By Rachelle Graham

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Native Media’s Michael Austin while in Texas recently and to hear first-hand some of his effervescent stories. A lot of them were off the record, but a few made it here into the Symetrix Scene for our enjoyment.

Austin’s history is interesting, and though he claims he was stolen by gypsies and sold into the audio business, the true tale is slightly less exotic. If you’ve ever traveled with him, you quickly learn that he seems to know everyone, which is saying something in a state that’s as big as Texas. (It’s a whole other country). He is constantly running into people he knows – friends, neighbors, relatives. He’s from a little town in deep East Texas called Lufkin, where his professional story begins on a Sunday evening in a church choir. “I was in the youth choir and I couldn’t, and can’t, carry a note. I saw that the guys who were actually in charge were the sound guys. I was 13 or 14 when that happened. I got my first paying job in the audio industry when I was 15 or 16 and have been doing it ever since,” Austin recalls. Interestingly enough, when it came time to choose a formal education, Austin got his bachelor’s degree in Finance, although he’s never worked a day in that industry. He muses, “I just couldn’t see myself sitting in a bank every day handing out loans. I had a beard and they told me I had to shave it and I said ‘Gahhhhh!’ My friend called me and said, ‘You should come over here and work with me. Cold calling financial institutions for jumbo blocks of mortgages.’ I said ‘Nahhh. I’m not a salesman. I want to solve problems and fix things.’ A week after graduating college I was on the road as house engineer for Michael Martin Murphey. The owners of that company parted ways. The two remaining owners put me in charge of the company. We sold off the touring stuff and kept the rental equipment and turned it around in six months. They were great business people.”

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