We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shelby, Sam, And Ben Dufton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shelby, Sam, and Ben, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

Sam: We were playing at a dive bar in the Hamptons a few years back and there was a couple who had never seen us play before in the crowd. During our breaks we like to go sit in the audience with people and talk—you get to hear some cool stories and meet some pretty interesting folks.

This couple came up to our table and after talking for a few minutes about life and this and that, the man wanted to make sure that we would be at the bar for at least another hour—we assured him we were only one hour into a three hour show and then he left abruptly out the back door. We talked to his wife for a few more minutes before our break was over.

He came back at the end of our next set with a guitar in hand. He called us over to his table and we were expecting him to ask us if he could sit in on a song. Instead, he handed me the guitar and asked if I could play it for him. It was signed by Scotty McCreery and he had won it in an auction at a fundraiser almost a decade ago. He loved live music and said once he heard me start playing that he knew I was meant to have it.

I played our final set with that guitar and it’s one of my most prized possessions and not because it’s signed by someone famous, although that’s a cool plus, but because this interaction made me realize how powerful music is and how nice people are. Steve, if you’re reading this thank you again, and when you want to come to another Audawind show, we have some free tickets for life with your name on them.

Shelby, Sam, and Ben, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Shelby: We are Audawind, a three-piece coastal country rock band made up of myself, Shelby Dufton, and my identical twin brothers, Ben and Sam. We’re from the North Fork of Long Island, an agro-tourism summer community across from the Hamptons. The North Fork is incredibly unique and special, and it completely shaped who we are—it’s a vacation town that’s bustling in the summer with tourists and summer home owners, but small town USA during the winter when it’s just us locals. Living in a town that contrasts the glitz of the summer and the ultra rural winters, gave us a unique perspective of the world. If you’re trying to picture who we are, think of the locals in Jaws…that’s kind of our vibe. We grew up hanging out on the beach listening to everything from Johnny Cash and Jimmy Buffett to John Cougar Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow to AC/DC—we’re from a big family and our loud, boisterous house always has a soundtrack.

Family is incredibly important to us, so it only made sense that when we all picked up music around the fifth grade or so, that we would form a band. In addition to being a special bond, being in a band with your family is also super convenient—growing up, band practice often took place in a room right off the kitchen as our mom cooked to the music of a teenage garage band figuring out their sound—most parents would have gone crazy but we’re lucky that our musical ventures have always been fully supported. We’ve now been playing together for ten years and have traveled all across the country—and played at some pretty cool places like Stephen Talkhouse in the Hamptons, the Analog in Nashville, the Desert 5 Spot in LA, and even the Indiana State Fair. Ben and Sam just turned 21 but we’ve been playing in bars and wineries for years.

We have six songs out on streaming platforms right now, with more on the way! Sam is our producer, Ben is our songwriter, but our mom and I often have a hand in the lyrics, plus I handle most of the business. We are totally independent and are having fun living out our dreams. Music is super powerful and we take our responsibility as musicians seriously. When you have the ability to create art that people connect with and that can manipulate their emotions or transport them in time, you have a choice to make the world a better place. We all have musicians who we admire and it’s easy to see the impact of their music on the world. We want to make our listeners either feel happy, motivated, or empowered—and sometimes we just wanna give ‘em a good laugh. We have a lot more to share with the world and we’re grateful we get to share it.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Ben: Post, post, post! We have almost 80,000 followers on Tik Tok and we are totally obsessed with all of them. We post at least once a day and have been for a while. We were working with a manager for a couple years who wanted us to remove all our social media and music from everywhere, and we did it. If we were to give any advice to someone starting out…it would be to not do this. We had about 11,000 followers on Tik Tok and all of a sudden we went dark and took everything down. In the last year, we’ve gained 67,000 followers but I can’t imagine where we would be if we never stopped posting. Social Media is a great equalizer for independent musicians, respect that and use it to your advantage!

Last night we got a DM from a mother of three, she was writing to thank us for our song “Dream You Have”. She said her kids fall asleep every night watching a video of us playing the song. Social media allows you to connect with your fans in special ways that are extremely meaningful and helps put a face to your music—when a song becomes more than an audio recording, that’s a powerful thing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Ben: Being professional musicians is a total gift and we are so grateful to get to do what we love for a living, it has given us complete freedom to live our lives how we wish to live them.

Sam: As independent musicians we have complete control over our career and are not beholden to anyone else. We get to decide how our music sounds, where to spend our money, how far we want to travel, how we want to dress, and every aspect of Audawind. Sometimes this can be overwhelming—signed artists have teams of people to do for them what we have to do for ourselves and we’d be lying if we said there were never days when we wished we could just call someone.

Shelby: We are happy with our independence, and even if at some point in our career we decide that we’d like more of a partner in this thing, we wouldn’t trade the years of the indie grind for anything—we think it’s important to really know the business you’re getting into so you can advocate for yourself, even if you are signed. There’s nothing more rewarding than doing what you love for a living because if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life—guess we haven’t worked yet.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://audawind.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audawind/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/audawind/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Audawind
• Other: Tik Tok:
  

  @audawind

  Spotify:

  Apple Music:
  https://music.apple.com/us/artist/audawind/1519746229

  Amazon Music:
  https://amazon.com/music/player/artists/B08BPFZVSN/audawind?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_BGVZPwFtwpk9TNvWgrrLzCFaz

Image Credits

Melinda Norris photography (for professional photos only)