a fun little space. They kinda make their own venues. One week you’ll hear five different bands, and maybe one of them you’ll absolutely love and maybe the rest of them are terrible. But it’s worth it to hear that one really cool band. And you get to hang out with cool people. There might be 10 people, sometimes even up to 50, all hanging out. They can get really rowdy—a little dirty. But that’s the fun and charm of it!’

A song on the EP that makes me most curious about its unfolding is ‘Small Talk (The Patterson-Gimlin Blues)’. What is it about?

‘I was playing two chords back and forth one day and started singing these basic questions: Hey! How you doing? How’s the weather? How’s your sister? I’m a very anxious person and so I’ve never been good at things like small talk. To me it’s stressful. The first verse is me kind of rehearsing the conversation. For the second verse I get a little louder. It’s when I’m actually in the conversation.

At the time I was writing the song I was reading this science-fiction book from the 70s. It’s called ’Dying Inside’ by Robert Silverberg. It’s about this guy that could read people’s minds. But it made him anxious and it kinda destroyed his life. He could never stop himself from using the power and there were no surprises in life anymore. Somewhere in the book he talks about how you can really sum up people by their purpose, passion and perception—what drives you, what inspires you and how you perceive life. I really liked that and thought it would fit in with small talk. So I took that for the chorus.’

After an enlightening Google search on ‘Patterson-Gimlin’ I realize it has to mean something about Bigfoot. I’m curious how this all ties in with the topic of small talk, so I ask him.

‘I like urban legends and spooky things like that. I even have a ghost tattoo on my ankle and a UFO on my thigh. One of my favorite things to do, is just bring up Bigfoot in conversation. I’ll be like: What do you know about Bigfoot? Do you believe in him?’

So… should I believe in Bigfoot?

‘Yeah. He’s real. He’s out there somewhere.’

Are there any memories tied to ‘Misplaced’?

‘Misplaced I started writing in my old house that I lived in almost two years ago. I remember it was the beginning of winter. I was sitting at my desk and my cat was in my lap. I had a nice windowsill, some candles fighting off the cold. It’s a song about growing up, becoming displaced from your friends and finding your foot as you get older. For instance in the first verse of that song I say: I’ve been listening to a song. One I used to love when I was young. But one I’ve lost meaning of. When I was younger I used to hang out and listen to The Strokes with some friends. I still love those songs, but I kinda forget all the feelings that I once had about those songs and those people back then.’

What records are in your music loop right now?

I have a record player and the two records I like to put on the most whilst doing stuff around the house are ‘Touchdown’ by Bob James and ‘Willie Restum at the Dream Lounge’—which was a jazz club in Miami at the time, I think. I got it for a dollar. Turns out this guy was from my hometown and went to the same high school as my dad. It’s a really fun, weird, jazzy album from 1959.’

Are there any local bands I should check out?

‘The Retinas. I have seen them 10 times over the past nine years. Maybe even more than that. It’s a guy I kinda knew from college. And I’m a big fan of this band called Soup Dreams. We played with them at our first show. Who else… This other band that has been around for a long time is called Sixteen Jackies. Yeah—those are all good bands!’

What would be a dream collaboration?

‘If you could transport me back to the 1970s I would love to work with Bruce Springsteen. In fact, as I’m looking above my laptop there’s a picture of him right there. And I wanna go back to The Hives. They have an energy and rawness that I don’t have. It would be fun to get some of my song ideas and give it to them, so they can just rock out with it.’

And who would be a nightmare to work with?

‘I absolutely hate Bon Jovi.’

What do you think a typical Austin Albright fan looks like?

‘Oh god. Maybe a little disheveled. Someone who looks like they’ve gone through a little bit of stress in their life, but just wants to have a good time listening to cool music. Probably someone who likes baseball. I like baseball. Maybe they’ll look like me. People who relate to it are probably very similar to me.’

♫ Listen to this playlist created through our conversation!

♫ If you dig the music discussed in this piece—also make sure to check out: The Lentils, Fergus & Geronimo, Bodega Bay, Kleenex Girl Wonder, The Birthmarks.

First and third photo by Alaina Clune
Second photo by Marissa Both (@photoladyphotos)