A Chat with Mr. Charisma (19.08.26)
Emerging from Houston’s hardcore scene, long-time friends Daniel Austin and Chris Hatfield throw all their life experiences, intimate narratives and moving moments into Mr. Charisma. We spoke with instrumentalist Daniel Austin about their new EP, Some People, what music means to him, possible live shows, and much more.
OSR: Exceptionally cliché, but what can you tell us about how Mr. Charisma came about? What made you and Chris decide to begin Mr Charisma?
Austin: It was honestly an accident. I was working on an acoustic track for a cover project I do called Mainlander. I’d never written any original acoustic tracks before, but the song on our first EP, ‘Mind Don’t Work’, just kind of wrote itself in a matter of an hour. I did a vocal demo for it and sent it to Chris, because he is the kind of dude who will tell me the truth, and I asked him if it was any good. He said he liked it, but said he always wanted to sing in a project like this, so he asked if I would mind if he did a demo. Then he sent me the demo of him singing, and I was shocked. I’ve known this guy since I was 14 years old and had no idea he could sing at all. I just responded to him and said, “Hey man, you’re the singer now.” And from there, we just got into a writing frenzy. These kinds of songs came a lot more naturally to us than we expected.
OSR: You’re both part of the bands Die Young and Will To Live. Do you think Mr. Charisma is a greater representation of you at the moment, or is it another side to your musical personas?
Austin: Mr. Charisma is the manifestation of sides of us that have been there all along. Even though we’ve been playing hardcore and metal for decades, we also grew up listening to our parents’ music like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, classic Americana stuff like that, and I think in Chris’s case a lot of Outlaw Country, something I came to enjoy later on. We look at Mr. Charisma as a project that represents the kind of music we like to listen to on a long drive after playing a hardcore show. It’s a lot more mellow to give your ears a break, but it’s got a brooding atmosphere, and it still strikes you in a very deep way, much like the way heavier-sounding music does for us. It’s also a very lyric-centered project, which to me is a manifestation of the way artists like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave have influenced me over the years, as I believe they just are putting poetry to music.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Austin: Music has been a major part of me since I was as young as I can remember. I always took it very seriously, and it’s something I often create without consciously trying, at least when the inspiration for a tune or chorus line strikes. It’s a natural outlet of expression, both the music-making aspect and the lyric writing aspect. And it’s always been something I’ve turned to to self-soothe whatever is going on in my head.
OSR: Your new EP, Some People, deals with some of the most confrontational and challenging aspects of reality, from mental health issues, social dysfunction, political commentary and complex relationships. Are these themes you have had to face, and how do you feel about such vulnerability being laid before a global audience?
Austin: Absolutely everything we are singing about does come initially from a point of personal experience. To me, that’s what gives the subject matter real weight. These aren’t just matters we’re looking out at from the outside and observing and then trying to insert ourselves into a dialogue with the world around us. These are things that we’ve lived, that are relevant to our own experiences, and if the words we’re delivering are cutting deep, it’s in part because there is a sense of recognition of shared reality behind them. However, we don’t want to ever dictate how people interpret what we are saying. The music is there to become your own experience and your own medium for interpretation, and we really do believe that even if we are drawing from personal experiences, it’s no surprise if we end up tapping into something that almost everyone goes through.
The comforting part of music, to me, is that there is so much communion found through it. What someone sings about their own personal experience is most often felt by many other people, even when the writer felt alone, like they were living in their own separate little world.
OSR: Some People is an entirely DIY project. What do you think are the benefits of using this DIY approach, as well as the drawbacks?
Austin: I am sure someone who actually knows what they’re doing in a studio with high-end studio equipment could make us sound better than we do, but it’s nice to be able to turn a project around quickly to have control over the entire of it, and it’s also a process that teaches us how to be better musicians. It’s also nice to save the money. 😊
OSR: I know most people wouldn’t change anything about their releases, but if you could change something about Some People or the creation thereof, what would you change and why?
Austin: Oh, there is one little mixing error that bugs me in one song. It might be something I nudged in the mixing program on accident and didn’t realize it, but it doesn’t seem to bother anybody else. I would absolutely fix it though if I could.
OSR: What do you hope people will take from Some People?
Austin: Honestly, we just hope people enjoy it. We always hope the music we make can be a comfort to somebody in some way. We understand it’s not “feel-good” music, but there are a lot of people out there who might be having negative or dark feelings, and if they then encounter art that reflects those negative and dark feelings, the double negative becomes a positive, and really, that’s what we’re after when we make music like this. We have plenty of negative feelings, just as we’ve expressed in this music, but making this music makes us feel better… funny how that works.
OSR: What makes Mr. Charisma unique?
Austin: Chris comes from a more American background of music traditions, especially the Appalachian Outlaw Country type, and you really hear it in his vocals. Whereas I’m coming from more of a post-punk, almost European folk music tradition perspective, and we’re merging these worlds of folk music by the default contrast of what our primary influences are. Chris’s mind leans towards influences like Waylon or Hank Williams Jr, and I’m thinking of Rome, or The Cult, or Sisters of Mercy, and then we land somewhere in the middle. We also come from the very forthright punk and hardcore scenes, and I think that might make our vibe more confrontational and direct than other folk acts. I’m just speculating though.
OSR: If you give your younger selves some advice, what would you tell little Chris and Daniel?
Austin: Maybe our parents were on to something. They always said they wish we would play music that they could listen to, and now that we’re making music that they say they can listen to, it’s a really pleasant experience to make music that appeals to more people.
OSR: Mr. Charisma is only a recording project at the moment, but is it something you might consider in the future? Also, what else does the future hold for Mr. Charisma?
Austin: We have been asked to play some shows, and we are definitely considering it. We do talk about it semi-often, but we now live across the country from each other, so it makes it difficult to practice and get things right for a live setting. All the videos and recordings we’ve done so far have been completely separate, aside from the vocal recording session on this EP, which was done when I came to Texas for Die Young or Will To Live shows. But I live in Virginia now, and Chris still lives in Texas, so to do shows, we will have to set aside some time to see if we can really make a live performance work. It’s a different kind of beast than making a recording where you can do as many takes as you want or need.
OSR: Do you have any advice for new musicians?
Austin: Writing music that sounds like what is popular right now is boring; don’t do it. If you aren’t doing something that’s authentic to your own voice, the world doesn’t need it.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Austin: Thanks for reading! Please give us a follow on our social media and streaming apps, as we have more releases planned for this year already. We will have at least one more EP done before the end of 2026, possibly two, and we already have a full LP demoed out to record next year.
Many thanks to Daniel Austin for speaking with us! Find out more about Mr. Charisma on their Instagram, YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
