We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Austin Rogers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Austin below.

Austin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

This field, or scene, is a warzone. If you’re taking music, or anything unorthodox seriously you will have a moment in your life or career after taking the correct steps where you have to look back, to what could possibly be, maybe you’re leaving a job because they wont give you the time off for a show, maybe you’re disinterested in where college is taking you and you want to wager a risk, an almost “deal with the devil” if you want to be symbolic. It’s a moment of indecision, fear, and a delusional amount of hope. It’s where you look back at safety, security, pride and acceptance from others that leads into a life of gluttony and Americanism, a 9-5, picket fence, happy spouse, happy children, the risk of it crashing down is there sure, but most people will take that over the risk of achieving their real passions. It take’s a special cocktail of courage, delusion, and disenfranchisement to look at that, throw it to the wayside and burn the ships to achieve something extraordinary, to make a dream work in a field most people are not cut out for, where the barrier to entry is bulletproof glass, hoisted at the summit of a mountain with a 90 degree slope. But is that not the definition of extraordinary? If it were as easy as getting a job and climbing a corporate ladder everybody would “accomplish their dreams”. Instead they have the opposite reaction to this crossroads dilemma, and crumble under the pressures of fear and realism.
As for me, I will not falter, and with that one must understand the consequences, the lost time, the risk, the uncertain road that lays unpaved before you, where you have to shoot across it at the speed of light while paving every step in front of you, hoping it leads somewhere. Will it? Only time will tell. I’m not courageous, I’m not an artist, I’m an idiot blocking out what reality is telling me and instead forging on despite the sacrifices, at the end of the day, that will determine if you REALLY want to achieve your dreams, even then, at the end of this all, I could still be an idiot.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into music when I was a child, going to my father’s shows when he was in a band. I remember memorizing the words and the joy I felt seeing live music, ever since then an almost primordial desire to replicate that became a priority. Only since 2021 have I been given the means to do so with my band, Bad Future. We’re a band from Tampa Bay focused on energy and creativity. We don’t self identify with a genre or clique and instead translate whatever we want or think our audience would like into our music. Our shows are energetic and action packed with an emphasis on theatrics and crowd involvement, we want to be more than a band, its a show. Anyone can get on stage with instruments and play music, but to grab the audiences attention almost reaching into their eye sockets and pulling them on stage is what makes a memorable experience, while still not losing the integrity of the music.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

To build. To work on this project and continue advancing it until my fingers become bone and eventually grind into dust. As long as there is room to grow, which there always will be, I will continue to work on my goal to make this band happen an establish a shadow government until the day I die. In fields like this, stopping at the most basic a feasible goals lead you to be dulled and lose the passion. Always advance, or burn out.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

They’re stupid.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/badfuture
• Instagram: instagram.com/badfutureband
• Facebook: facebook.com/badfutureband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOM4HJBwJ18vOZAsUB-afjg/featured AND /https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyDXaAu-Y2Wcg7ER7UeUAkQ
• Other: Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bad-future/1704727226 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/5fyoFN3i0RRe7nMGXKXrYH Email [email protected]

Image Credits
Abbey Weiss Paul Gryn