When you listen to an artist for the very first time, what are your hopes as a listener? Do you long to be wooed by infectious melodies washing over your senses like a euphoric meteor shower? Or maybe you look to have your lived experiences validated through vivid, relatable storytelling and songwriting? Unfortunately, with music accessibility at an all-time high through DSPs, these aforementioned wants and needs can sometimes fall by the wayside with the litany of music to consume at such a short duration of time. Still, Atlantic recording artist Sam Austins is hoping that he can provide these captivating vibes and so much more with his Atlantic debut Homeless Star.
“Music is one of my many passions, and I’m excited to take [listeners] on a sort of journey,” explains Austins on a zoom call with Poptized. “The world I’m creating through this album is hopefully going to pull people in and feel like they’re being seen and heard.”
This sentiment can be heard in the charismatic vocalizations performed by Austins throughout his newly released project; the young crooner cycles in and out of genre, skillfully blending the musical genetic makeup of R&B with strains of art pop, alternative influence, and a knack for stretching his lyrical composition into angst reminiscent to early aughts rock. The project’s opening track, “KILOS,” demands the listener’s attention from the beginning as Austins reminisces on his time being homeless in Detroit. “I haven’t slept in a month—I’m done, these fireworks sound like the Fourth of July, I’m in the hood, laying low, so low,” Austins sings over a neck-thumping drum pattern. “’Cause, where I’m from, you know they move kilos.” With sharp trauma-informed lyrical content found in “KILOS,” it’s no shock that Austins and these genre-bending abilities have garnered production placements alongside the likes of
In conversation with rising artist Sam Austin, I had a chance to pick his brain about the newly released Homeless Star, the background behind the title of his debut project, and what he hopes listeners take away from his latest offering.
This is the conversation.
Marc: So glad to meet you dude, congratulations on your album dropping today; that’s huge. How do you feel?
SAM: I feel good, man I feel blessed; all my family is in town, all my friends are in town. This has been the perfect energy, and I felt good performing last night at the listening party, and it was really fun.
M: I know the title of your project has a bit of a back story to it that dives into you as a person in real life. So, could you tell everybody a bit about the meaning of the Homeless Star and how it came about?
S: Well, when I was living in Detroit, the suburbs with my mom in Detroit, I grew up not too far from the city, I had family there, but I wasn’t too often in Detroit. I spent most of the time out of the city. But
M: It’s awesome to know and see that you survived through all of that adversity and really rose above it, blessed to be able to talk to you. With this being your debut project—they often say that the debut album for the artist is huge because it’s the project that they have been waiting for their whole to be able to tell—do you feel like you put your whole life’s history into this project or did you have a specific story to tell me you carved that out for Homeless Star?
S: F
M: Talking to your point about the music being real, you’re from Detroit, right? That’s what Detroit has been historically known for—especially in the realm of Hip-Hop. You have artists like Eminem, Royce da 5’9, and even Big Sean, the latter for which you helped produce a song for, Wolves specifically; tell me what that was like. That’s fucking sick as hell, and that track is a banger, so walk us through that experience of helping to produce for that song and then getting a co-sign from someone of that stature in Big Sean.
S: Actually, what’s wild about that is that “Wolves” were co-produced by Teddy Watson and Take a Daytrip, and I have
M: Yeah, for sure—congratulations on that, super huge and a super good look for you. Could you see yourself diving into an all-Detroit sort of project like Detroit 2 that pays homage to the city that helped raise you?
S: Well, I think Homeless Star is actually that to me. When I listen to it, I hear that grit and determination and how it was built on me coming up in my hometown. That was very much so the whole premise of Homeless Star, what I went through, what I persevered in, and what I grew through. Also, having my family and friends that were on the project where 90% of the people that even touched the project were from Detroit. All the producers are from Detroit, most of the songwriters are from the city, and so I think Homeless Star… even though it’s not carrying the name of my city, this project and the sentiment is very much based on my love for the struggle that I had and the growth that I had in the city.
M: I love that your lived experience of being in Detroit doesn’t sonically feel like or sound like other artists from Detroit. It appears that every artist from Detroit has their own perspective on what Detroit means and feels like to them, and that’s super dope. Your music has this Frank Ocean vibe to it in regards to the melodies and the spacey, smoky alternative sound that you would normally hear in alternative rock, which is crazy because it’s not even…that (laughs) it’s more like alternative R&B but is very much flirting with the concept of “what does genre mean?” Which provides an interesting way to look at the musical landscape of Detroit; when you talk about Black music in regards to Hip-Hop and R&B from Detroit, it’s usually on the grittier side. How have you put this particular sound on your back to wave the flag and say, “Hey, there’s another angle of Detroit’s music, and I’m just trying to give you guys a different version of it.” How has that been for your artistry?
S: First off, thank you for acknowledging that (laughs). I think that it’s really beautiful when other people can hear it and feel it the way that I want to present it. I have so much creating and writing; I love vulnerability, I love storytelling, I love soundscapes, I grew up watching a lot of fucking Star Wars, reading a lot of mythologies, I love electronic music, alt music, indie music, rap music—all of these things influenced me. The same way that Kid Cudi did his thing out of Cleveland, I want to make a way and pave the way for other artists from Detroit and in general to walk in the way that I’m trying to set in regards to the standard that I or whatever you want to call this world that I’m inventing… I just love innovating, and I love being I a space where I can freely create. Music just ended up being the first form of it, and I just want to expand on what we’re doing here while I have this time here.
M: It’s not just music that you’re innovating either; you have a really keen sense for fashion in the way that you blend your world-building with your fashion sense. Can you speak to what inspires you fashion-wise, and do you have future endeavors that further explore your love for fashion?
S: Oh, 100%. I love fashion. I think that being such a kid on the internet allowed me to be exposed to it; I love New York, I love the fashion scene in London, Paris, Berlin, I love architecture, and I love things that hit the eye a certain way. And for me, fashion is another form of expression, and I definitely plan on doing something in that realm, I have such a love for that and creating, and I don’t know I feel one day you’ll definitely see me do a lot of things in that world.
M: So we’re definitely going to a cool GQ spread of you discussing your collaborations with Louis Vuitton and things of that nature?
S: Oh, yes. (Laughs) Oh, yes! I can’t wait for that day.
M: Don’t worry, dawg, it’s coming most definitely. Could you tell me any of your favorite brands, and they can be high fashion or street fashion, tell me of some of your favorite fashion brands that motivate you to explore that realm of your creativity.
S: Man, it’s always changing; I love [Maison] Margiela, Raf Simons; I feel every time the seasons change, I feel a different vibe. [people like] Walter Van Beirendonck, there are so many different pieces that exist in this world that I pull from and have a gravitation towards. I love my friend’s brands as well. I have a great friend of mine that runs Online Ceramics—that was my favorite brand before I moved out to LA, and we then became friends when I got to LA. There are so many dope brands out here, and it’s hard to shout out all of them, but yeah, I think that right now I’ve been really into Margiela recently which in the “KILOS” video, I pull out this Margiela sweater—that was “KILOS” outfit (laughs).
M: Slight little flex, just a little flex real quick (they both laugh). You mentioned LA, and from what I know about both LA and Detroit, the vibes of the music and fashion scenes are definitely night and day. How has that transition been for you when you first arrived in LA?
S: For me, I always had a knack for adapting quickly and always moving quickly. I was taking a lot of trips to NY to write with my friends, and NY ended up becoming like my second home. But I always feel that LA is exactly different from Detroit, but it feels familiar and very grounded with a great community and a lot of good people that make sure that I’m in a good place. So already when I got there, I felt good; I’m well, still learning every day, but I’m figuring it out, and it feels great.
M: Beautiful. Now that your debut project is out on Atlantic, Homeless Star, is there anything that you have planned in the near future that has some relation to Homeless Star or an outside project that you have in fashion or tv, movies, anything like that?
S: We’ll see. I think that there are a few different things that I have planned and a lot that I have in my brain that I want to put out into the world. Homeless Star is such a project that I feel like I will always have that connectivity to everything that I do from this starting point; it’s crazy. It’s really wild, and it’s such a soundtrack, very expressive, heavy, and has a lot of depth to it. There are so many ideas that can just spiderweb out from Homeless Star, and I’m just glad that my debut full-length can set the standard for where we can go from here. And I think the next step from here is my debut album because Homeless Star honestly is just the teaser.
M: Oh, wow. This whole time I thought this was your debut album, so I’m very curious to see what the actual debut album from Sam Austins sounds like and feels like. What are you hoping people take away from Homeless Star as they anticipate your true debut album? Are you hoping that people get to know you a little bit, or are you hoping that people get to find a way to connect this music with their lives? What is it specifically you’re hoping people get from this project?
S: Oh, absolutely both. Completely both. I definitely want this album to sit with people the same way that my favorite albums sit with me, the same way that Songs in the Key of Life sits with me, the same way that Discovery by Daft Punk sits with me, how Blonde by Frank Ocean sits with me. I want people to be able to listen to this project years from now and still be able to connect to it; I made this project for kids that were going back to school so that they have something to listen to on the school bus, the same way I had my favorite artists and albums to listen to when I was getting picked on, people trying to tell me how to dress and how to look. I had this soundtrack basically keeping my spirit alive, and I think this is for them; I want to connect to those kids—always.
Listen to Sam Austins’ debut Homeless Star on Spotify now.
