From social media to streaming services, Kaleb Austin is a soon-to-be superstar who country music lovers definitely need to keep on their radar. Today (January 10), the country crooner dropped a tune titled “Run From The Rain” that he has been teasing via TikTok for weeks, detailing the track in an exclusive interview with Music Mayhem, in addition to some of his plans and goals for 2024.
How did Kaleb Austin rise to success?
For those who are unfamiliar with the budding country star, Austin admitted that he “got [his] start pretty much on TikTok,” prior to diving into the details of his career, much of which involved his wife Cheyenne, as well as their children.
He dished, “I’ve been doing music for quite a while but never really had any real traction with it, and I had my wife run up to me one day and she just said, ‘Sing some Jason Aldean,’ and I was getting in the fridge or something, and so I sang a 30 second snippet or something and she posted that, and then it just kind of snowballed from there… That was about three and a half years ago, and so we started putting out some music, and I was able to get back to Nashville and record one song, and that song ended up going number one on iTunes for me back in 2019 and kind of just changed my life.”
Believe it or not, this TikTok success is what “got [him] back into doing music full time,” which he has been pursuing ever since, releasing tunes like “Little Things,” “Who I Am,” and “Wild One” throughout 2023.
his family is extremely involved in his country music career
As mentioned, as soon as his wife posted a video of him singing some Jason Aldean in the kitchen, Austin’s social media presence skyrocketed. Naturally, this continued on for years and years, with his wife Cheyenne serving as not only his biggest inspiration when it comes to songwriting, but also his manager.
“I don’t live in Nashville, so I don’t really know anybody there other than my producer. I have a couple of friends, but you know, I’m pretty much just kind of on an island out here in Utah, you know, for country music, and so if it wasn’t for my wife being who she is and being so awesome and filming all these little moments that we have with our family and sharing them with the world, then I wouldn’t be able to do music anymore, so it’s cool to be able to do it as a family,” he shared with Music Mayhem, prior to detailing some of her responsibilities as his manager.
After explaining his wife’s role when it comes to booking, traveling, and everything in between, the proud husband and father gushed, “If I were to have to pick up and leave my family to do music, I don’t think it would work… It wouldn’t be worth it for me, because I definitely want to be in my kids’ lives as much as I can be, so it’s cool to have them involved.”
His fans connect with his music via TikTok
The talented singer-songwriter admitted that TikTok is a huge reason for his success within the country music industry, and seeing people connect with his music firsthand is the best part. Last week, his wife Cheyenne Jones even duetted a video posted by @the_tolers, which featured their six year old son singing every single word to Kaleb Austin’s song “Turn the Night On,” with the Utah native admitting that moments like that are “really gratifying.”
He shared with a smile, “It’s a dream come true, you know? As an artist, that’s all you ever want is to be able to have people that enjoy your songs, and especially it’s cool when they enjoy it enough to memorize all the words and then, you know, film a video and you get to see that. It’s really gratifying, you know, because writing songs for me, it’s probably one of the most difficult things of being an artist… When I put out a song that actually connects with people. It’s not just me in my house or basem*nt writing a song thinking it’s good, you know, so it’s kind of gratification and it feels really cool to have people that like my music, so hopefully they keep doing that.”
@chychyjones #duet with @Blaine & Courtney Keep killin it little man! 🔥 #fyp #reply #country #reaction @Kaleb Austin
♬ original sound – Blaine & Courtney
Teasing “Run From The Rain” via TikTok
Speaking of TikTok, Austin teased a brand new tune on the video sharing platform for weeks titled “Run From The Rain,” which is finally available to stream today (January 10) wherever you get your music. Ahead of its release, Kaleb Austin fans seriously could not contain their excitement, flooding the comment section of his posts with both questions and compliments.
“Can’t wait man! Always have and always will love your music and push it as much as I can,” one fan wrote. Another dished, “Rooting for you! Beautiful song and voice!”
“Can’t wait, enjoy the CD and following you all, so wishing the best,” shared a third.
In our exclusive interview, Austin dished about the fan feedback prior to the song’s release, admitting that “From what [he has] seen, everybody loves it. Everybody’s excited about it.”
“I’m hoping that it does some cool things, you know? For me personally, it’s one of the songs that I’ve been most excited to release in a long time. I think it’s well produced, it’s got some clever lines in it, and it’s got some good writings and some things… I’m hoping that people have liked it enough to pre-save it, because that really helps as an independent artist That makes all the difference, if we get a lot of pre-saves and we get put on playlists and stuff, so hopefully that’ll happen,” he gushed with a grin.
Story Behind Kaleb Austin’s New Single, “Run From The Rain”
As for what the actual song entails, the rising country star admitted that while his musical inspirations tend to be artists like Rascal Flatts, Shenandoah, Clay Walker, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, and more, his biggest overall inspiration is his family, specifically his wife.
“In my songwriting, I try and write about just like personal experience, you know, like probably most songwriters, but for me, a lot of the stuff that my wife and I go through, experiences and things, that’s what I write about. She’s my biggest inspiration, so it helps when we’re promoting songs to have her involved and the whole family,” he explained, before explaining the story tied to “Run From The Rain.”
The Song Stems From Kaleb And His Wife Cheyenne’s Love Story
Admitting that the song has to do with the early stages of Kaleb and Cheyenne’s connection — where neither of them were looking for anything serious — Austin admitted that they “fell in love and didn’t expect it,” a story that eventually developed into “Run From The Rain.”
He shared with Music Mayhem, “I think the whole song is about sometimes when you find that right person, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. It’s just going to come out of nowhere and it’s going to seem like it’s crazy, but that’s when it’s right [and] It’s kind of about no matter what you do, you can’t stop it when it’s the right person, so that’s what this song is about.”
“It’s kind of like trying to run from the rain. You can’t do anything about it when it comes, so hopefully people will see that in the song a little bit and kind of, you know, like it because of the story a little bit,” the musical maestro concluded passionately.
Fans can pick up and stream “Run From The Rain” everywhere now HERE.
Goals for 2024
Fortunately for Kaleb Austin fans, the country crooner confirmed that “Run From The Rain” is just a glimpse into everything that 2024 has in store, admitting that some brand new tunes are on the horizon prior to the release of his second studio album in 2025.
“We’re actually gonna be going to record some more songs here in about eight weeks, and I’ve got a bunch of songs ready to go. We’re getting close to a second full album, which is cool, so I’m hoping that we’ll finish the recording on the second album this year, and then release it sometime next spring, which is amazing… but yeah, we’ve got all kinds of new music coming out. I’m hoping all those do well,” he spilled.
Plans To Hit The Road On A Tour This Year
Aside from working on some brand new songs, Austin admitted that he is in the process of planning out his tour as well, even traveling to Mexico for the first time for a festival. With an emphasis on making every year better than the last, he also admitted that his main goal — aside from recording his second studio album — is to “get out on tour and see how many tickets [he] can sell.”
“The last couple of years we’ve been playing a lot of fairs and festivals and things… I think because we’re independent, we can kind of act as our own label and our own booking agent and try to do the venue thing on our own, so that’s my goal. Try and get out on tour and, you know, actually put on our own show in our own way and start selling some tickets out there, so my goal is to see how many of our own shows we can put on, and see how many people will come out and see us… I hope that, you know, we’ll have some good luck there,” the soon-to-be superstar revealed.
Advice for aspiring artists
Last but certainly not least, given that Kaleb Austin has been in the music industry for years but did not see much success until 2019, he concluded our exclusive interview by giving advice to any aspiring artists out there, admitting that “persistence is key” when it comes to achieving success within such a competitive industry.
“Never give up, and always find the joy in the journey, because you never know when that opportunity might come up or when a skill that you’ve learned that you thought was useless is actually going to become useful,” he shared with us, before diving into what this so-called “useless” skill was for him.
“We started livestreaming on TikTok, and that’s how our campfire family helped me raise the money to get to Nashville to start recording. I would sing anything from Britney Spears to Backstreet Boys to Tupac [and] I mean, anything you could imagine… I learned that from being a kid, just picking up a guitar and trying to play anything I heard on the radio in my mom’s kitchen, you know? [and] I didn’t know that that was going to transform into something so useful, but I use that in my live set all the time. Especially if I play acoustically, I can just, you know, play a lot of different stuff,” he explained.
Austin continued by telling aspiring artists that sticking with it, despite facing setback after setback, is the ultimate path to success.
