At the ripe age of seventeen pop-country, singer-songwriters Auburn Road—Alicia Paulson, Paxton Martin and Kristen Brown have already dedicated most of their life to music. With the release of their debut EP Fancy they are breaking new ground with their infectious sing-alongs and soulful harmonies.Performing together in community vocal groups since the age of eight, the lifelong friends bonded over musical influences that ranged from Pink to The Dixie Chicks and Avril Lavigne to Miranda Lambert, the three grew up listening to different genres of music so they each bring a different flavor to the table, making their sound inimitably special.Since forming in 2013, Auburn Road has shared the stage with Uncle Kracker, Drake White, Canaan Smith, JT Hodges and Granger Smith to name a few.Backing Auburn Road on Fancy are members of Jason Aldean’s band, bassist Tully Kennedy, guitarist Kurt Allison and drummer Rich Redmond, who help to give these catchy and memorable pop-country songs serious punch, and a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll edge. The girls recently shared a video to look back at 2016.
We managed to catch up with Auburn Road as they talked about the latest EP, proudest moment, funniest moment on tour and more!
So, you three you just released your debut EP ‘Fancy’, how has this gone down with fans?
Alicia Paulson- It’s been an amazing experience seeing how people relate to music that you wrote yourself. We’ve watched girls – and some guys – singing along to songs like ‘Tuff Girl’ and talking about how it motivates them. We’ve had mothers and girlfriends come up to us after shows saying their son or their boyfriend was the football player in our song “Friday Night Lights”. It’s been so great seeing the music from our Fancy EP come to life through our fans.
Paxton Martin – When we finished the album there was one thing we were super excited about and that was to see the reactions of other people to our music. I think there is a song for everyone to relate to on our EP and we love hearing their stories about how they personally connect to each song. We have received quite a bit of love from our fans with this album, which makes us super excited to release more music in the future.
Kristen Brown – Since the release of Fancy, the response has been great and everyone who has bought the album or been to a show have showed us nothing but love and support and we are beyond grateful for that. It’s great to hear when people love the songs that we worked so hard on. Now we can’t wait to give them new music.
Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration for the songs on the EP?
Alicia Paulson- ‘Fancy’ was inspired by the songs we hear on the country radio like “Bartender”, we thought ‘All of the breakup songs are about drinking, why don’t we make one that younger girls can relate to?’. “Friday Night Lights” was of course inspired by one of our favorite Movie/T.V. shows. “This Road” was inspired by the journey we’re on right now and about chasing your dreams no matter the obstacles you must face. Over the time that we’ve been performing it we’ve realized that the song is universal and anyone with a dream can relate to it.
Paxton Martin – Each song came with a different inspiration. ‘Tuff Girl’ started with us talking about needing a girl power song because people underestimate women and we wanted to write an anthem for all the girl who wake up ready to prove people wrong, (don’t be fooled by the pretty things underneath all I’m a Tuff Girl!!). ‘Friday Night Lights’ was literally inspired by the Movie/TV show. ‘Love of My Own’ was actually written about Kristen and me. We both wanted to be in relationships because all our friends were and we wanted to know what it was like to have someone love and care for you. ‘This Road’ was written about all our experiences of leaving home for weeks at a time to live our dreams. There were many different moments that inspired each song.
Kristen Brown – All the songs came from different places as far as inspiration. For example, ‘This Road’ was written as we were starting to perform out of town more often, which meant leaving our families and friends for weeks at a time. That song came from what we were experiencing as we were growing as people and as musicians chasing this dream that we have. As we’ve been performing it’s become more and more relevant not only to us but to anyone who has a dream. We got the inspiration for the song ‘Love of My Own’ one day when we were all talking about Alicia and her boyfriend and Pax and I both were feeling like “wow I want that.” It was then we realized we wanted to write a song for the girl who is watching their best friend fall in love because that’s who we were!
What is your favourite song from the EP?
Alicia Paulson- My favorite song from Fancy EP changes by the day, at the moment it’s definitely ‘Tuff Girl’. It’s my favorite song to perform especially, seeing girls and even boys getting into it singing, “I’m a tuff girl”.
Paxton Martin – It’s hard for me to pick a favorite a song seems like it changes every day. I have certain songs that I love to listen to and others that I love performing more. I think ‘Love of My Own’ is my favorite right now because the music is very emotional and I connect with it lol.
Kristen Brown – Picking my favorite song on the album is a tough question. Personally, I love the song ‘Friday Night Lights’. The story itself is so beautiful yet bittersweet, that you can’t help but feel the heartache in this song. Another reason it’s a favorite is because whenever we perform it we seem to always meet someone in the audience who played football in High School, was the girlfriend of the football player, or a mom who sold hotdogs at the snack bar telling us how they lived some form of that song. They’re all such different people but they all relate to the same story.
You’ve come a long way since forming back in 2013, what has been your proudest moment to date?
Alicia Paulson- Personally, my proudest moment to date would be when we performed at the 2016 Wolf Fest – for one of our local country radio stations. We had never really performed with a band until that day, and we got on stage and had one of our best shows. We had so much energy and truly had the most fun we’ve ever had on stage. It’s one thing to perform to a track, but it’s a whole other thing when your album is coming to life with musicians behind you.
Paxton Martin – My proudest moment so far has to be been when we finished recording, mixing and mastering of our album. So much work was put into it. I never understood when people meant when they said they put their ‘blood sweat and tears’ into something until we finished the EP. There was a lot of long tough nights where we felt like we couldn’t get it right. There were moments where we cried because there was so much happening but it was all worth it in the end. Holding the album in my hand was an experience I can’t even begin to explain. I wanted to cry because I was so proud of all the work we put into it. I take that back I’m pretty sure I did cry.
Kristen Brown – I would say that my proudest moment has been the release of our album. We had a release party in a historic theatre in Roseville and we got to share the moment with all our friends and family and it was truly a night I know we will never forget the night was very surreal. We broke an attendance record for the number of people in the theatre and we had to turn away some folks at the door because they couldn’t fit any more chairs. We were nervous but excited to share that night with the people we love most. We could not have been more thankful for everyone who came out and celebrated that night with us.
Are you looking to release a full-length studio album this year?
Alicia Paulson- We’re constantly writing and we have a few songs that we already know will make the cut, but we’re not positive if we’re going to release a full-length album or another EP. Either way we’ll be releasing some new music!
Paxton Martin – We have been writing and working on a lot of new songs that we are pretty excited about but I’m not sure if we’re going to release another EP or a full-length album this year. One thing I do know is you WILL hear more music from us in 2017 so get ready.
Kristen Brown – We are in the process of writing some new songs that we are super excited about but we still haven’t decided yet if we will be releasing a full-length album or another EP. It’s been a while now since the songs off the EP were written and we’ve grown a lot as people since then so coming together to write new songs has been amazing and I can’t wait until we find the songs that we feel are perfect for us and we get to release them.
Would you say, your mission is to get country music back in the charts again?
Alicia Paulson- We would love to be the artists that bring country back into style. Because of how we write our music, we’ve made it so that life long country listeners will love the new take, and on the other hand those that don’t listen to country will still enjoy it.
Paxton Martin – We would love to make country music popular again. People right now have such a strong negative opinion on country music; they don’t understand that there is more to country than trucks, beer, girls in short shorts and tailgating. We would love for more people to give country a chance and stop putting all country music artist in the same box. There are so many songs and artists that everyone can relate to in country music and I think they would be surprised if they just give country music a shot.
Kristen Brown – Absolutely our mission is to get country music back on the charts – especially our music!! I understand why people might feel like country music isn’t exactly for everyone but country has something that isn’t really in other genres of music – great stories. When you’re listening to the right country song it’s as if someone is singing the story of your life. It can take you on a journey with the lyric painting the picture. It’s a shame that some people might not listen merely because they have an impression in their heads that all country music is trucks, beer, and daisy dukes. I hope with our music we can deliver honest, universal songs that reach out to everyone.
What has been your funniest moment on tour?
Alicia Paulson- In the middle of December we played a show at a bar. We had a great show, and we were looking forward to meeting fans afterward at our merch table. However, after we got off stage we were escorted outside in the freezing cold because we aren’t 21. We had to pack up the merchandise table too because unfortunately, no one recognized the Auburn Road parents enough to come up to the table! We could have been mad but we understood the situation and we had to laugh it off. Maybe in a few years!
Paxton Martin – I feel like there have been so many funny moments while we were on tour but one of my favorite funny moments is kind of a reoccurring one. Alicia is not afraid of much but she is TERRIFIED of flying bugs fly’s, bees, wasps, lady bugs it doesn’t matter if it flies – she’s afraid of it. Whenever she sees a flying bug she flips out. She will run away, hide or crawl into a ball just to get away from a flying bug. There have been moments where she has almost cried because she’s so scared of a bug. She gets this look on her face that makes her seem like terrified child and it kills me because she looks so petrified. Don’t get me wrong I’m afraid of bugs too but when Alicia’s afraid with me I can’t help but let go of my fear because she acts so funny. She has all of us laughing our face off every time a mosquito gets in the car.
Kristen Brown – Our funniest moment on tour would have to be when we movie hopped when we were out in Nashville. It was about 10 o clock at night and we had just gotten out of watching the movie The Purge and we decided we could not end our night on that note because we would have nightmares so we decided to go see ‘Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates’ and started to sneak over to the other theatre. Well, as we are walking Paxton starts flipping out!! She said she was just going to buy her ticket for the second movie instead of walking over… but the problem with Paxton’s “master plan” was that at the time she wasn’t old enough to buy her own Rated-R movie ticket! So, she was ‘forced’ to movie hop with us. As we sat in the theatre, she was on Google searching the penalty for movie hopping – she hops up and says, “You can get arrested in the state of Texas!!” We still give her such a hard time about it and probably will for years to come. Sorry Pax…
Would you ever consider performing in the UK and Europe?
Alicia Paulson- That’s the dream! We would love to travel the world and share our music in every region possible.
Paxton Martin – Heck yeah! I have always wanted to travel to the UK and Europe. We would jump at the opportunity to sing over there.
Kristen Brown – It would be SO AMAZING to be able to perform over there! It is so beautiful and from what I’ve read it’s as if art is everywhere. I have never been out of the country so to be able to go somewhere I’ve always wanted to go and perform our music at the same time would be fantastic!
Who were your music inspirations when growing up?
Alicia Paulson- The Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow have been my go-to when it comes to musical inspirations. They’re extremely talented in both song writing and vocal skills and I aspire to be at that level one day.
Paxton Martin – Reba McEntire was my biggest inspiration growing up I listened to her almost every day. I would throw a fit when I was younger if I didn’t hear her cd in the car. She sings with so much passion and emotion, which is why I think I always connected to her. I could feel what she was feeling even as a kid because she takes you on a journey when she sings. I may not have understood what she was singing about but I could feel her emotions.
Kristen Brown – My musical inspirations growing up were the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The Dixie Chicks were actually my first CD ever and I listened to that thing nonstop. I would play it in my room or my dad would play it in the car and I learned every song – some to my mom’s dismay like ‘White Trash Wedding,’ apparently, moms don’t want their 3-year- old daughters singing songs about shotgun weddings…lol. But what little girl doesn’t love to sing sassy songs that they don’t have a clue what the song is about?? I discovered Carrie Underwood when I was about 9 years old. I aspired to have a voice like her from the minute I heard her sing ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ on the radio. She continues to amaze me with her talent, grace, kindness, and her confidence when she’s on stage. Carrie Underwood will always be my idol and I will always be her #1 fan.
What’s the music scene like Sacramento?
Alicia Paulson- There are so many incredible artists here in Sacramento – believe it or not – practically everywhere you go you’ll meet someone in the music business, or aspiring to be. However, Sacramento artists tend to get overlooked because it’s still a small town. People tend to focus on places like San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They have no idea what they’re missing out on, I would definitely say I’m proud to be born and raised in Sacramento.
Paxton Martin – You would not believe the talent in Sacramento. There are so many people up here with amazing talent that you’ve never heard of because we’re a small town with big buildings in it. We get lost in the mix because most people think San Francisco or LA is where all the talent is. But if you come up here and see what Sacramento has to offer you will be very impressed.
Kristen Brown – The music scene in Sacramento is full of talent. We have our share of great singers and musicians but people often overlook us because we aren’t a big city. For anyone who isn’t from Sac or has never even been, even though Sacramento is the capitol of California, it’s a relatively small city with big buildings. We have pretty big population but the small-town vibe is very true here especially in the surrounding areas like Roseville and Elk Grove where we live.