loud letters interview

an interview with indie artist loud letters

november 4th, 2018

soleil magazine

introduce yourself

hi! my name is austin and i make music under the name “loud letters”. it generally falls into four categories: summer road-trip rock, acoustic springtime picnic music, bops about boys, and very sad songs about death, all drenched in a thick layer of nostalgia.

how did you get your start?

i’ve pretty much had a guitar in my hand since i was born and have been playing since i was 7 or 8. but in my freshman year of college, i started to (somewhat) frequently write songs of my own. ever since then, i’ve been wanting to start some sort of band or project.

what has greatly influenced your music? certain artists or people?

like my sound, my influences are all over the place. my summery songs [are] influenced by bleachers, the mowgli’s, switchfoot, and alex lahey. my more poppy songs are influenced a lot by artists like muna, grimes, and the 1975,  with the sad stuff drawing from sufjan stevens, julien baker, and phoebe bridgers.

lately, i’ve been especially inspired by other people making amazing music out of their bedrooms, such as patternist and pronoun who have also both been incredibly helpful and supportive to me and this project.

what inspired the name loud letters?

the band name was actually chosen from a list of band names i keep on my phone, with the help and input of my friends, who have been a vital part of navigating the waters of this project. as far as the meaning, i think i was really tired and trying to think of the phrase “caps lock” but all i came up with was “loud letters” and i immediately put in on the band name list.

system sound, your incredible first single, is the only song on your bandcamp. what is in store for you in the coming months?

thank you for the kind words! so far that’s all that i’ve posted, and that’s just a demo to give people a little teaser of what’s to come. i’m currently in the process of recording older songs, writing plenty of new ones, and recording my favorites to gear up for my first release, which will hopefully be out next year. (no promises though). i’m actually mapping out my first two or three releases but it’s hard to nail down when i’m always coming up with new songs and concepts. rumor has it i may have a trick or two left up my sleeve to reveal before the end of 2018.

your lyrics are absolutely beautiful, did you fall in love with songwriting or the instrumental aspects first?

wow, that seriously means so much to me! i guess i kind of fell in love with the guitar first, but in high school, i fell head over heels for good songwriting. i finally started paying attention to lyrics and became obsessed with bands like switchfoot, lifehouse, and the fray who put a huge emphasis on lyrics and emotion in their music, and that love has continued to the present. in college, i started getting more into the production side of things when i started listening to artists like björk and chvrches.

i saw that you recently played your first show! how did that feel?

it was definitely the most terrifying and most amazing experience of my life. being on-stage by yourself playing songs you wrote about your innermost thoughts is a completely different animal that i don’t think i was fully mentally prepared for. at the end of the night, i just felt so happy and fulfilled and full of love.

you collected donations for our music my body at your show, what does this organization mean to you?

they are so important! they’re a chicago-based organization with a mission to spread awareness of sexual harassment and assault at live music events and make concerts and festivals a safer place for everyone. to me, concerts feel sacred. unfortunately, that can be ruined in an instant when someone makes a crude comment or touches you without your consent. it’s happened to me and it’s happened even more to my non-male friends. it’s infuriating to think that not only are many people’s concert experiences being ruined by harassment, some people encounter it so frequently that they have to worry about whether it will happen at the event they’re going to. that makes me so angry, but luckily our music my body is offering a way to fight against that and i would urge anyone who feels the same way to go check them out.

finally, do you have anything you want to say to our readers? if they take away one thing from this loud letters interview, what should it be?

i guess to anyone who doesn’t know me i’d like to say hi! thanks for reading a whole interview about a stranger! you’re probably really cool! to those who do, i’d like to say thank you for supporting this little project of mine, it means the world to me and has made me feel so loved. and you can expect more, dare i say, soon.

where to find austin: @loudlettersband on twitter and instagram