Austin Sands’ Acoustic Double Whammy

Austin Sands is a California-based musician, singer, songwriter, and fashion designer who many will remember as a member of Billboard’s top-10 rock/electronica hitters ‘Metro Station’.

Since he left Metro Station, Austin has been busy at work honing his craft as well as making a name for himself as an entrepreneur and designer, particularly in the world of luxury eyewear. He is a partner in Hoorsenbuhs eyewear division in which he launched alongside business partner Robert Keith. The frames are worn by the likes of Brad Pitt, David Beckham, and Jennifer Anniston among others.

Since age 9, Austin has been immersed in the study of music, taking inspiration from both pop and rock contemporaries as well as classical composers such as J.S. Bach and Issac Albeniz. Though Sands would go on to master several instruments, it would be his admiration for Albeniz as well as Andrés Segovia that would set him on the path to becoming a guitar virtuoso, going on to be mentored under classical guitar virtuoso Gregory Coleman.

By the age of 19, Sands had already been making waves across renowned Venues across California such as the legendary Troubador and the Roxy. He later went on to appear on MTV’s TRL, play The Vans Warped Tour, the Galen Center (with band The Fray for an audience of 10,000+ people), and headlined the international music festival SXSW (with Metro Station). He has collaborated with music icons including legendary songwriter Diane Warren.

It’s his love of guitar that we’re lucky to be contemplating today since Austin’s latest is an acoustic-only double arrangement for two of his previous singles, “Cruise” and “We Need To Talk”

“Cruise” was Austin’s original debut single released back in 2021. The song came about through a serendipitous moment when Austin was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway, contemplating the ways life connects together at different stages and how important it is to be there for something or someone you care about in order to fully appreciate this.

On the other hand, “We Need To Talk” is precisely about those four dreaded words and the impact that they can have, With Austin outright stating: “We’ve all been there, felt the anxiety, felt the ambiguous uneasiness of those four cryptic words. Whether it comes from your lover, friend, family, or boss. It’s inevitable, uncalled for, and at least a head shake and an eye roll. The last time these four words came into my life was by text and it made me feel that certain way that makes you need to put an emotion/experience to music. It was turning a negative into a positive, much like the message of this song. If you receive that message or hear those words.. It’s probably them, not you.”

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