Austin Brown has been part of the successful, all-vocal group, Home Free, for more than a decade. But he still is making time to release music on his own as well, something he is equally passionate about pursuing.
“It’s funny, one of my recent singles is called ‘Do Both,'” Brown tells Everything Nash. “Home Free is so supportive of each of us individually in our own walks, in our life, our families, our dreams, and we make so much music. I write all the time. And you could never record and release all that music with Home Free.
“Everybody’s writing, we’re taking all kinds of songs,” he continued. “And so one day we were just like, ‘Why don’t we start releasing our own solo music?’ I talked to the guys about it, and got rave reviews. Everybody said, ‘Please do your thing. Give it your all.’ That’s what we’ve been doing and it’s been received really well.”
Brown acknowledges that his solo career wouldn’t be nearly as successful, or enjoyable, without the love, support and encouragement of his wife, Amberly, whose influence permeates everything he does, but especially his music.
“It’s been so rewarding, because I tried to do that kind of thing by myself before, and it was never fun,” Brown admits. “And I never hit a resonance with any particular audience. And then she walked into my life, I started writing about her and everything changed.”
Amberly does much more than influence her husband’s music. A savvy businesswoman, she also helps in every aspect of Brown’s career, including what he shares on social media.
“She runs our business, and she is the face of my music,” Brown explains. “Literally I put her as the cover art for one of our recent singles. I don’t enjoy self-promotion, but when I’m promoting us it feels like something so much more. Getting to put her front and center of what I do — ’cause all the music that I write is about her, it’s about our walk together — and seeing other people resonate with that makes me want to do it more.
“And getting to celebrate her online, that’s my life purpose at this point,” he adds. “I just want to make more content with her, ’cause it’s so much fun. And we’ve worked together so well that I don’t know how I’ve ever been doing anything else before.”
Before the couple tied the knot, they made certain their relationship was solid, with or without any legal formalities.
“It’s really the same as it as it was before,” Brown says. “Every day is patience, love, and intention towards each other in this relationship. It’s an equal partnership. And I think the reason we got married is because it was working. And we were both clearly all in. Marriage is just a label we put on it afterward,”
“Nothing really changed,” Amberly adds. “And I think that was kind of the point was, we weren’t willing to make that next step until we knew it would change absolutely nothing about our daily lives.”
Find all of Brown’s solo music at AustinBrownMusic.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of CMA / Katie Kauss