Young Austin Rocks with King Stan on NYE
by Tim Wenger
Young Austin & No Difference will share the stage with the King Stan Band on New Year’s Eve up at the Buffalo Rose in Golden. Colorado Music Buzz caught up with Austin and got him to spill the beans on his band, his influences, and being a rockstar at such a young age.
CMB: How did the band form?
YA: I met Noah Mast (who is the band’s bass guitarist) in a rock band ensemble class at Eagleview Middle School where we both attended. At the time I had been playing guitar for only a couple of months. We did a lot of the class projects together and then decided to set up time to jam at my house. I invited my Dad to sit in on the drums (he has been playing drums for over 40 years). We all hit it off so I invited Noah to go out to some of the local blues jams with us in downtown Colorado Springs. After that night I asked him if he would be interested in forming a band with myself and my Dad, he accepted, and we’ve been playing ever since together.
How did you guys get into the music that you play, and why R+B?
YA: I was introduced to the Blues at an early age after watching local musicians and videos of prominent professional musicians. When I first picked up the guitar one of the first arts I felt a connection to was Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix led me to listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan who has been my #1 influence ever since. I started listening to SRV’s songs and learning his licks until I could cover some of his songs. Like most bands we started covering artists that we enjoyed and in our case we were sold on the Blues.
CMB: Any special programs or classes that you take, being professional musicians at such a young age?
YA: Noah and I take Choir classes in school to learn more about the singing part of our band. Our voices have changed and are still changing. I also take professional vocal lessons weekly. We are interested in taking music tech classes and also classes related to the actual music business.
CMB: What are your biggest influences?
YA: My biggest influences span older blues musicians and newer. They are; Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Robert Johnson, Bob Margolin (who was Muddy’s guitar player for 7 years), Ronnie Baker Brooks, Albert King, Joe Bonomassa, Derek Trucks, Jim Adam, and Charlie Patton. Outside of music, my influences in life are my Mother (Krisanne Young), my Father (Tim Young), my Grandparents, God, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington.
What other gigs do you have lined up in the New Year?
YA: The band is already busy in this next year of 2012. We are booked already most weekends at Blues Festivals, local venues, special events and private parties. Most of these take place in Colorado, some outside of Colorado. I myself will be joining a national touring group heralded by Bob Margolin as a part of the Pinetop Perkins Foundation. We will be at major blues festivals within the United States and possibly at a few European ones.
CMB: What covers can we look forward too at the show? Any staples?
YA: You will hear some blues staples from Robert Johnson to SRV, some songs with more drive to them from Jimi Hendrix to Led Zepplin, to Ray Charles, and some more mellow blues from Bill Withers. We have a heavy amount of original material already as well. You will hear some that you can find on our first CD that is already out there titled, “Yesterday is Gone”, and we will also highlight some brand new originals that will be available on our new CD that we are just getting ready to start recording.
CMB: What else should CMB readers know about you?
YA: Our main goal is to make sure that our listening audience has fun and is enjoying the music that we feel most privileged to play. We know that they have a choice of what to do with their time and money and feel blessed that they choose to share time with us. Secondary to that is that we want to make sure that our band is having fun as well!! Being able to share our passion of the Blues and knowing that others are being affected is so amazing us. Our band and our fans have become a close family and we want to preserve that feeling of closeness.
Category: The Rock
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