Braxton Keith has an incredible amount of energy and inspiration as he blazes trails across the Lone Star State. We were able to catch up with Braxton after his electric performance at the Troubadour Festival last month in College Station. In this interview with Texas Country Tour, Braxton Keith shares his music origins, his go-to partner for writing songs, and ramping up his 2023 tour schedule.
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
TCT: Can you tell us about yourself?
BK: My name's Braxton Keith. I'm from Midland, Texas. I was born and raised over in west Texas. I moved from Midland to San Angelo for college when I was 18 years old. I attended college at San Angelo State University. I was randomly selected with a roommate at that time named Aaron. He was also from Midland.
Interestingly enough, he's actually the whole reason I'm playing music today. I mean, he's the one that convinced me to go record a song and to start performing on stage. Once I did, I fell in love with it and I've been doing it ever since, man. I still live with him right now. We've been living together for about 6 and a half years now.
TCT: How has 2023 treated you so far and what do you have in store for the rest of the year?
BK: Man, 2023 has been a dream. We’ve been playing crazy shows every weekend. I've never had a schedule this full. We’re not letting up any time soon. We've got shows till the end of the year already booked out. We're gonna be hitting it hard every weekend. Y'all come out and see us perform wherever it may be.
TCT: What does success look like for yourself?
BK: I’m not quite sure. I’m always resetting the bar on what is successful for myself. When I was just starting out, I thought playing the Blue Light in Lubbock (or any other of those famous venues) was a success for me.
Then you play it and you think to yourself, “Well, alright, what's next?” I don't know. I'm just shooting for the stars and never giving up. There's no plan B, man. We're just gonna run with plan A till there ain't nothing left.
TCT: You've been slowly releasing singles here and there, is a full album in the works currently?
BK: Man, I've been writing for a long time.
I’m really particular about what I want to put out. To answer your question: yes. We're working on it but it probably won't be released until 2024. We're still gonna release some of these singles here very soon. I'm trying to save up money because I want to pay for the album myself, you know what I'm saying? I'm about to hit 25 next year, so that'll be my “quarter-life crisis” album. You gotta keep going.
TCT: What's your most personally meaningful song you performed and what's the story behind it?
BK: I think the crowd favorite and most meaningful to everyone is “Let Me Love You More”. Aaron and I wrote that song. Aaron doesn't ever take credit for writing anything. He doesn't really write anything, doesn't give me any lyrics or anything, but he sits there and helps me formulate ideas.
The song is about his girlfriend and him breaking up. They'd never fought before, which is a good thing. But at the same time, he's like, “We don't have any differences. She just agrees with everything I say and I agree with everything she says. I don't know if that's good for you. You should be like pushing each other to be better, not just like sitting in the same spot.”
So he was like, “There's gotta be someone better out there for her than me. I love her a lot, but there's gotta be someone who's gonna love her more than me. So let me love you more!” It's about letting somebody go because you love them so much that you want them to be with the right person for them. Who they're supposed to be with in the end.
TCT: What have you learned about yourself since your very first paid gig?
BK: I'd say I'm still learning that it all takes patience. It really does. It takes patience, everything, every aspect of this career. That’s the number one thing.
TCT: What are you hoping to add to the country music genre?
BK: Man, I’m not sure if I'm looking to add anything to country music as much as I'm working to bring back the “old school” vibes and sounds. I really dig the eighties and nineties country realm.
I want to modernize that and see what we can do with that. I want to see if people like it. We have some new songs that are in the works. They are really cool and I'm excited for y’all to hear them and see what y'all think!
Braxton Keith has exponentially increased his Spotify monthly listeners in the past 12 months and it’s hard-earned. He brings a powerful presence to any stage he performs on, day or night. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him into the next year as he continues to grow his career and catch a show the next time he’s in our area of Texas.
Be sure to check out his music below!
You can connect with Braxton on social media via Instagram at @Braxton.Keith. Also, be sure to check out his website to catch a performance near you and purchase some fantastic merchandise from his online store.
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