Singer pursuing dream

Denver Austin sings a tune. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Denver Austin is chasing his dream and taking his listeners with him through love and loss.

The musician put out his first album in March.

“The title is Sacrifice,” he said. “The album's all about heartbreak music and songs I made dealing with learning new things about life and learning what it means to sacrifice for what you want. A big theme for me was the cost of love. The word that came to mind for the cost of love is sacrifice. I also have a song on there called Sacrifice as well.”

Denver wrote 13 songs, two of which debuted first as singles, for the album.

“The first one is called Do I Try,” he said. “It's a song about not knowing how to let go, when to give up. With the music, I've been trying and trying and trying independently for so many years. I tried to apply that same mentality to a relationship. A relationship requires two parties to be involved, and if one or the other is out of balance, it's just not going to work.”

Denver, 24, of York, Pennsylvania, also released Wicked Ways before the album.

“It's kind of a rant song where I talk about a bunch of tough things that I experienced in my last relationship,” he said. “It's called Wicked Ways because the chorus is ‘You got them wicked ways. Know that you love the taste.’ It's talking about things that I experienced with her on that side of the relationship as well as things that I did in the relationship as well, reflecting on things that we said to each other, things that I did and just trying to make it work.”

Denver paints a rounded picture of the relationship in the tune.

“It's not one-sided conversation,” he said. “Two people take part in everything. I can't put all the blame on anybody for anything that happens. I played a part in it as well, but that being said, the situation was pretty shitty and I did try my best.”

Denver said it’s difficult to pigeonhole his music.

“My goal in music is largely to be unpredictable or undefinable,” he said. “I find a lot of joy in experimenting with all different genres, but primarily, I would say it's more of a pop sound. It's difficult to explain really, because I have songs released or unreleased across the board in just about every genre.”

Jazz holds a special place for Denver, though.

“Overall, my style is jazz-influenced just from my background in jazz singing,” he said.

Prior the album, Denver debuted a three-song EP called Emotions.

“Kind of a prequel to Sacrifice,” he said. “It's like a rock/alt/pop type vibe. It's a bit more like angry emotions. I think about the five stages of grief. Denial and anger is the first part of it. That's the influences for that EP. The artwork is Icarus, which is a story of flying too close to the sun, falling from grace, which ties into the themes of the songs as well.”

Denver hit a five-year milestone last year.

“I started making music in 2019,” he said. “Since 2023, I've really started to hone in on my goals and what I want to accomplish with music.”

Before the album, Denver released more than a dozen singles.

“I'm still trying to really find my own sound,” he said. “With every release, I was trying to learn more. I work with other producers, but as far as singing, lyrics, mixing and mastering, I do that all myself. I've been just trying to learn and doing it at my own pace. At first, I was putting out whatever I thought everyone else would like. Then, as I began to try and figure out what exactly my sound is, what exactly I want to make, I've experimented with a bunch of different sounds.”

Denver said the variety of his music can surprise people.

“I feel like most people would expect an artist to make songs of all the same sonic nature, but my favorite part about making music is challenging myself to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” he said. “People would definitely be surprised to hear the variation in sound from one single to the next.” 

Denver cited his musical inspirations.

“I would definitely say core memories from when I was younger, like Bruno Mars,” he said. “He was a massive influence for me, and I remember listening to his songs on repeat for a long, long, long time. As I got older, I went into the hip hop and rap sound, which I know my music doesn't really reflect that. That was just my interest with what was popular in school and whatnot. My idols or my icons for music were Bruno Mars. Love Michael Jackson, obviously. I don't really know anybody who doesn't. Michael Buble. I love jazz music. I don't know if you're familiar with Michael Buble, but he's another unique sounding singer who can really do anything.”

Denver said some of his music reflects that jazz inspiration.

“I love jazz music,” he said. “When I was in school, I did a lot of competitive jazz singing. My two recent releases have a lot of jazz influence to them.”

Mars is the first performer Denver was impacted by as a youth.

“I can vividly remember hearing The Lazy Song and then watching his music video and listening to that song over and over and over again,” he said. “Also, Billionaire.”

Denver explained why music is now his passion.

“I had people telling me I was a good singer, so I sang,” he said. “I didn't know if I really liked music like that. But as I've grown older now, I've got a couple things that I love. One thing that I love is people. I love talking to people and connecting with people. Probably the number one thing that everyone loves is music, so music is a great way to connect with people. And just being naturally blessed with a good voice and as time goes on, I have a story to tell as well. I just want to connect with people and be the person that you always wish you had around, but never did.”

Denver uses music as a way to express himself like no other.

“As an artist, I feel like there's a billion things that I think about that I can only really describe in songs and have people understand it a little bit,” he said. “Largely, the feelings associated with love, the chase when it comes to love, finding new love and attaining new relationships, that feeling is indescribable. But with music, I'm able to express it and feel it at the same time.”

Denver waits for inspiration to hit.

“When I first started making music, I felt a pressure to make songs,” he said. “But as I've been doing it more and more, the best music just comes naturally. I don't always make music. I'm always thinking about music and envisioning what I want. But at the same time, whenever I make my music, I don't write anything. I just get on the mic and I just sing. Usually, it's out of my hands whether it's going to be good or not good. I made a lot of songs that aren't good, and I made some that are all right. I'm not necessarily the judge of that. There are topics that I've gone through in life that I feel would be a good song topic.”

Denver was middle school age when he began singing.

“I was in fifth grade the first time I joined a singing group,” he said. “I was always singing with my parents in the car, listening to whatever songs. First time I can remember trying to do something outside of just singing to myself, I was probably 9 or 10.”

As a child, Denver wasn’t sure he would become a songwriter and performer.

“I didn't know how I was going to continue to do music, but I knew that I loved singing,” he said. “As I began performing, I became addicted to it. I remember being a kid and watching concerts on television, whether it be the Super Bowl halftime show or whatever, and just wanting to be that person. I had always wanted to do something. I just didn't know how I was going to get there.”

Denver was pleasantly surprised by his music’s popularity.

“When I first started making music, I was completely astonished at how it was received,” he said. “I remember walking into school after putting my very first song on SoundCloud and hearing several people listening to it as I was walking past. This was at the very start of my career in solo artistry and it was very surprising to see it received so well.” 

As Denver matured, he realized college wasn’t what he wanted.

“When I graduated high school, I went to college for a bit, realized that was not for me,” he said. “If it wasn't music, I wanted to be an entrepreneur of some sort. I wanted to pave my own path, whatever it may be. I was engaged to be married, but then that fell apart in the end of 2022. It took 2023 to rebuild myself, get back on the music and figure out what exactly it is I want in life.”

Denver, who later experienced the subsequent breakup, now has that knowledge.

“I am dedicated to my music,” he said. “I'm working every weekend. I'm traveling to either shoot videos, connect with other people or just anything I can to get another step ahead in the music scene. For four of those years, I was barely doing music. I was just making songs. I was not putting myself out there. I was not connecting with anybody. I wasn't doing any of that. I was really just working in the background, trying to figure out how to get my music to sound good. Now, I'm here and I'm ready to go. I'm ready to meet people, ready to be traveling.”

Denver stays fit.

“I'm active in the gym,” he said. “I think fitness and health is very important. I try to keep myself in pretty good shape. It does help being a performer or having an image to uphold. I'm usually in the gym, my peak, five days a week, an hour-and-a-half. Eight and a half hours a week. Whenever you start to improve your physical fitness, you naturally see improvements in your mental health as well. I was very, very self-conscious for a long time. So working out and really testing myself and proving to myself that I am capable of doing this, I am worthy of the things that I desire, helped me get through a lot of mental health struggles.”

Working out provided size, strength and respect from others for Denver.

“I was probably 5-foot-4 till I was 16 or 17 years old, so I got bullied a lot,” he said. “I was the smallest person in the room, always. Now, I'm 6-foot-1. Growing up with that, it definitely had a big impact. Working out and seeing improvements, you could literally see people's attitudes toward you change, their demeanor and how they treat you. It's upsetting that people don't treat you nicely regardless. But at the same time, whenever you are putting in the work to do better, it's nice to get that benefit out of it.”

Denver played sports as a student.

“I was an athlete when I was in school,” he said. “I played soccer primarily growing up. I was a big soccer fan. I did baseball, and then I swam for a couple years as well. Then I ran track. Soccer was definitely my number one. It's a demanding game. I've always been an athlete, always in shape, but, man, you can't keep up. Sometimes. It's like you have to be intentionally training to run seven miles nonstop for 90 minutes.”

As with many performers, Denver is a fan of tattoos. His most prominent one being the laurel wreath around his neck.

“I have quite a few tattoos now,” he said. “There's one tattoo that I regretted at one point, but for the most part, all my tattoos really speak volumes about me. I've always had some sort of tie or some symbolic reasoning for having the tattoo. I feel the tattoos really help me from a performing standpoint, from an image standpoint. My tattoos are part of me. People recognize me purely from my tattoo, and what comes with the symbolism of this tattoo for me is everything that I stand for: honor and integrity and doing the best that you can as well as being one of the symbols of the Greek god Apollo.”

Denver hopes to amp up his performance schedule.

“I've done hundreds of performances,” he said. “In the past few years, I've probably done a handful of performances. Personal life took over and took me away from the music for a bit. But now that I got all that sorted out, I've been back on it. ”

Denver said he’s willing to pay the price for fame.

“I want to take it as far as I can go,” he said. “I've wrestled with that idea of fame and what it costs you in terms of your personal life, how life is after fame, but I've been ready for it since I was 8, 9 years old. I've been preparing mentally, whether it was intentionally or not. Life has provided me a series of events that have taught me so much about what it means to want what I want. Through it all, I still desire the maximum. I want it to be genuine, and I want it to be positive and pure. But I do want it all. I want the bright lights, the big city, the biggest shows. I want to be, you know, if I could speak. It's difficult to speak on your dreams, especially for me being where I'm from a small town and nobody gets it. But truly, I could see my name up in lights. I want to bring back music like they did before. I watch the Live Aid concert all the time. I want to bring back the magic that comes with that, and I want it to be real.”

Denver doesn’t have time for hobbies.

“I had a bunch of hobbies before: your typical video games and sports,” he said. “But I've really cut pretty much everything out to focus on the music. Entertainment in general is my goal. Music is what I do. But if an acting opportunity came up, I would act, modeling, anything like that, entertainment in general. I don't really have any hobbies anymore. I like to fish, but I'm largely focused on my dreams and my goals.”

Denver stays motivated by staying focused on his goals.

“There was a long time where I didn't have motivation,” he said. “If I didn't feel like doing something, I wouldn't do it. But I now know that I have to be the guy who shows up regardless of how he feels. If I didn't feel good, I would call off of work. I don't call off of work anymore. It doesn't matter if I'm sick, it doesn't matter if I'm tired. If I have something that I want to accomplish, the only way it's going to get done is by me doing it. Years of disappointing myself taught me that it's not going to happen by accident. It's not going to just magically appear. I have to be the one doing it, putting in the work.”

Denver dispensed advice to aspiring musicians.

“My advice would be to do it, to stop thinking about it,” he said. “Don't care about what people think. Don't care about how good it is or this or that. Just do it. Just enjoy it. If you enjoy doing something, just do it. Please do not get too caught up in your feelings or your thoughts about it, because you will give yourself a million reasons not to do it, rather than just doing it because you want to.”

Denver said it’s better to make music true to oneself, not what others desire.

“For a long time, I was very plastic,” he said. “I lived through the lens of other people's view of me. Everything that I would do would be for everybody else's opinion. Doing that led me to become a very fake person. I was very unhappy with how I felt, who I was, what I was doing. One hundred percent doing what you want to do, regardless of how it's received, regardless of if anyone likes it, doing what you want to do is going to be more fulfilling hundred times over than doing what you think other people are going to want you to do.”

Denver stressed artistic value over commercialism.

“It doesn't matter if it succeeds,” he said. “At the end of the day, if you put out a song that you like, you're going to feel better about that. If you like it and it does well, that's going to feel like nothing else. But if you like it and it doesn't do well, it doesn't matter. You're still going to be satisfied because you did what you want to do.”

Denver’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedenveraustin/

Denver’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@denveraustin