AUSTIN LUCAS

Interview by Alexa
May 30, 2011
http://www.austinlucasmusic.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-Lucas/81985670747
http://www.myspace.com/austinlucas1
http://twitter.com/#!/austinlucasind

Estrella: Could you please state your name?
Austin: My name is Austin Lucas.

Estrella: It’s the fourth day of Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown, how has tour been so far?
Austin: Absolutely amazing. Incredible.
Estrella: And what do you anticipate for the rest of the tour?
Austin: Nothing but greatness, as a matter of fact.

Estrella: You don’t have a full time backing band?
Austin: I’m starting to put one together, when this tour’s over I’ll be gathering one together because I have off a few weeks, then I’ll be starting a headlining tour and that will have a full back up band. I’ve been working on the band since April or something like that.

Estrella: Who would make up your ideal backing band if you could chose them?
Austin: That’s mean, that’s a mean question to ask! I don’t know. Shoot. I mean, that’s the kind of thing you should email me ahead of time, so I can plan on what to say.
Estrella: Not to hurt anyone’s feelings type line up?
Austin: I would like the original line up of the Flying Burrito Brothers as the back up band.

Estrella: Recently, you’ve toured with Cory Branan…
Austin: We did about three months together last year.
Estrella: Did he give you any advice on what to look forward to Country Throwdown?
Austin: All sorts of advice. When I got the offer for this tour, he was the first person I called, immediately. I asked him what to expect, I wanted to know what kind of crowd was like, what the crew was like, what the shows were like, etc.
Estrella: Was there anything you remember well that he said?
Austin: He said that the crew was some of the most amazing people he has ever worked with and I was going to have one of the best times of my life and he’s right.

Estrella: A New Home In Our World was released this year. How was the recording process, how long did it take, and who helped you with recording?
Austin: My family was on the record, just like all my records. The really big difference between this record and the last record is that all of my records have been recorded in my father’s living room and he produced all of them and this one was a big studio with me producing it. I wanted to take the drivers seat for once, you know. Also, there’s drums and electric guitar on it too, that’s another big difference. For the most part, it’s pretty much the same kind of music that I always did just souped up. I like to say that it’s like me turned to 11.

Estrella: Five things that can always be found in your fridge?
Austin: Louisiana hot sauce, spicy mustard like a good dijon, mayo, peanut butter – crunchy peanut butter, orange juice with lots of pulp!

Estrella: Three things you would take with you on a desert island?
Austin: My guitar, my wife, and my dog.

Estrella: Do you have any crazy tour stories that you’re willing to share?
Austin: I have so many crazy tour stories, that I’m not willing to share.
Estrella: Any PG ones?
Austin: One time, we broke down in California and took the van to auto mechanic and they told us we had thrown a rod and it was about $2,000 to replace the entire engine because that’s what you have to do when you throw a rod. So, we took it to another mechanic just to get a second opinion, they told us the same thing. So we thought, well we should just buy a new van for $1,000 to end of the tour. So we went shopping for a van, we ended up finding one, it was not a very nice van but it was in our price range, and basically the owner of the van owned a bunch of mountain chalets in Mount Shasta, CA, that’s where we ended up going. Got the van towed to Mount Shasta, CA and turns out that he kind of basically owned the town and he gave us the chalet for free you know to stay there cause he was making a bunch of money off of us. That night, we invited people from the town to come and party with us because we had nothing else to do, so then all these people like 50 or 60 people we didn’t know, showed up and came to party with us in this nice cottage or whatever, and one of the guys was like, “Hey, that van is the worst thing in the whole world, it’s not going to get you 100 miles outside of here and if you buy it you’re just going to be stuck in the same situation with these guys. We know these guys… let us take your van to them tomorrow in the the early AM and see what’s the matter with it” and we did it and it was a $100 repair, it was the fan was broken and all those mechanics had been lying to us because they wanted to get the big money out of us and so we tore out of town and it also turns out that the mechanic in both of those shops were owned by the guy who owned the van.

Estrella: What’s your favorite Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?
Austin: I don’t know about mine but my wife was Ash from Evil Dead last year, which I think is really cool. She made the chainsaw arm and all that, she looked really amazing.

Estrella: Do you have any upcoming plans for after Country Throwdown?
Austin: Yeah, I leave for a headlining tour about a month after.
Estrella: How long is that tour for?
Austin: That tour’s going to be for two months. Entire US tour and Canada.

Estrella: Do you have any closing statements?
Austin: Thank you so much for this interview.
Estrella: And thank you!