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William Austin
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Follow William Austin
This song seduced me from the very first listen, when William sent it to me on November 11th. That day is a holiday in my country, so normally we don’t work. The song arrived in my database around 8 pm, and as usual, I received a small alert on my phone to notify me. Without being able to listen to the song with all my studio equipment, and especially with a proper headset, I just read the lyrics and William’s introduction. And it was like a click in my head. I knew I was going to have to introduce this song to you and that I was going to approve it, even though I hadn’t listened to it yet! Yes, it’s an incredible story, because I didn’t listen to the song until the next day. But no more incredible than William’s story, after all. Indeed, he confided in us that he had moved from Tennessee to New York in 2021 to become a filmmaker. Unfortunately, he was very seriously affected by Covid and this nasty virus reached his lungs and vocal cords. The only way to recover, according to doctors: sing at least half an hour a day to recover his vocal cords. Quite a challenge for someone who didn’t sing. […]
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More information and the full article can be found in our magazine on Patreon.
The song has been added to “Niko’s Music Mixtape“, our monthly virtual CD on Spotify.
William Austin’s take on “Oaks”
Oaks is the last song on my first EP, Landlocked. Three years ago, I moved to New York City from Tennessee to become a filmmaker. My first week here I got Covid which turned into Pneumonia. I got really sick and eventually lost my ability to talk. After weeks, my body finally made a turn and I began recovering. To help regain strength in my chest and vocal cords, my doctor recommended I work my way up to singing for half an hour daily. Singing turned into songwriting and I spent more and more time singing and writing music in secret until I wrote a few songs that felt so true to me that I had to put them out to the world. My favorite of those songs is what became my first EP, Landlocked. This project is a collection of what was on my mind when I first gained the outlet of songwriting. A lot of looking back on who I was before New York, before I got sick, before music. I always knew Oaks was the perfect final song for the EP because it is close to that chapter. The song walks through the journey of leaving my home and coming to New York. I am so grateful for this song and excited to be able to let it be my final feeling about letting go of that part of my life.
