Austin Archer

It all begins with a melody, simple on its first chance hearing, but like an idea it must be built upon — with Austin Archer those early movements that conceive a song soon take on an operatic sensibility as a human sense of dramatics are hushed in. Nothing is smoldered down or weakened, guitars marry to create a journey, a testament of human endurance, of the complex notion to be comfortable and understand where one’s feet are standing. Haunting as much as hopeful, life as much as death, Austin Archer sets out to capture the life he sees and feels exists.

In 2008 Austin Archer found himself in Atlanta, Georgia. A Midwestern man suddenly transplanted in the South, and for the first time he could recall he was without a band. “This is what comes out when I write music,” Archer recalls of the first time he wrote with no one beside him. Soon his first EP was released, Tongue Tied, a stripped down introduction to a tempered anguish that interplays into crossroads of hope from decadent conclusions.

Soon Archer was joined by Shane Cole and Lee Martin (guitars), Steven Cheek (bass) and Ike Thurston (drums), taking what was once a raw acoustic and voice formula and transformed it to the uniformed notions that created his second EP Venture to Breathe. Recorded in a mere six days with Jeff Malpass behind the board at Marigolds and Monsters Studio in Atlanta, the band worked in fluid motion capturing the dense instrumental textures and hairpin turns that mark the sophomore release. From the buoyant yearning of “All In” to the slow burning tracks like “Slurred Sobriety” and “Doubtful As They Come” Archer’s falsetto emerges, never commanding a show-light dominance. Venture to Breathe is not an album picked and pulled from his own experience, but from his observation of the stories unseen and the embodiment of the unembraced.

His innovative and passionate sound is accurately portrayed on the EP. As a Latest Disgrace blogger writes, “Between the excellent songwriting and great production, this record turned out tremendous. It’s an onslaught of infectious guitar riffs and catchy lyrics, but it retains a melancholy moodiness that keeps the record from becoming cheesy or cliché.” Archer strives to continue to encourage himself and others to reject complacency and do what they can to inspire others.