PipemanRadio Interviews Austin Meade at Aftershock 2023

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure w f SE. Wow crazy you Why come up, America, It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four C why dot com West pomp Beats is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, The White Man Never morned Away. Just a strange control clubrong. It's pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here with damn. I was gonna come up with something good, but you caught me off guard on that one. I was gonna say Jeene Simmons or something. It's Austin Mead here. You know what's fight that you mentioned Gene Simmons because yesterday I interviewed Paul's suns band. No shit, Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so you were right, you were like in the zone there somehow. I mean, I don't know, maybe it just dropped from the sky, that's right. So after shock, do you love this festival or what? Pretty bad ass man. It's my first time here, so we're just checking out. Yeah, well you thinking it's a media area like it makes you want to come and do media right?

1:32 Oh yeah, there's some good shade here. Yeah, and you definitely got the open bar. You got the drip bar, and then if you're here long enough, they're going to cook some food from some chef. I had some food earlier. We're gonna keep going with it. Nice. So tell our listeners who have never heard you before as an artist, what you're all about. I guess just honesty and songwriting. And I like big guitars. I love old rock and roll. Maybe it's a little bit of like that old school stuff mixed with like the new alt rock stuff that's pretty cool, not really sure, and but I like old school rock and roll vibe because that's making a comeback. Actually, it seems like I don't know that it ever disappeared. Maybe some other people just had a bigger face on it, but I didn't. Man. I just I just love to play it, to play our thing, and just to be honest about it, and just like I don't know much. It's so much fun to interact with people on stage, and if anybody in the crowd knows what you're singing, you're like, damn, that's I'm a lucky guy. I know that's wild, right, Yeah, when they start singing your shit, it just kind of blows your mind. I would think you know, like, how they how did they already know that? Especially as far from home. Man, we're a long ways. So where is home for you? South Texas or by San Antonio, So not not deep South Texas, but what most people could center the southern part of the state. Yeah, my friends that are in even in death, that's where they're from too, love it. So what was that one moment in life where you're like, man, this is what I gotta do. I don't think there was one moment for me. I think

3:04 it was a bunch. I mean, my dad is a really big influence on me. Which my dad's actually here somewhere today. He's he's watching some shows. That's way cool. So I love that. That was a big thing growing up with him, just loving rock and roll and loving festivals and stuff. So that was most of it. And then, you know, a couple of times I got to be real, real close and see some artists up close. Cody Canada is one of them. He's from the you know, like the red Dirt scene, but he's a rocker through and through, baby, So just I don't know, I guess once you get into some smaller venues and really get to like kind of connect with musicians and see him on like a more personal level. It's really really when I got into it, and then I don't know, I just wanted to write my own stuff, man, So I just started doing it. And I've been lucky that anybody gives half a rat's ass at the moment you know, well, you know what, even if they didn't, it's you being altruistic and true to yourself that I think makes you a true artist. Yeah, I mean I hope so right, And then like, so you do write some heavy duty shit that's really cool lyrics, heavy duty, Yes, heavy duty, heavy day. I definitely like to, like I like to make people think about the tough shit. I one of my favorite things is, you know, just making people think about stuff that hurts in as few words as possible and kind of fuck with with my mind, which hopefully fucks with other people's minds. And I mean, we could do it in a fun way,

4:35 or we can do it in a really deep and painful way. So I kind of go back and forth between both just but it still all comes from the honest side of things. So and I think that's what people need because they're living that honesty. And so if you can touch one person that like relates to it, even in their own way, not even in the way you're saying it, but in their own way, they put their own meaning to it. I think that's what makes it feel good, right, Yeah, I guess, I guess. So maybe I'm selfish. Maybe I do it a lot of it for myself, just to get out the emotions and shit. But well that's part of it, you know, that's part of being an artist. I mean, like, I don't think somebody would be an artist without using it as therapy. It's therapy for you as yours, therapy for me as a listener. Yeah. It's a lot cheaper than a therapist too, so you know, there's always that. But I don't know that I would. I'd probably be a even a weirder dude if I didn't do this for a living, because I would. I don't know what i'd do with all the stuff that I write and create and get get out.

5:30 So and speaking of which, okay, so if music wasn't an option, what would what are your passions? Then well it wasn't good enough to play golf on the PGA Tour. I would have loved to do that. Other than that, Man, I love working on stuff and building stuff, So maybe something with the vehicles I loved, you know, just outdoors and agriculture. So I don't know, maybe I would have started my own house, you know, or sorry home building company, or maybe I ended up getting into some kind of farming or some kind of auto stuff, some with my hands. That's pretty cool. And So during that time that we had crappy lockdown, did you get to have enough time to do with some of those other things since you weren't on the road all the time. Well, I mean I still do. I think we do most of it on the road whenever we end up working on shit, whenever we're trying to get stuck on tour from town to town. But yeah, on whenever we had a little bit of off time, we did stay really busy and played. We played a lot of shows that like bigger venues got shut down to be you know, thirty percent cap and fifty percent cap, and so some of those rooms that we previously weren't big enough to play were like, oh we could have this band because you know they'll it was fea. So we stayed busy with that and I did a lot of getting out on the lake and boating and hung out with my wife and did did some stuff to the house. I

7:00 guess just kind of live the dream whatever. And you know, if you're living life the way you want, that is the dream. I think like people put too much on what that is. But what I love hearing is all this stuff that you do, because I think listeners they don't realize that, you know, you do have like another part of life and things that you like and things that you do, and and it's not just hey, I'm up on stage performing. Yeah, I mean there's a whole, a whole lot of other things that go. I think we only played thirty minutes today, you know, which I'd love to play a couple hours every night, but lucky enough to get thirty minutes on that stage today, So that's that's awesome. And then we come talk to folks like you guys, and I mean, I'm enjoying a lot of bands here today, so I'm just as excited to get out in the crowd as I am to play. Who you're most excited to see today? By Queens of the Stone Age, I haven't seen them yet. Nice they were at Louder and they were good.

7:55 Louder was pretty legit. We were on the same stage as Limp Biscuit, and I was like, wow, hell yeah, that would be that was a big cool if heat just came out, or if he was side stage. What would you do if he was side stage watching your show? Who who was Limp Biscuit? Oh, Fred Durst? Uh? Well, you know, I'd probably give him a fist bump, say we both got dad vibes, and then I don't know, man, it'd be really sick. I don't know. If I was a headliner at those things, I probably wouldn't show up till I was sposed to be there, probably get probably get just hounded by people. You know. Uh. And you didn't get to see him here at Aftershock, right, Nope, we just got here this morning. Did you hear about it? He did not have the dad vibes.

8:37 He did not have way at it. Louder, he had a whole different look this time. Oh I saw he was wearing some country stuff. He looked like everybody I went to high school with. I was like, hell yeah, brother, Yeah he was the new he put up on the thing. He's the new metal cowboy. I don't know where he's from. I'm interested to see where he's from. You know, I don't know where he's from either. That's I could show him some cowboys shit if you need to need some help. But what's the best advice you could give him as cowboys shit? You think? Just learn how to work on whatever is getting around the country, you know, yeah, learn how to get yourself out of situations, learn how to get home. I think that's all important.

9:18 You know why how many musicians go on tour and shit happens and then they don't really know what to do at that point. Happens to me all the time, but I try to take one of those. Every single one of those is like a learning experience, and then and then so if it happens again, you're like, shit, I've been here before. I can get out of the situation, whether it's somebody on your phone you can call, or some or something that you physically learned how to change this or that. And for me right now, that's just really important is figuring out what's kind of like to keep moving. Well, it's kind of like too, I kind of believe that even if you don't do something, you should know how to do it. In case the person that does it's not around. Yeah, you should know what a good a good product is and whatever goods or services that you're purchasing or getting help with, and you should make sure that that you're in a safe spot. I don't know as far as getting I'm talking about vehicles and shit. You know that's a big thing for me right now. Maybe that's what I'm thinking about it. What's your what's your favorite type of vehicle to work on? Shit? Which everyone I can get into easiest. Man. I've been in vans for like ten years, so I know how to work on a bunch of vans. I mean, I love I love Fords Ford trucks. I do have a like an O seven suburban four wheel drive, and so I've been working on that a lot. Nice.

10:35 It's uh, it's a tank, dude. It's pretty easy to work on compared to a van because you have a lot of space under the hood to get in there. But I want more people with logistics of working on cars. You know. It's funny too, because like they even get rid of in schools nowadays. My high school had an auto shop right at the school. Yeah, so do we That was one of my favorite classes between between golf and auto tech. I I pretty much only did those two things my senior year because I took as many classes as I could before then. So I just worked on trucks and played golf and got a little high.

11:16 I don't know well that you know. It's the funny you should say that, because I was going to say we loved auto shop too, because that's when we could get high and like do whatever we want. Yeah, I would, I would not suggest around power tools. But you know, golf practice is kind of fun. Whenever you can get a little stone and then go out there in nature and play golf for a couple hours. There was a lot of good times there. You go. I got a meirch idea where you could like make a golf ball and hit it out into the crowd on your performances. Hell, I drive it straight on past everybody in the crowd. I hit it so goddamn fart. And I'm kidding, but that might that might kill somebody. I might shank one. Yeah, that might not feel good when they get hit with it. They've ever been paying attention.

12:00 So tell everybody to hit you up on socials on the web and buy your merch and check out all your music and all that good stuff. I mean, I think you can just search my name on the old Google this Austin Meade. And I don't know of a whole lot of other Austin Meads out there, but if they are, you can buy their shit too. I guess I don't know. I'm probably the most southern one, but there you go. Yeah, thanks for the time, man, I appreciate you having me today. Hey, thanks for being here right aftershock, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pate Man. We'll see you soon. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Fate Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.