Contributor’s Note: Austin, Texas gothic/electronica metal band AUTUMN STAY recently released their music video for “Closer To The Edge.” The song takes on a lot of meaning with layers to peel away for the listener, and it saw an exclusive premiere for the video via Side Line Magazine. Lyrically, the song dives into the dark side of being an artist and how often artists push themselves to the very brink of insanity. This song has everything from heavy hitting guitars to head bopping synth, to vocal harmonies that make you feel like you’re listening to a Sunday church choir! Autumn Stay has shared the stage with the likes of Drowning Pool, Saliva, Straight Line Stitch and Oh, Sleeper. In this mental health conversation with Madness To Creation, Autumn Stay talks about mental health, their music and what inspires them. Fans can find Autumn Stay on Facebook, their official website and Instagram.
William: What gets you through the difficult times?
Autumn: Firstly, my partner in musical crime, Stephen. He’s stood by the band since 2012 when he joined up as our guitarist and ever since then he pushes for me to follow this career path. He’s my absolute rock and when things get difficult, he helps to ground me.
Secondly, my friends and fans. I want them to know that I every time they message me to tell me how much they love the music, it helps to remind me that the musician lifestyle I’ve chosen hasn’t been in vain.
William: What got you into music?
Autumn: As a kid, I always loved and listened to music. One of my first CDs I remember owning and falling in love with was Lenny Kravitz’s “Lenny”. I played it constantly but it wasn’t until I was in 6th grade and my dad told me he was in choir as a kid and that he loved it, so he encouraged me to join. From there, I found a love for singing and performing.
William: Tell us about your current project, what were some challenging and rewarding aspects?
Autumn: Autumn Stay has been my focus for ten years now and the most challenging aspect definitely has to be the funds portion of being in a band. We are doing some truly amazing things but those amazing milestones burn through financial reservoirs quick. Thankfully, we’ve got the world’s best fans who are helping us to achieve our Kickstarter goals to help us get back into the studio and put out music videos. Which leads me to say the most rewarding aspect has to be releasing music and seeing the fans reactions. They’ve been immensely supportive and loving every step of the way but I don’t think they knew exactly what we were up to with Closer To The Edge. The day the music video dropped and seeing them geek out over the music video gave me the biggest serotonin boost of my life.
William: The soundtrack to your life is from this artist/band and why?
Autumn: Flyleaf’s self titled album. That album spoke to me and influenced me for many years of my life. It drove me to want to form a band and truly pursue music as a career after I left college.
William: What has been the biggest blessing and curse about going through the pandemic? How has it affected you mentally?
Autumn: My voice was taking a huge beating from the constant amount of shows we used to perform so the pandemic allowed me to stop and heal my instrument which was a blessing in disguise in that aspect.
Mentally though? I miss seeing friends perform at shows. I miss the social gatherings at shows where we all stand around chatting, sipping on drinks and laughing. As an extrovert, not being able to see friends, hold parties (I LOVE hosting events) and be social has been rough. Some days I’m an anxious mess because I’m scared to leave the house. I just stay inside and get all sorts of pent up emotions and unfortunately for Stephen, I end up breaking down and he’s left to help reassemble my pieces. He’s a good sport about it though, he just lets me cry, vent and throw the occasional tantrum without judging me for it. He’ll hug and hold me till I’m no longer a hot mess.
William: Are there any songs of yours, published or unpublished that perhaps mentally served as a vehicle of therapy? Are there perhaps any that dealt with a subject too painful, that you didn’t want to release them?
Autumn: For me as an artist, there’s never a topic too difficult that would stop me from releasing something I’ve written. All my music I write comes from personal real situations that I’ve dealt with and it writing it served as therapy for me. If I put the effort into writing it, I want to release it into the world to serve as musical therapy for someone else.
William: What do you hope for in 2021?
Autumn: More music and videos!
William: What’s next?
Autumn: We launched a Kickstarter in May that was successfully funded in 10 days so thanks to our amazing fans, we are currently back in the studio working on another single and music video to bring to the world!
And there you have it! Check out Autumn Stay’s offiical website for the latest news and happenings!
#YouFreakingMatter at Madness To Creation
