Austin Dixon has come a long way in the last two years.
In that time, Dixon went from a TikTok cover-singing sensation to an artist that has released an EP and a handful of singles that have earned hundreds of thousands of combined streams. In just the last year, he began co-producing his music; some of his best work to date, including his standout new single, the steel-laden “Broken Hearts in Texas.” All the while, his plate has also been occupied with pursuing a Doctorate in meteorology.
We chatted with Dixon about his early love of country music, many of his releases thus far, balancing his passions for music and meteorology and more!
Pro Country: In previous interviews, you’ve mentioned artists ranging from AC/DC and Black Sabbath to George Strait as influences early in your life. What was it about the rock and country genres that struck you in your impressionable years?
Austin Dixon: The love for country music was just innate, I think. I’ve been around it literally since I was born, so it permeates virtually any memory of my life up to this point. It was an especially poignant feature of days I spent with my grandparents, which is one reason why I gravitated towards that older sound. In terms of AC/DC and Black Sabbath, I was fortunate to be raised in an environment that appreciated almost any genre of music, and I was just enamored with the electric guitar and the emotions that hard rock music inspired. Country music can give you a rush, but it rarely gives you the “run-through-a-wall” type energy that rock can bring. I appreciate a lot of different genres of music for a lot of different reasons. If you had encountered me as a freshman in college, Drake held the top spot on my listening list for pretty much that entire year. I’m gonna go ahead and call myself a very early fan of The Weeknd as well. I was on his stuff all the way back in 2011! While country is my mainstay, no doubt, I’d get bored if that was the only thing I ever listened to.
PC: You began playing guitar at just 10 years-old, and began taking it seriously by 15. How quickly did you take to the guitar, and how soon after did you start writing your own songs?
AD: I can’t say I took to it super quickly. At 10 years-old, I was just starting a career in racing motocross, which held the bulk of my attention up until I went to college. In those first few years, I messed around with a cheap electric guitar before getting my first acoustic at 15. The acoustic guitar is what really got me learning chords. A good friend of mine, who was actually the rhythm guitar player in my band up until just last week, came to my house with his own acoustic and showed me an original song he had written. He left the band to pursue his own solo career, but I was really impressed by the fact he had written his own song and wanted to try it out myself. Admittedly, I was highly motivated by what that might do for my chances with girls at the time [laughs], but it was the start of my songwriting career nonetheless. It would be a few years later before I wrote something I felt was presentable. A few of those songs were available on streaming platforms for a while, but I eventually took them down as I felt they weren’t representative of my current capabilities and style. The first true single, “Southern Town,” would follow shortly after that decision.
PC: Though you had your early start with playing and writing, when did you realize music was something you wanted to, and feasibly could, pursue as a career?
AD: I’d say after I had my first successful video on social media. Like everyone else during Covid, I was messing around on TikTok. After about a year, I think, of posting covers here and there, I had one take off. That was the first time I thought “hey, maybe this is a realistic thing.” Prior to that, I had been heavily focused on my education in meteorology, which was my first passion in life.
PC: You attended the University of Oklahoma, where you earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Meteorology, before attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where you earned a Master’s in Atmospheric Science. After pursuing your educating that deeply, can you talk about making the decision to pursue music and making that pivot?
AD: And believe it or not, I was dumb enough to keep going and I’m almost done with a doctorate in the same field! It’s honestly been difficult at times choosing one over the other. I’m still very much involved in meteorology research, but it has admittedly taken more a backseat these days to the music career. My Ph.D. advisor gets quite a kick out of me having research meetings with him from the tour van, but he has been incredibly cool about all of it, as long as I stay on top of my work. But yeah, at times, it’s like choosing between your kids. My passion runs deep for both, but there are facets of who I am as a person that just don’t get properly utilized as a scientist. I need the art in my life, and I’m not good at doing anything half-assed, hence why I’m finishing a doctorate while pursuing a professional music career at the same time. However, I will say that the best days in music reach heights that the best days as a meteorologist just can’t compete with for me. At this point, I’ve decided that music is the path forward for as long as I can sustain it; my degrees will always be there. I now have a manager and booking agent, so I would say we’re pretty committed!
PC: You began earning several viral videos on social media performing covers, including “Hello Darlin,” “Run” and “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’,” among many others. What was it like to be receiving that much attention at that stage in your music journey?
AD: At the time, it was incredibly exciting and inspiring. I wouldn’t be doing what I am now if it wasn’t for that early social media success. But, to be honest, those videos are a little embarrassing now because of how badly I was singing through my nose [laughs]. Not to mention I was just starting to really learn how to record in my home studio and didn’t do my vocals any favors with that. Nonetheless, that early momentum is what got me here. It also taught me how to deal with negativity early on, which is an opportunity a lot of people don’t get until later. It can be quite deflating at first, so it was good to understand how to navigate that before things really got moving.
PC: What emotions were you feeling as you were preparing to release music for the first time in a meaningful way with your single, “Southern Town”?
AD: Realistic excitement to be honest. The early round of momentum I had on socials had died down quite a bit by the time we finally got that song out there. So unfortunately, it felt like a new exciting beginning as well as a minor missed opportunity. However, I feel we have gained most of that momentum back at this point, and my most recent releases are performing pretty well.
PC: Soon after, you released your debut EP, O-Town, which was inspired by your hometown of Sand Springs, Oklahoma and nearby Oilton, Oklahoma. How special is that EP to you and the moments you were able to capture on it?
AD: It’ll always be the first one, and that means something. It was my first legitimate time in the studio, and I was very green. But, I was lucky to get paired up with one of the best producers in Oklahoma in Luke Tallon, and he made sure I sounded the absolute best I could with the tools I had at the time. I was really fortunate to have what was most of Corey Kent’s band at the time play on that record, as well as the current lead guitarist for Kaitlin Butts. They were all incredible players and made that record better than I could have imagined in terms of the musicianship. Nowadays, I go to the studio with a lot more confidence, and I think my most recent release, “Broken Hearts in Texas,” is the best representation of me as an artist thus far. Even still, those songs were very representative of my life at the time. My live performance career started at a tiny smoky bar in Yale, Oklahoma just up the road from Oilton. The songs on that EP, with maybe the exception of “Would You Stay,” were intended to capture the lives all us country folk were living back then and I think they accomplished that.
PC: O-Town has earned well over 200,000 streams on Spotify alone, with hundreds of thousands of streams and listens across platforms. As an artist releasing a collection of music for the first time, how validating was it to tangibly see the success and support the EP received?
AD: It’s felt like a slow burn from my perspective, but it has ramped up considerably in the last year. What has been particularly validating is seeing people at my shows singing along to those songs. You can love a song all you want, but you never know how other people are going to like it. Demos of “Southern Town” made their rounds throughout my home area before it was even released, and we had a huge crowd singing along to it at one of my first full-band shows. I couldn’t believe that, and it’s a high I’ve been running on ever since! These days, more and more faces I don’t recognize are turning up singing those songs too, and it’s hard to describe how awesome that is.
PC: Just over a year after O-Town, you released “Ain’t Much for Honky Tonkin’,” which is the first song in your career that saw you credited as a co-producer. How much do you value taking a hands-on approach to your music in the studio, and how have you seen yourself grow in that role?
AD: I love the studio and I love doing production. I don’t have the skills at this point to produce radio-ready records on my own, but my skills on the mixing desk have come a long way over the years. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a teenager, and it’s very gratifying to be able to apply what I’ve learned over that time to something that is fruitful now. I’m hands-on with everything I do, and I typically have a very fleshed-out vision for how I want something to sound. It would be virtually impossible for me to just sit back and let someone else turn all the knobs!
PC: Last September, you released your newest single, “Broken Hearts in Texas,” which was a solo-write. Can you take us in the room and into your head and talk about how the song came together?
AD: In the last year, I’ve been working on getting away from writing about what I grew up with. Obviously, your memories are always going to influence your songwriting, but a lot of those early songs were direct references to my early life that were maybe not always relatable to a wider audience. “Broken Hearts” was a natural progression of that effort. I wanted to write a song about a hot girl, but couldn’t figure out if I wanted it to be sexy, more rock and roll, or something else. Eventually, I thought about how a lot of country songs about heartbreak are pretty heavy and wanted to turn that on its head. What if this guy walks into heartbreak willingly as long as it means he gets at least some time with this girl that no one can take their eyes off of, and no one seems to be able to tie down? A girl that is so good-looking and such a heartbreaker that her reputation precedes her throughout Texas. The concept is obviously over-the-top, but I thought the idea was fun, and it turned into the song you hear now.
PC: You kicked off 2026 by releasing a live version of “Southern Town.” What did you like about presenting the song in that way and kicking off 2026 with the song?
AD: My Spotify Top 10 may not show it, but up until “Broken Hearts” came out, “Southern Town” has been far and away the crowd favorite song. We had the opportunity to capture that song in a big room with an awesome crowd, and it was a great representation of how much energy that song has at a show. You just can’t get that on the studio cut, and I wanted to give my listeners who haven’t been to a show a taste of what it’s like and give them a reason to come!
PC: What information, if any, can you give about new music on the way? What can people expect to hear?
AD: Well speaking of live recordings, we just recorded a killer show here in Oklahoma City that sounds awesome. I plan to release at least a few songs from that as the year goes on. But, we’ve got some studio work on the calendar as well. My writing has been all over the place lately, but we’re honing in on things that resemble “Broken Hearts” with that more traditional feel. It’s a great pocket for me vocally, and it’s clearly resonating with the fanbase.
PC: What do you have planned for 2026?
AD: This is my first year with an agent and manager, so we’re looking to get the business running at a level that hasn’t been possible before. Up until this point, I have done literally everything myself, and I’m super excited to have a team of people around me now. More shows, more music, more good times!
PC: Is there anything you’d like to add?
AD: A lot of podcasts/interviews I have done in the past just wanted to talk about weather, so thank you for letting me focus on the music! However, for those that are interested in what I actually do as a meteorologist, you can check out my most recent publication.
Pro Country 
Leave a comment