Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Autumn Marie Buysse. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Autumn Marie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
I grew up knowing two main types of parents: mom-ager/dad-ager parents, and hands-off parents.
A lot of my friends had mom-agers and dad-agers who hovered over their kids’ every move. These kids ended up achieving a lot without ever learning to achieve any of it by themselves. These were the kids who only played basketball because their parents signed them up. They only did well at Solo & Ensemble because their parents would ground them if they didn’t. These kids never booked their own gigs or found their own tutors or drove themselves to the batting cages. My friends who grew up with mom-agers and dad-agers were lost after high school because once they graduated, suddenly they had all this freedom for the first time in their lives and no idea what to do with it. These kids were never sure if they were pursuing passions because they were passionate about them, or because their parents were. These helicopter parents raised successful, competent children who had no ability to function independently of their parents.
On the other hand, hands-off parents never went above and beyond for their kids. Sure, they’d pick up their kids from soccer practice, but they weren’t volunteering their house for the end-of-season team party. They’d sign their kids up for piano lessons, but they wouldn’t insist on walking them through the sheet music when they got home. If these kids wanted to quit gymnastics, that was fine by hands-off parents because that’s one less practice they had to drive to every week. The kids of hands-off parents grew up independent, but most didn’t reach their full potential because no one ever tirelessly encouraged them to reach it.
My parents were the best of both worlds. My parents drove me to every single practice, rehearsal, and lesson. My parents never missed a single concert, spelling bee, or tournament. My dad was such an enthusiastic fan that during one of my nine-year-old soccer games, my coach stormed across the field at half-time and threatened to kick my dad out if he kept cheering so loud.
However, while my parents encouraged me to participate in extracurriculars, they never required it and they never insisted I succeed. My parents wanted me to do well at everything I did, but I never got in trouble when I didn’t. When I succeeded, they jumped up and down and extolled my virtues to anyone who could hear. When I didn’t succeed, they reminded me I could if I wanted to. This freedom made me independent, self-disciplined and intrinsically motivated.
I grew up spending half my life at school, and the other half of my life at School of Rock, a contemporary music education extracurricular program. My parents paid for me to go to top-rated private schools with excellent music programs, and they also paid for all my School of Rock voice lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons, and show rehearsals. Even if you just tally up the tanks of gas it took to drive me everywhere, I can’t imagine how much they shelled out to provide me with every opportunity possible.
There’s a lot of parents who pay obscene amounts of money so that their kids can have amazing opportunities. The difference is, my parents went out of their way to make sure I had everything, but then they stayed out my way so that I could make something of it myself.
Autumn Marie, 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?
I’m a songwriter who writes country and pop songs for artists. This July, I signed to Bigger Picture Entertainment via Sony Music Publishing, so I can now say that my full time job is writing songs.
I’ve always been completely obsessed with drama. I love finding out how a guy got caught cheating. I’ve got a million burning questions for anyone who got married on the second date. I need to know why a TV character obsessively bites their nails or wears ugly clothes. I crave the what, the why, the how. The only thing I love more than telling a good story is hearing a great one. My goal as a songwriter is to discern the driving emotion in each of these stories. I then use creativity and craft to try to make the listener feel as strongly about the story as the singer does. That’s why I gravitate towards working with exceptionally talented entertainers, because the more convincingly a perform can convey a song, the more the listener will believe the words and melodies the singer’s singing.
The common thread through every song I write is energy. I like to write what I call “bangers”— songs you can’t help but move to. I love writing songs that hold the listener captive the entire three and a half minutes. That’s why I make my sad songs as heartbreaking as humanly possible, and my happy songs as lively as can be. I’m a person of extremes, so it’s no surprise that my songs are.
To hear the 80+ songs I’ve had recorded by artists, you can check out this link here: https://open.spotify.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Performance Rights Organizations — ASCAP has done more for me than any organization ever has. Since becoming an active member about five years ago, ASCAP has included me in their 2021 GPS class that connected me with five different Music Row publishers, awarded me the 2021 Jay Gorney Award for my song “Friendly Fire,” invited me to selective industry events, and set me up with numerous co-writers and industry connections. I’m endlessly grateful for ASCAP’s all-star team.
Splice — I wish I’d known about this sooner. It’s eight bucks a month and it’s got every loop you could ever want. Why kill yourself over learning production, when you can just steal from the best producers in the world?
USB Microphones — This sounds silly, but getting rid of the audio interface will make a reluctant songwriter 10x more likely to lay a vocal down in Logic. Since I downgraded to my $90 USB podcasting microphone, I record more vocals now than ever before. I don’t care if audio interfaces would make my scratch vocals sound a little better, because they’re such a headache that I simply wouldn’t lay any vocals at all. For people who despise audio engineering, a USB microphone will change your entire relationship with music production.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I want to write songs that will be remembered forever.
My mom likes to remind me that she was in labor with me for eons. When she finally got me out, she was so exhausted that the only song she could think of to sing to me was the University of Michigan fight song. I want to write melodies like that. Melodies that are so ingrained in the public consciousness that it’s the first melody that comes to mind post-labor.
When it comes to lyrics, I want to write plenty of brilliant one liner verse lyrics of course, but I also want to write universal chorus phrases like “I wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who loves me.” I want to write some songs that are so niche that only a few hundred thousand people on the planet will relate, and I want to write other songs so big that all eight billion humans on earth can resonate with it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.autumnmariemusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnmariemusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AutumnMarieMusic/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumnmariebuysse/
Image Credits
Colin Rowe, Victoria Powell, Autumn Paige