Interview with Liv Austen
If you don’t know the name Liv Austen yet am sure you will once her debut album has been released this week! She is currently taking the country scene by storm with her ever so catchy songs and incredible live performances! Here at Belles and Gals we are soo excited for her long awaited debut album ‘A Moment of Your Time’ to drop this week and we managed to catch up with her to chat all about the album being released, and get the lowdown on how she feels in the lead up to the release! Check out what she had to say below!
1. Liv your debut album is out in less than two weeks, we can imagine there are all sorts of emotions you are experiencing in the build up – so tell us how are you feeling at this moment now the release date is so close?
It’s totally unreal, to be honest. When you work towards something for so long, it’s like you can’t even take in that it’s actually coming true. It’ll probably be sometime next year that I actually go “oh yeah, my album is out!” But I am genuinely thrilled to know people will be hearing it, because I am so proud of it.
2. What are your excitement levels with this being your debut album?
My feelings are really mixed, because there’s a sort of sadness too, knowing that no album will ever be my first, again! But this album is everything I hoped it would be, I feel like I am showing my true self both as a person, a writer and a singer, and that’s what I wanted to do. I have so many people asking me what genre I identify my music as, or to describe my style to them. Now I feel like I can just say: “Listen to my album. That’s me.”
3. How is it different this time from releasing your EP, as this one is as a signed artist and last time it was a pledge campaign?
It’s a pretty big difference, especially having the freedom now to be able to go in to the studio and try things out. When I had my shoestring budget from my crowdfunding, I pretty much had to just get the songs done and that was it. Now I could try all sorts of different things and have much more freedom with it. But a lot of things are the same, too. People have this perception that when you sign to a label and get a team to work with you, you can just sit back and have it all done for you. That is certainly not the case! I’ve worked harder in the last two years than probably ever before.
4. If you had to sum up the album in 3 words what would they be?
Honest, catchy and original.
5. What was the hardest song to write?
Fantastic question! Actually none of the songs on the album were hard to write in terms of the writing process, which is quite interesting to think about; because I do believe that the best songs are the ones that just “fall out of you”. However a couple of them were quite emotional and definitely were not written without a few tears shed, like Detour and But I Know I Love Him.
6. What is your favourite song on the album?
I think my favourite is Want It More. I feel like it’s very “me”.
7. Were there any co-writers on the album you was especially excited to collaborate with?
All of them, equally. Jess Sharman is always so special to write with, and we have a great bond as writers and as people. Kaity Rae is amazing to write with, I just know that with the chemistry we have when we write we’ll get something that feels very true to both of us – we’ve written a few songs that didn’t make it on this album but that I can’t wait to share with the world in the future.
8. You announced yesterday a tour may be coming! That being said, will it be a UK tour or are you going to tour outside the UK too?
If I have anything to do with it, I’ll be going to other countries too. People around the UK have been so supportive of me so of course that’s the main focus, but you can see as an artist what countries play your music the most, so it would be amazing to go to a couple of those places, like the Netherlands and Germany, and of course Norway where I’m from originally. The tour is just in the planning stages yet though, so a lot is yet to be decided on.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat to us Liv and after hearing the album myself I can see its absolutely fantastic, I’ll admit am already addicted and soo worth the wait! I wish you good luck and all the best for the huge things to come after the release this week!
Interview conducted by Katie Louise Ingram (twitter.com/xkatie19x)
