Brooks Hoffman and Austin Gee make up the new country-pop duo, SixtyForty1. The band’s name already gives fan a glimpse into how every aspect of the bands lives go into the music they create. The two met at Murray State in Kentucky and it was history from there.

The duo has played stages with Eli Young Band, Brantley Gilbert, Kenny Chesney, Carly Pearce and more. The bands most recent EP, Started Right Here tells the story of heartbreak and looking back on the relationship making it relatable to fans.

I sat down with the guys to talk about formation of the band, the music that they hope resonates with fans and what’s to come. You can stream their 2021 EP HERE.

How did music start for you guys?

Brooks: I started out as a kid. My dad would always be playing old school rock and roll and U2. My uncle’s cousin was in band, and they were successful back in the 90s, so he would play their stuff and I would naturally gravitate to it. I took guitar and drum lessons when I was eight.” Brooks tells me, “That year at my grandpa’s 4th of July party he told me that I was going to write a song and sing it. It was the first song I ever wrote and that’s how I got my entry.”

Do you remember the song to this day?

Brooks: “Yeah, My Momma said after every lesson that I was gonna be her little country star, move to Nashville one day and I was eight or nine, so I said, ‘whatever Momma’ but I had to think about the most country thing to write about, so it was called, I’m Going to Drive my Truck to Texas.”

How did you get your start with music Austin?

Austin: “I grew up in church choir, I did plays growing up and there’s video footage somewhere floating around of me wearing a cowboy hat, in a diaper on Christmas singing Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain on the karaoke mic at my mom's house.” Austin laughs. “I knew I was going to sing from the get-go. It was just a matter of when and how. Growing up performing in plays I got my stage presence. But, it wasn’t until I met Brooks during Sophomore year at college that I took it seriously and then we realized we could make a career out of this.”

Before you met Brooks, was theater where you wanted to go?

Austin: “Yeah, honestly junior year or senior year of high school I was looking into New York University. I applied to NYU and then I got a point where a Theater Kid wasn’t going to be apart of where I was heading. I picked up guitar in middle school and six months of lessons later I just ended up teaching myself from YouTube like anything else.”

How did the formation of your band come to be?

Brooks: “Nothing has ever been forced and I think that's what is most natural about the way we make music and the way we perform just the way that our careers have progressed over time. It just happened that we were both doing a talent show event at Murray State University our sophomore year.” Brooks tells me. “Austin was backstage during dress rehearsal playing his guitar and I was like ‘hey man, what are you going to play?’ and he told me he was thinking about playing an original song and I told him that I wrote music too. That next summer we got an internship in my hometown in Louisville, KY. That first day, that first week he got there we started writing some songs and the rest is history.”

What made you guys want to create pop/country music?

Austin: “I was born and raised in the Bible Belt, a nice southern town. Brooks came from Louisville which is still a southern town but has more northern influence. I guess you could say when we went to Murray we gravitated towards Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt and Thomas Rhett. We thought that style of music was really cool. We liked how they infused the pop cadences and melodies with country lyrics and that home feeling. Right from the get-go, we knew that's the kind of music we wanted to write.” Austin says. “Right now, as we’re progressing in our career, we're honing in more on that sound and now I feel like we’re making our own lane. We’re just trying to be a little different than the normal pop country.”

If you guys weren’t doing music, what would you be doing?

Austin: “I wish I could sit here and say that I'd be a professional baseball player if music never worked out, but I know that would never happen. I graduated with the Occupational Safety and Health degree from Murray, so I would definitely be doing something in the OSHA field.” Austin continues. “Brooks always gives me crap about expecting ladders.”

I was applying to schools at the time for veterinary medicine programs. I ended up getting into Auburn, but we were on tour with Brantley (Gilbert) and Walker (Hayes) so it wasn’t like I could go sit in a classroom when I'm out here playing in front of all these people. Our music was also reaching so many people and we got to create everyday and live our dream.” Brooks says. “I ended up having to decline the offer but it would have been a good job.”

Where did the name of your band, Sixforty1 come from?

Austin: “It is definitely hard coming up with a name for a duo, group, duo, company or anything for that matter. We went through a couple of different names and a couple really bad names. We were actually bouncing a couple ideas back and forth with Brook’s cousin. His cousin said, ‘what about the 641 band?’ It’s the main highway that cuts through Murray State University and we played anywhere we could Wednesday through Friday on Hwy 641.” Austin says. “We thought it was a little dated, but it had a nice ring to it. We dropped ‘the’ and ‘band’ and kept 641.” He tells me. “It’s definitely paying homage back to where we came from.”

Would you guys ever let out a song about how everything sort of came together from hwy 641, kind of like Thomas Rhett did with Center Point Road?

Brooks: I think there would be a song maybe not as direct but I think as far as paying homage to Murray we would probably do something like that at some point.”

With every songwriter having different ways they go about writing songs, what can you tell me about your song writing process

Austin: “We love doing our thing with no pressure. Recently we've really honed in with our producer Matt Gearu and our buddy Mason a couple other close writing friends and we really just put a track on the computer, let it play out and then we just start humming melodies. When everyone likes something, we stick with that one and we write lyrics for that melody.” Austin says. “It’s a fun and creative space for anybody to come up with anything. Occasionally there will be a title that someone will bring in like, ‘hey, I got this title, but most of the time we just vibe in the room.”

What is something that always inspires you guys?

Brooks: “We co-write a lot and we pull from everybody's stories and we're just trying to make it our story at the end of the day. When you’re co-writing, you have to take little bits and pieces from everybody, unless you have this specific thing you want to tackle.” Brooks explains. “For me the inspiration comes from all the possibilities. You start with nothing and then you have a song that you could potentially release to the world at the end of the day.

Austin: “Adding to what Brooks said we are a duo, and we have two separate minds, two separate backgrounds and how we came up, so it's also fun navigating both of our stories into one song every single time. It's a challenge sometimes, but then when it works, it really works and that's the inspirational part to keep going.”

I love that! And speaking of going into the studio with nothing and coming out with a song is incredible. Brooks: “It's incredible. We're sitting on probably ten twelve maybe even fifteen or sixteen songs. Right now, we just want to get them produced and put them out. We teased one brand new song when we were out on the road with Tyler Rich this past month. We've already been getting people saying, ‘you need to put this out’.”

You guys have been on tour with a ton of great country performers; Eli Young Band, Niko Moon, Tyler Rich – did you learn anything from them?

Austin: “We learned something from every single person we've played with so far. It's so humbling to look back on where we came from and what we're doing now. From a basement in Murray, KY and Louisville to playing arenas with Brantley Gilbert and festivals with Walker Hayes. It's so crazy.” Austin says. “Brantley, he was our first major act since being in Nashville. He definitely taught us how to stay grounded wherever you are and how to stay out of trouble. Niko Moon and his wife, their hospitality was amazing. We didn't know them from Adam so when we first walked into the place, they let us use their green room with them. We played games with them before we went on to play and you don't get that in every genre. That’s why I think country music is so cool and it's such a tight knit family.” Austin shares. “Tyler Rich is a stand-up guy. Him and his team took us out the entire month, brought us on the bus, went out with us after the shows. It was really cool, and it is definitely a great friendship.”

That’s awesome, I wanted to talk about your EP, Started Right Here. What can you tell me about it?

Brooks: “We definitely knew we wanted to put a new EP out and that's kind of when we got into a groove with Mason, our song writing buddy and Matt, our producer. We had some songs picked out but then replaced them with the songs that we ended up putting out.” Brooks explains. “The whole EP has a cohesive feel to it. A storyline from start to end. It takes you from the butterflies at the beginning of a relationship, enjoying their relationship by the next song and then you’re looking back and appreciating their relationship and then it gets a little rocky and then you hit All Night at the end of the EP where it really shows stuff happens, you’re going to get through it and everything is going to be ok.”

What are your favorite songs off the EP?

Austin: “I love Me and Your Memory the most. Lyrically it hits me every time I hear it but feel wise, I love Never Gets Old. I love that message and the upbeat sound of the song. I may be biased but I think our melody for those verses and chorus is amazing.”

Brooks: “I like Started Right Here a Lot. We start our show with that. It's just a fun song and has a lot of energy to it.”

When making this need EP, did you guys learn anything either about yourselves as artists or about the music you create?

Austin: “Yeah, for me personally I realized with this last project it's ok to say what you really feel and how you really want to say it because being in Nashville for so long you get groomed a certain way of how to write a song. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it does take some authenticity to really break as an artist, and I feel like we're really getting that way with this new stuff.” Austin says. “Just really telling our stories and where we came from and making it to where anybody, anywhere in the world can relate to at least one of these songs.”

That’s great, is there a certain goal that you guys want to hit with your music?

Brooks: “Shoot, just to be nominated for a CMA award would be incredible. Just to be nominated for an award would be a huge checked box. A massive goal of mine is to play the Yum Center in Louisville, KY. I think we'll do it at some point, but I just don't know when.”

Austin: “I mean just making a comfortable living playing music. We're making a living doing music full time for sure right now, we’re signed writers at the moment. But just being able to have a comfortable living making music, that's the ultimate end goal.”

What's the most important thing for you guys as a duo that your music relays to your listeners?

Austin: “With the last EP, there's a song on there for everybody. Whether you're getting in a relationship, you're having a great time in your relationship, or you just went through one and you're not having a good time with it. We've been there. We've lived through that. That's why we wrote about it and we want our listeners to know that. We want you to know at the end of day we're just like everybody else. We had the same experiences and we're just telling it our way and hopefully doing that in a cool way where our fans can connect with us, with that feeling or nostalgia looking back on life.”

Brooks: “We all have our albums, our go to artists that we go to no matter what we're feeling. Sometimes you go to a specific person when you're sad. Sometimes you go to somebody specific when you're at the beach or happy. I would love for our stuff to be that place where people go no matter what they're feeling.”

How would you explain your live shows to those who haven’t seen you yet?

Brooks: We try to be as interactive as possible. We try to jump around, run around, get the crowd into it. Shake some hands, do some cheers, have fun with the band on stage and just tell jokes. We just try and have a good time.”

Do you guys have you have any advice to aspiring singer songwriters?

Austin: “I'd say just keep going. Repetition is key. Your first song is not going to be as good as your hundredth song and vice versa. You're going to keep improving every time you write a song, or you play a show. Yeah, it's scary. Yes, sometimes you feel like you might have writer's block or the stage fright. If you can get through that you'll go to the next step.” Austin says. “It's just showing up and using your brain to try to make the best product you can every day.”

Brooks: “I would also say don't start thinking about long term goals. Even if it's not going to be your best stuff, even if that last EP isn’t our best stuff or the next EP isn’t our best stuff, we are excited about what we're doing right now and about the shows that we're doing right now.” Brooks says. “That helps you grow more than focusing on what you haven't done yet and what you'd like to do.”

Is there something that you guys wish you would have known before coming into the music industry?

Brooks: I wish I would have known that there's such thing as a publishing deal or publishing companies, and when I was in college, I wish I would have tried to get internships, but I just didn't know until we ended up getting here. I also figuring out, ‘oh we can actually get paid to write songs?’ that’s really weird but really cool.”

Austin: “I wish I would've known how to use like a computer earlier on because what I'm doing now. I'm trying to learn how to make my own little demos here and there in my studio. If I would have known that in college, I would have been making beats in my dorm room instead of going to the cafeteria all the time. I wouldn't change it for the world, but I wish I would have known it back then, so maybe we'd be little further along now.”

If you could say one thing to the world and the whole world would listen what would you say?

Brooks: “That’s deep. I think it would be, don't put too much pressure on yourself stuff. Take it day by day. A lot of people do that, It stresses them out, and it's not good.”

Austin: “Honestly, I would have to agree with that. When Brooks said that it made me think of All Night.”