OK SWEETHEART’s new release Some Space is a sweet-sounding vicious ‘kiss off’ album crafted by Erin Austin and her intuitive players. The album is a rich collection of organic soul-pop sounds in the vein of a contemporary iteration of Dusty in Memphis. There is a honeycomb of hooks in each chorus and verse that direct listeners through a storyline as classic as any of the iconic 70’s singer/songwriter LPs.
Austin’s journey began on small family farm in Central New York, where she studied piano and classical voice. Before settling into Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, a place where she’s “felt most at home since she left the farm,” Austin found homes in Oklahoma and San Francisco. She’s honored her time spent in Oklahoma with the name of her project OK SWEETHEART.
While in San Francisco, Austin took a break from her classical career to begin an in-depth study of her greatest songwriting influencers, The Beatles. Soon after, Austin went to Denton, TX to record her debut album Home. When the first song was nearly finished, she entered it into the International John Lennon Songwriting Contest and won for the Pop genre. In her pursuit of broadening her musical palette, she began listening to Harry Nilsson, Neil Young, and Randy Newman — artists who she found to be like herself, melding universal yet subversive lyrical ideas with pure melodies and impeccable songwriting.
After the release of Home in 2011, Austin toured relentlessly, wrote music, and expanded her base of collaborators. Throughout 2016 and 2017 Austin recorded a handful of songs, from which she picked five to make up the physical EP Far Away. In early 2018, OK SWEETHEART traveled to Europe to promote Far Away. Upon returning to the US, Austin and her bandmates went into the studio to record what became six songs in a single day, to expand Far Away into the entire album Some Space.
The emotionally reflective title track of the Some Space contrasts greatly to the upbeat and catchy title track of debut album Home. Unabashedly present sarcasm empowers Austin’s lyrics that range from grappling with the struggle to make meaningful art to pleas to heal a relationship to the broad ideas of capitalism and the meaning of life.
In addition to vocals and keys from Austin, Some Space features bass and keys from Jeremy Buller (Bosque Brown), bass from Tyler Carroll (Allen Stone), guitar and trombone from Michael Porter, guitar and keys from Max Townsley (Midlake), with drums and percussion from Alex Westcoat (Pickwick). Most of Some Space was recorded with Andy Park (Dave Bazan, Noah Gundersen, Ruler) at Studio X in Seattle. “Raging Flame”, “Pranks” and “I’m Not Losing It” were produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Gossip, The Lumineers) at Bear Creek in Woodinville, Washington.
In addition to OK SWEETHEART, Austin is part of Seattle supergroup, LADIES, with Lydia Ramsey and Miranda Zickler (Kuinka). LADIES released three holiday songs in November 2018. Their track “Ladies, It’s Cold Outside” was included in the Apple Music ‘Holiday Pop Hits’ Playlist. She has also recorded an EP with LA-based electronic soul-pop duo LETS, who are set to release music in 2019.
