AUZZ AMBROSE
INTERVIEWED IN 2022 BY DYLAN LORRIMAN & RYAN MILFORD
WRITTEN BY: DYLAN LORRIMAN & RYAN MILFORD
PHOTOS BY: BRIANA LEUNG & DANIEL HUSZAR
STYLED BY: DYLAN LORRIMAN
Austin Middleton, try as he might, just can’t help himself. He can’t stop smiling. But he knows better, knows he’d be lying if he tried pretending otherwise: he’s feeling good. Yet for a man whose stage name is “Auzz Ambrose”, brings together both a longtime nickname and the Greek word for “immortal”, such enthusiasm, perhaps unsurprisingly, is balanced by a perspective that goes beyond his twenty-two years.
For so many artists, a challenging beginning is something we all must face in order to have a long lasting artistic career. Success can seem like a never-ending tunnel, forever feeling close and far away from arms reach. For Austin, he feels it’s a tunnel worth travelling through. Hence the smile that never leaves his face.
This drive to create is not something new. He has always felt the urge to be creative for as long as he can remember. To this day however, music has been his main artistic outlet. Pushing Austin to follow his dreams, like his many musical inspirations.
“Ever since I could put two chords together, I’ve been writing songs,” he says. “But the whole ‘Auzz Ambrose’ thing didn’t really start until I was in college.” He remembers, in his senior year of high school, hearing rapper Post Malone for the first time. Even though he grew up immersed almost exclusively in the rock and metal legends of yesteryear, AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, he was nostalgically inspired by a sound, for a time, that predated his own by decades. But as he found himself, again and again, pumping Post Malone and his rap-hybrid contemporaries through his speakers, he couldn’t help but wonder: Is there something to this? “Could I bring these sounds together [in my own unique way]? He had the guitar with this trap beat and I kept thinking, what if I just cranked up the acoustic sound?”
“And now, four years later,” he says, with a laugh, “I finally have something that isn’t half-bad.”
Red Melancholy, Austin's sophomore album, is on the way. But such an announcement comes with that same perspective.
“Listen,” he says, through the receiving end of a Zoom call, “If only ten people are listening, I don’t care. Because those ten people? They’re gonna hear one helluva album.”
Progression is anything but linear, consisting of stops, starts and rapid growth. All of which are met with periods of frustration and stagnation with the hope of realisation and reinvention. This is where Middleton believes himself to be; on the upside of the curve as the budding musician steps into shoes that feel, at last, perfectly tailored to his feet.
“This new album is entirely me. There are no features, no outside production, it's all me.” He says proudly. A change in direction after his debut album Rockstar Unknown included four guest producers and two featured vocalists; an impressive feat for the start up musician. However, Austin realised later on that this might not be the best direction, explaining, “I thought the producers and artists would drive more streams to the music, but it was less effective… if I can do this myself, it’s not worth paying someone else to do it.” Although initial success was not gained, an important learning experience was. For an underground artist, after putting together his first full length album, would consider it the best first try he could have made.
For many, after investing so much time and money into a project, it can be devastating to see it not have the sustainability to last for a long time. For Austin, however, this is all part of the process of being an artist.“You gotta realise that there are people that won’t find success until they’re 40,” he explains, “it’s never the end, there’s always the next project.” An important point to remember as we sometimes forget that getting from point “A” to point “B” is never instant.
With lyrics touching on a variety of subjects and most notably, mental health, there’s a sense of growth to both Middleton and his music. “I have always felt naturally melancholic”, Austin states, “but I want to be positive about the melancholy.” A switch up in tone is expected; one that’s more upbeat and hard hitting compared to the previous music he created. As time goes on, there will always be a consistency when it comes to exploring different sounds, and ways of storytelling through music. Ultimately, there is a brand that needs to continue to be built, long-term goals to be reached and become, if nothing else, the best possible musician he can be. It may take another five , ten or even twenty years. But even so, he insists, it is all part of the same journey, wherever it may lead.
Releasing a large portion of music on Soundcloud, Auzz Ambross can also be found on all major streaming platforms. A sufficient library of songs already, but for those not familiar with his previous work, “they’re going to hear this new stuff and just be blown away.”
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