The man leading the dark romance genre on Spotify and stealing all the BookTok girls hearts...
Who is he and why didn't I know he existed?!? Don't worry, keep reading below and we will give you all the tea on who Austin Giorgio is.
We are so excited to announce that Austin Giorgio will be our Special Guests at the Starfall Ball - both visiting with guests and offering a special performance. Enjoy this interview below with Austin as we let you get to know him just a little bit better in preparation for the Starfall Ball.
Austin is most known on TikTok where he has amassed a following of 996.2 thousand followers with over 18.1 million likes and on Instagram he has 182 thousand followers. His primary audience is book lovers, as his music caters toward dark romance readers.
Austins tagline: " I make dark romance music.. "
Here is some general information about Austin: Austin Giorgio is best known for his high energy, contagious personality, and ability to write and produce storytelling songs. His pop-based music production is influenced by jazz and blues, and when paired with his velvet like vocals it creates a distinctively warm sound. He has opened for industry giants such as John Legend, and landed in the top 90 for FM Radios Hot Adult Contemporary List. Many recognize him from his viral videos online or his appearance as a Finalist on NBC's The Voice.
Now that you know a little about Austin, you might be wondering, how did I find him? Well, I'll just share my favorite playlist - booktok: DARK AND SPICY READS - This is where I discovered Austin and started following him, but no, I didn't immediately think of him performing at the Starfall Ball when I started playing with the idea of having a performer for the event. His content did however continue to pop up on feeds, especially when he dropped new music Dangerous Hands and You Put a Spell On Me. And finally, no, it wasn't my idea to reach out to Austin about performing, but Andres. For those who don't know, Andre's passion is in the entertainment industry and she was so excited to find the perfect special guest for our event.
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How did Austin get famous?
On The Voice, Austin competed in Season 14 of The Voice and was on Team Blake.
What is your favorite book?
I don't necessarily have one in particular. I'm about 6 or 7 books deep now, and prefer the sub-genre of dark romance, I think the most maybe. And since Haunting Adeline was the first one I read, I would probably lean towards that, as it was one of my favorites.
What is your most famous song?
Currently, the most popular songs are Dangerous Hands 1.4 million, She's an Actor with 2.6 million, and You Put A Spell On You with 8.6 million listens on Spotify alone.
When did you start writing music and why?
I started writing music back in 2018 once I got off The Voice. I started to learn about writing songs, producing music, all really from my friends that I met on the show. Some of my first few songs were complete garbage, they are still on Spotify, all of them. I wrote them about heartbreak, my personal struggles, and my grandparents love story. Then, obviously, some of this darker music. The pivotal point was like "oh I should do this for the rest of my life" is when I started receiving fan letters. Some of the content in there was really heavy and I never realized how much music had an impact on someone, whether it pulls them out of a slump, allows them to escape, or whether they just made some beautiful memories with some of their favorite people to those songs.
What is your greatest dream and how do you plan to get there?
I'd say to keep doing what I'm doing. I get to live the dream everyday. I'm so fortunate everyone that loves me and supports me. So I'd keep doing them and maybe playing more cities.
I'd say a big goal of mine is to create a festival, think of it as a Coachella meets Dark Autumn. I love Fall, I was born in October, and so here in Nashville I'd love to make a festival. You would come in costume, it's a music fest, I'd obviously be playing it, and it's just like a whole experience. Obviously, you'd have like bobbing apples and traditional harvest festival stuff. I don't know, maybe there's a section for like the book side of things, and a whole different area for like taking photos. I don't know, I just think it would be so cool. It's like my heaven I guess, so I'd love to make it happen here in Nashville.
Where did the inspiration for Dangerous Hands come from? Was it a specific moment in life or a book?
It came from my beautiful fiancé, she is the epitome of someone who is polite, empathic, and caring. Someone you want to be around, and I feel like I only get to see her crazy side in many different ways. I love her to death and this song pretty much talks about how much I crave her. I just have so much love for her. I wanted to make it universal too though, so that you as the listener can associate it with books, your own situations and what not. That's how that song kinda came to be.
What are you currently reading?
I'm almost complete with Priest, literally about 10 pages away. I have loved this book, but it is not one to read in public, which I have made that fatal mistake. It was rather embarrassing to be honest with you. I enjoyed the plot, thought it was really interesting. As someone who grew up similar to Tyler actually, in the sense of the religious side of it, not so much anymore in that sense, but it was pretty interesting, especially because my new song. I guess shameless plug, but not really. It's so weird how it correlates with this book, and it was not intended. This new song was written well before I started reading this and I guess that whenever this video does come out you'll understand what I'm talking about, it's crazy.
How do you pick your next read?
Normally, I just let everyone tell me. I have a TBR list of everything I'm going to read, but I kinda throw it out there to you guys, like if there is a bunch of comments saying a certain book, I take your advice and move it up.
What made you pick "dark romance" as a genre for your music?
You know what, I had this epiphany recently: I've made all types of music. It makes sense though why dark romance has always been part of me and I just ever had a label for it.
I grew up on a lot of jazz, like Frank Sinatra and Elle Fitts Gerald, a classy, moody, night time sound. I grew up on a lot of country and blues, so like the storytelling and soulfulness of it. Then, on top of that, I grew up listening to the 2000's with a lot of R&B, you know Ray Jay, all of the Tray songs. So, you kinda piece all of those together and it totally freaking makes sense why I'm making this music. It just comes so natural to me and I definitely think the books help add a lot more color to my lyrics. So it's like classy, sexual, storytelling music.
How do your friends and family support you and your music?
They are incredibly supportive. They go to so many of my shows, they are always shouting out my music. You know what is funny though, is when I started to lean more into my dark romantic side of things. Some family members would be like, "what's the inspiration behind like 'You Put a Spell on Me'". And I'm thinking, you know, if you listen to the song, it's kinda an uncomfortable question to ask. I don't know what you want me to say. So, normally, when I get asked questions like that I'm very direct, just to make the whole conversation very real, and it's pretty funny when that happens. So, they are incredibly supportive, I couldn't thank my family or hers and my friends too enough.
With all that being said, I just want to say, I'm so excited to see you November 11 in Dallas Texas!
I hope that you enjoyed this interview with Austin Giorgio and are excited as we are about Austin being a special guest at the Starfall Ball. Be sure to check out his socials and keep up with all the new music he has coming out before the Ball.
If are as excited about Austin being at the Ball as we are, then make sure you've got your tickets. If you are VIP or Inner Circle then you will have a chace to meet & greet with Austin!