Blake Shelton’s Breakout Hit “Austin” was Written by Kirsti Manna – Songwriter Interview She was the songwriter for Blake Shelton’s breakout hit “Austin.” Hear the story about how it was written and more behind the scenes in the country music business.
Sue Bonzell
She wrote a little song you might recognize for Blake Shelton called Austin. She has her own video podcast and a bunch of programs empowering women. I am excited that Kirsti Manna is here. Welcome, Kirsti.
Kirsti Manna
Thanks for having me, Sue.
Sue Bonzell
Yes. Okay, so we got to talk about Austin. I mean, that was like the breakout song for Blake Shelton. I mean, he’s, you know, the big the big guy, and he’s all doing the voice and he’s got his high nose program. So tell me about the song.
Kirsti Manna
Well, it was it was really serendipitous how all that happened. But basically what happened was I was going to write with a friend of mine, and he had left this message on his answering machine is said, if this is Austin, I still love you. And I’m oh my gosh, no, totally true. So well, that’s, that’s, that’s a winner. We got to write that. So I got to his house. And he said, Well, I really don’t want to write that idea. You know, I’m sick of writing about my children love affairs. I said, get out of here. Go.
No, everybody. Everybody loves those songs, right?
Everybody’s telling me to write that idea. And I said, you don’t want to write it. He said, No. I said, Can I have the idea goes? Yeah, take it. Wow. Okay. So I go over to David cans house a couple days later, I said, you have got to hear this idea. I don’t know if you’ve called ashes house lately. But he said what? I said he left this message said, if this is Austin, I still love you. And it was about his girlfriend, his girlfriend lived in Austin. A lot of people have asked me is that the name of a girl of a guy. And it’s the name of Austin, Texas, because she lived there. And that’s where she went. When she left Nashville. He was leaving the message. If this is Austin, you know, I still love you. Like if this is Youngstown, or I’m from Isola. So anyway, David goes, here’s what the idea was. So what we talked about that idea for a really long time, probably probably for about six hours, we talked about what we could see you doing we decided we wanted to be like a movie, a little movie, you know, three minute movie. We wrote it in two sessions. Wow. And you know, I always loved writing with David can and so when the song was finished, and he made this, you know, he would make these really good work demos. I thought, wow, I think we really have something so that his publisher pitched it to clay Walker. Oh, okay. Walker put it on. Well, actually, to Debbie’s avid son, who at that time was at giant records. And she was a&r there, she put it on hold for clay Walker clay really liked the song. And then clay took it off hold and she loved Austin. She loved the song so much. And so she really wanted to pitch it to this baby act. So she she called us up and in David Kent called me and he said, What do you think about letting this guide Blake Shelton record Austin? Well, at that time, we weren’t calling it Austin that that whole thing didn’t happen until a little bit later. And so I said, Well, I’ve heard him saying he’s really good. Yeah. thinking, oh, you know, it’ll be a good cut. Good
Sue Bonzell
thing. You said that. He’s really good. Yeah, no,
Kirsti Manna
he is really good. So. So he, he recorded the song, you know, and Bobby Braddock produced it and, and Bobby said, I think we should change the name to just Austin. He said, I could see this one word title going up the charts. And so I thought, Okay, well, he’s had a couple, right. So I guess we’ll, you know, let him let Him lead us there. You know, when, when the song was cut, and everything, and Bobby said, you know, I want you to come to, you know, the publishers office I was I’m one of the publishers and Janet Talbot was David kids publisher at the time, and her dad had had a big part in starting the CMA and everything. So she was kind of like, you know, country music royalty in my mind. So, we go to the office, and Bobby’s gonna play us the cut in it hit that second verse, and I thought, and I’m biting my lip, because I thought I am going to ball rate here. It was, I was so moved by it, you know? Right. So and then it was just after that it was just so it was unbelievable. I mean, how could we even imagine that, you know, we’ve got the charts like that. It just, it did all these great things. And it was the first major cut for me. I never had a major cut like that. Yeah, you know, I would always pull the car over and listen, you know, this is really happening. That’s my song.
Sue Bonzell
Yeah. That is amazing. I love that now. So you also you have your own publishing company. Yeah, yeah. Let Tell me about that and who you’re working with, if you if you can, you know reveal who you’re working with. Sure. Sure.
Kirsti Manna
Well, my publishing company is called Kirstie mana songs. And I called it that because I like my name. And so I thought well, you know, it’s easy for people to remember you one time right so anyway, my you know, I have I’ve helped different artists and publish different some different artists, indie artists, but I write for my company in so currently doing a lot of writing tutorial Martin who’s on the label that I work With lucky sky music, I’m VP and creative director there, as well. So I write with her quite a bit. And my dear dear friend, my soul song brother, Bill de Luigi, he and I write together a lot to it. But I love writing with young artists I’ve always loved trying to help young women and girls know, understand what’s going on the music business and just really inspire them creatively. So
Sue Bonzell
yeah. And so speaking of that, that’s kind of your passion is kind of helping women, especially young women in the industry. Yeah. And you’ve got a couple of programs. Tell me about your programs that you have for the ladies.
Kirsti Manna
Sure. Well, I started, I haven’t done these events in several years, when the pandemic of course, closed in on a site, I couldn’t have any more events at that time. But I was holding events called Sangha girl camp. And so I was inspired to do that, because I had, at one time, been doing workshops in teaching at a big talent event that used to occur in South Carolina. So I would go to these events, and I’d get in the room, get ready to talk. And the girls all be you know, really excited. And as soon as guys would get in the room, they would change. And I thought, Okay, I want to get the girls along right now. Yeah, so I decided to start doing song or girl camp, and I would the camps were about writing. But for me, really, they were about helping build people’s confidence and everything. And I had some really amazing moments of through the years of those camps, meeting different girls, and really moving moving times, for me and for everybody attended. And so the camps would just be all about writing, co writing, learning about publishing, and I would have speakers come in and talk about different aspects of the business. And, and then I just, I’ve always done public speaking, and I’m really into that. And so when the pandemic started again, I was about to really get into promoting my speaking. And in the pandemic of caution that’ll, so I thought, well, podcast that’s like a stage and I get go. So I thought, Well, I’ll start a podcast. So I started a podcast called Kirsty cast. And it’s kind of a broader umbrella, so to speak, of, of songwriter girl and, and I really wanted to meet other women and girls that were entrepreneurial, and spirit like yourself and creative, creative spirits, and introduce them to my audience. And so I started doing Kirsty cast. And so and you’re
Sue Bonzell
kind of with all of that, too. You kind of have that like, inspiration piece in your, in your Yeah, everything that you’re doing. I mean, especially you’re just working with the ladies and then within your, your podcast. Yeah, you have that little inspiration piece. Yeah. So I think that’s really important. So what’s, what’s inspiring to you? Oh, wow, well,
Kirsti Manna
things that are inspiring to me are just people that are inspiring, it sounds really crazy. But I’m really, I’m really inspired by what people can do with their lives, you know, people that have nothing, and they really make something of their life, they, they really go after their dreams and and I just think it’s so important. I’m going to say this to you, out there. If you have a dream, just really go for it, have a plan, make a plan, and just don’t be afraid. And that was one of the things I talked about a lot in Sangha to grow camp was losing the fear. Because I think that’s, that’s the thing that stops everybody from, you know, from writing a song singing, going up and talking to somebody that they think could help them write all kinds of things. I started doing that stay inspired story in my podcasts for my get a guest question. Because I wanted to learn more about every person that I interviewed and what really was making them tick, you know, and why they wanted to do what they wanted to do in the world and in how they wanted to share their own story, because we always we all have a story.
Sue Bonzell
Right, exactly. And it and that’s interesting, too, because sometimes we think our stories are like, it’s just my story. But then you tell it and somebody says, Oh, I resonate with that, or that’s, you know, that it’s mean something to me. Yeah. So it’s great that you’re bringing those stories out in your podcast. So you also have you’ve got a new online course. Yes, yes. Tell us
Kirsti Manna
about that. Well, that was another thing that I did during like, Okay,
Sue Bonzell
girl, you got the energy and you got all the projects like you. I mean, have you figured out how to like, you know, multiply time or something? I
Kirsti Manna
don’t know. No, because I do like to sleep and eat. Okay. I didn’t make during the pandemic again, I thought, well, you know, I’ve always wanted to write an online course. And then at the time, I was working with somebody that was, again, trying to help me, you know, get speaking engagements. And he had put together a lot of online courses in this sense, you know, he knew how to load it into, you know, the aggregator, all that kind of stuff. I’m just like, you know, I’m just writing songs here. So it can’t it just all comes out of that whole thing of wanting people to just, I just want to kick people in the butt creatively and I used to say a camp I don’t care if you want to be a chef. I just want you to be awake to who you are inside. And don’t be afraid to meet that person. I had, I just always have to talk about this acting coach that I had named Tom Capps, because he was one of the most inspiring people in my life. And he, the first time I met him, he said to me, what do you want to do with your art? Nice? Well, I said, I want to move people. And he said, why can take you to the next level. So I thought, Oh, he’s gonna help me be an actor, you know. And really, at the end of all my studies with him, I realized it was, it was really about, you know, my art being what I could create. And it didn’t have to be in front of a camera on a stage in it was my words and how I spoke to people and how I could inspire people to. So that’s where kind of all that stuff came from. So the course is all about losing your fear, discovering your potential, discovering more about yourself, just going forward. And it’s it’s real introspective. And so, you know, if anybody wants to get the course, you can go to my website, and you can there, you can get yourself attached to
Sue Bonzell
it there. Okay, good. So one last question. Yeah. Is, if you have, you know, one little bit of advice for somebody who maybe is a songwriter? What do you think if they’re just kind of writing songs, not really sure what to do next, what’s what’s kind of your best advice, or you know, what they should do next? While
Kirsti Manna
there’s so much to say about that, actually, but one thing that I think is really important, I said it a minute ago is to have a plan, you know, you have to exist, you have to eat, you have to pay your rent, I think it’s really important to have a plan. A lot of people are so enamored with Nashville, they come here and they just, they’re on vacation. You know, they don’t realize they’re coming here with stars in their eyes, and they’re on vacation. But I think it’s important to come here, check it out, see if you like it, and meet people and network with people because this town is one of the easiest places you’ll ever go. And we talked about that, too, to engage with other people and, and people are really helpful here. So they are they are they want to, you know, help you out. And if you say, Oh, I’m from such and such a place, there’s always going to be somebody who’s ya know, so that you know, exactly, and then it becomes the homey thing.
Sue Bonzell
Yeah, exactly. And everybody’s connected to everybody. Yeah, it’s like sometimes I feel like there needs to be like a family tree of country music where it’s like, if people that are related or got married, and then this like you wrote a song for Blake and then put, you know, like, yeah, it’s like, this whole like tree of everybody is everybody knows everybody,
Kirsti Manna
that’s a really good idea. That’s a really good idea for a song. I like that. But seriously, it’s it’s so like that here in so I think that if you can come here and you know, work smart, you know, meet people play song or nights that they’re kind of more strategic. You know, I think when you first get your feet wet, it’s good to go and work your stuff out somewhere where because there could be an industry person anywhere you know, they’re not they’re not just going to these big shows they’re they’re sticking their heads in you know, these little hole in the wall writers night so to speak. And we
Sue Bonzell
were just talking about that was kind of how Garth Brooks was discovered at the Bluebird, like on accident he was supposed to, you know, be the one of the last ones got moved up. And yeah, some people happen to be there. And next thing you know, he’s Yeah, Garth Brooks. Yeah. Oh, God,
Kirsti Manna
Garth was working with one of our first publishers that we were assigned to. And he sang some demos for us. You know, we came over to our apartment and sang demos. That was really cool. You know, that? Well, so and he and he’s just such a great person, because I have seen him again than later in my career in his career, and he’s just the same. He’s really nice.
Sue Bonzell
See, I’ve heard and I’ve heard that about him too, that it’s like the way that he you see him on TV or interviews that you want to use exactly the same way.
Kirsti Manna
Yeah. And I you know, what I think is so funny. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the Nashville show, but I always thought it was hilarious. The parts where they’d have the paparazzi because Have You Ever Have you ever seen pop on see in this town? You know, everybody’s
Sue Bonzell
ROTC on the on the red carpet with? Excuse me? Excuse me? Yeah. Can I get a comment? Yeah. Yeah, it doesn’t. You don’t really see that very, very
Kirsti Manna
much. Yeah. Nashville just, it’s simply about Yeah, it is.
Sue Bonzell
It’s different. I know. I see people a lot of you know, weight celebrities, if you will, the country celebrities on socials that are posting something of them, like, you know, at the Kroger shopping or doing whatever. And I’m like, they’re everywhere here. Yeah, I keep waiting to like, run into like Miranda Lambert at Walmart or something.
Kirsti Manna
Well, somebody told me that Miranda Lambert had New Year’s Eve dinner a couple years ago with the old hickory country clubs. So that’s right. Yeah.
Sue Bonzell
Right. It’s right around the corner. Between my house and your house. Oh, Hickory. Well, thank you so much for being here giving us a little insight and of course sharing all of the things that you’re doing and resources for people who are looking to get into the business too. So thank you if you want to follow Kirsty mana she’s your gal.
Kirsti Manna
Yes, thank you so much for having me.
Sue Bonzell
Thanks for watching up in country be sure to like and subscribe and leave us a comment. We do new episodes every Tuesday and be sure to follow up and country on Instagram Tik Tok and Facebook and you can follow me to add Sue Bonzell on instagram facebook and Tik Tok
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