Q&A with AUSTEN
- Brennan
- Jul 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 26
AUSTEN is a Seattle born and raised artist. Her music is rooted in gutsy storytelling and playful melodies. AUSTEN creates music that makes you want to dance and feel your feelings—let’s have a good cry on the dance floor. AUSTEN’s debut album, “Learned Behaviors” (released in 2021), is centered in psychoanalytic reflections: the lessons we learn from this messy and beautiful life and the lessons we learn from lost love. AUSTEN’s newest EP, “peonies: my last letter to corey jo” is the story of the sudden death of her best friend, Corey Jo, and all the love that never got to be fully expressed, until now.

What is your creative process like?
My process is based in free association—I often will sing a whole song in one flow. I love starting with a bass line and a beat, and see what comes up for me. I write from what I know and how I'm feeling in the moment. I also write very fast, mainly because I get bored easily. When a song sonically captivates me, I play with it with the question: what is missing, what can I add. and I let the song be at the center, always. Sometimes a lyric or a melody doesn’t serve this particular story. It’s like vulnerable playtime, when I’m writing.
Do you have a favorite song that you've written?
My upcoming EP, “Peonies” holds some of my favorite songs i’ve written yet. This EP is so dear to my heart, I don’t think I’ve ever written so openly and honestly as I have for this project. The EP is about my best friend, Corey Jo, who passed away tragically last year. He was my heart. I confronted my love for him in my upcoming project—all grief and guts on the table.
Speaking of your upcoming EP, it's obviously deeply personal. Was there a moment where you questioned whether you wanted to share these songs publicly?
Absolutely. This might sound strange, but I wrote it because I had to. My grief was (and is) so big that these songs just bubbled out of me. I had no intention to show anyone or release it into the world. But the songs came. Eventually, I showed my brother, Ian (who co-wrote and sang on the title track and heart of the album). Ian and Corey were best friends--If my brother Ian was language, Corey was punctuation--they just made sense of each other. So, you can imagine how vulnerable it was for me to reveal every thought and feeling I had about his best friend. But once I showed him, we wept. All the love I have for Corey was shared in that moment. We started confessing to one another things we hadn't shared before about our beautiful boy, Corey. My songs were an invitation to feel close to him again. After that, I felt braver to release it. I'm definitely still scared to have people listen, but bravery is doing the damn thing, even when we are scared.
What do you hope people take away from ‘Peonies’ when they hear it for the first time?
My dearest hope is that you feel connected to those you've lost. Once you know grief, you know it forever--you can't unlearn it. It's yours, in all its mess and longing. My album is for Corey Jo, but it's also for anyone who wishes things were different, wishes our loved ones had just stayed home that day instead of going out to play in the snow. I also hope that people feel braver to confess their feelings for their best friends--we are not promised tomorrow, so if you love someone, say it. Be brave. I wish I had been.
Is there a particular lyric from the EP that still hits you every time you hear it?
The final song of the album, "please, stay home", is my magical thinking song--the what if. I was in tears in the studio, as I recorded the final song of the album. I performed the opening and ending tracks live, just me and an out of tune piano, with my heart out on my sleeve. I was completely raw and played from my guts--you can hear the cracks in my voice, where grief was bubbling up. The lines that haunt me are:
Stay home, where it's so warm
Tomorrow you can play in the snow
But today will you please stay home

Do you have plans for a physical release? Music videos?
No plans for a physical release or music videos. I'm planning on having my dearest friends over, who knew and loved Corey, to listen to the album and share a meal together.
Outside of music, you’re a therapist. How do you think that affects your approach to creating music?
My therapist-brain is constantly looking for meaning, patterns of behavior, the shattering thoughts and the thoughts that mend us. Musically and creatively I ask the same questions as I do in my therapy--What's hurting? What's missing? Where's my desire and longing? What do I wish was different? What do I need?
Most of my songs come from free association, my most intimate thoughts and feelings come out in the writing process--it's definitely a form of therapy for me. I have to confront my pain when I write. When my friend Corey died, every single song I wrote for a year was for him. No matter what phase of life I was in, he was all over the pages of my music. I come to the writing room like I do a confessional--excavating my messy truth.
Who, or what, has most influenced your music and artistic style?
As for influence, women women women artists. Joan Jett, and her guts in the rock in roll scene when literally no women had touched an electric guitar. She is so fierce. Laura Marling and her storytelling. Her lyrics haunt me. Hope Tala is often on rotation on long drives—she knows how to set a vibe. Also I grew up with musicians as parents, I was in my mothers womb as she rocked it onstage. Playing music was as natural as learning to walk and talk as a kid.
You mentioned that your parents are musicians. What’s a lesson from them that has stuck with you as an artist?
The lesson from my parents that feels most present to me now is, your voice is yours. Your story is yours and only you can create them. Despite our culture of comparison, if you're speaking truthfully in your creative spaces, you are making something special (even if it's just for you).
If you could have any of your songs featured in a piece of media, which song would it be and what would you like it to be featured in?
I would love “First Kiss” to be in some indie love story movie.
If you could pick any band or artist, past or present, to tour with, who would it be and why?
Joan Jett—because she’s my (pretend) mommy hahaha.
What are you listening to currently?
I’ve been sinking into Leonard Cohen recently—so you know i’m going through it haha.

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