From blues to rock, country and jazz, there is no genre that hasn’t made its home in Austin. As a part of the “Live Music Capital of the World,” brothers Glenn and Alex Peterson have been bringing their own style as The Peterson Brothers to Austin and around the country since 2009. With their passion in soul, old-school blues and funk, The Peterson Brothers’ live jam improvisational style has a clear mission: to help the blues survive. The Daily Texan spoke with The Peterson Brothers to learn more about the heart of their music career and what drives them forward.
The Daily Texan: How did your music career start?
Glenn Peterson: Both our mother and father were just really supportive as far as anything that we did. When we were growing up, we did youth basketball, youth soccer and anything else we wanted to try. The next thing we ended up wanting to try was music. Me and Alex, we do a lot of stuff together because we’ve grown up so close in age. I started off on guitar and Alex started off on violin but switched to bass a year later, and ever since then, it’s been a
fun journey.
DT: You guys have been doing this for so long, what drives you both in your music careers?
Alex Peterson: I would say our passion for always wanting to get better and loving what we do and knowing that it’s a blessing. It’s a lot of fun to be able to experience this with your family.
GP: Definitely. The musical experiences you have with people around town, the state, the U.S. and the world really is across all languages and all races. No matter how much money you have or what religion, everybody loves music, and music is something that really unifies, not only with the musicians but (with) people in the audience as well.
DT: Who have you both looked up to, musically?
GP: In this point in our career, I’d say it’s a little bit of anything and everything. Of course, a lot of our background is a lot of old-school funk, blues, jazz and gospel. With us, you can hear the influencfrom all across the border in many different decades and styles of music.
DT: Why do you guys choose to play soul, blues, rock ’n’ roll and jazz?
AP: It’s because soul, funk, blues, jazz and gospel is all stuff that we grew up on. We’ve always had a strong passion for it.
GP: We weren’t pushed on it, but we were really exposed to it growing up in our household. But those specific genres really spoke to us in a different way, and we definitely wanted to take that direction when we decided to play music.
DT: When you play for your audience, what do you want them to get out of your performance?
AP: I would say what we would want the audience to take away is the joy that we get from the music that we play. I just want to convey positivity and making
great music.
GP: Yeah, we get up there and really just want to have a good time with all the musicians on stage, so it’s awesome when that translates into the audience. It’s really just about smiling and laughter and just having a good time.
