Steve Burner - Outlaw Country, Waylon Jennings & the 1970s Sound | Rugged Revival
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There's something quietly radical about a German musician named Steve Burner choosing to build a country music scene in Berlin, of all places. In a city better known for its techno clubs and punk heritage, Burner is carving out space for the kind of unvarnished, authentically gritty country music that traces its lineage back to Waylon Jennings and the outlaw movement of the 1970s. It's a curious path, but one that makes perfect sense once you hear him explain it.
The journey started, as many do, with a skateboard and a soundtrack. At twelve years old, Burner caught the Tony Hawk game bug like millions of kids worldwide, but unlike most, he paid attention to the music. The diverse punk and alternative tracks pumping through those games sparked something in him. He asked his father for a guitar, formed a band almost immediately with zero technical ability, and played his first show just believing—as young punks do—that you don't need to know how to play to make noise worth hearing. Twenty years later, that same iconoclastic energy still powers his approach to music, only now it's channelled through the whiskey-soaked narratives and rebellious spirit of country's most uncompromising figures.
I didn't know how to play one chord but I formed a band of course.
— Steve Burner
What's striking about Burner's journey is how he's traced an unexpected lineage between punk rock's DIY ethos and outlaw country's refusal to play by Music Row rules. Both movements rejected polish in favour of authenticity. Both demanded you listen to what someone had to say rather than how prettily they said it. It's not a connection many artists make explicitly, but Burner understands it viscerally. After years playing bass in the hard rock outfit Travelin Jack and fronting Silvershark, he's now stepping into his solo career with a sound that draws heavily from Townes Van Zandt's poetic darkness and Waylon's defiant twang, while tipping its hat to contemporary torchbearers like Colter Wall and Charley Crockett.
But here's where the story becomes really interesting: Burner is attempting something genuinely ambitious in a country that doesn't yet have an established roots music infrastructure. Germany has a thriving country scene, yes, but it's fragmented and scattered. Artists tend to skip over Berlin entirely, heading instead for the UK, Scandinavia, or the Netherlands where audiences and promoters are already primed for this sound. Burner acknowledges the difficulty honestly. He's genuinely thrilled when ten or twenty people show up to his Berlin shows. Yet rather than despair at the lack of an existing scene, he's actively imagining how to build one—floating the idea of a one-day festival to gather the scattered German country artists working in the traditional vein.
When you play punk you don't need to know how to play and it was totally wrong but we just did it.
— Steve Burner
What's admirable is his realistic optimism. He's not claiming Berlin will become Nashville overnight. He simply recognizes that somewhere in Germany there are people hungry for this sound, just like he was. The Country to Country festival already brings headliners to Berlin—Midland and Laney Wilson drew crowds from across the country last year. The appetite exists. What's needed is someone willing to be the flagship, the pioneer, the person who shows up week after week to small crowds and builds something real.
This is ultimately why Steve Burner matters beyond just being another artist with a good backstory. He represents something The Rugged Revival exists to champion: the unglamorous, necessary work of building roots music culture from the ground up. He's not waiting for permission or a record deal or a major festival slot. He's playing the long game, drawing on authentic influences, staying true to a sound that demands your attention rather than your comfort.
If you want to hear how someone translates 1970s outlaw country through a distinctly European lens, or if you're simply interested in how artists build scenes in places where none yet exist, the full conversation with Steve Burner is absolutely worth your time. His story reminds us that the best music movements never come pre-packaged—they're built by people willing to play for small rooms and bigger dreams.
I'll help you. I'll help you start a revolution [music] for this Monday morning situation. >> Thanks for taking the time to come hang out for a little bit. >> Thanks for having me. So, what we do, um, I don't know if I explained to you properly in the messaging, but, um, the Rugged Revival based out of the UK, they'll take this video and they'll put it on their platforms, and then they'll take the audio and put that on their streaming services. >> All right. >> So, you know, I like to keep it short and sweet. So, you know, again, I appreciate you carving out some time, and I know you're um, six hours ahead from me, so are you winding down your workday now, or what do you have going got eight days after me and now I'm finally home. >> All right, cool. Cool. Well, let's let's get into it, man. I don't want to waste too much of your time. So, um, who or what inspired you to start performing live? >> Do you mean it in general to perform live with bands or to go solo? Well, I guess um when you first started uh playing music and you said, you know what, I want to take this to the stage, whether that be with yourself or with a band. >> All right. I guess it's really important for me was skateboarding. when I started like about when I was 12 years old, I started skateboarding and it was exactly the same time when the Tony Hawk games came and then it was like listen to all the music of the soundtrack of Tony Hawk and so I thought I need to buy a guitar and my father thought the same and gave me one and I didn't know how to play one chord but I formed a band of course. >> Yeah. And it was like 20 years ago. And then I played my first show director because we we thought like when you play punk you don't need how to need to know how to play and it was totally wrong but we just did it and so we played our first gig like this. Yeah. I think this was like the main inspiration like when when you start listening to punk rock it was for me. [clears throat] >> Yeah that's right. I think um there's a lot of parallel with growing up listening to punk music and then eventually getting into more like outlaw country and things like that. I think there's a strong parallel. >> Yeah, of course. >> Um Okay. So, let me ask you this. What do you think is the biggest difference between the German country scene and the American country scene? Uh to be honest, I don't know because I'm not in any kind of scene here >> and uh I would like to be in in some kind of scene. So two weeks ago I've been at the country fair in the very first time I met like other German country artists and there were for example uh the singer Danny Miler and she also comes from punk music and this is a connection and there was think and it's the same like you're saying like this there are some sologies to uh punk and the other country scene and this was really cool to meet them but I'm really missing some kind of scene here what we got In Berlin, we've got a really nice poke scene. >> That's cool, but not really this this uh country scene in Berlin. They don't in Germany there there is a scene, but what I recognize the most is uh when I see like artists from the state when they come over, they mostly go to the UK to Scandinavia and the Netherlands. And when you got luck, when they cross Scandinavia to Netherland, they do one stop in Hamburg. uh like this year there was uh Hahanita and uh Jesse Daniels and I really would like to see them but it was all on Wednesdays Thursdays where I couldn't go there for weekend trip to see them and so I'm really looking forward to got something more of this scene in in Berlin so we can do shows like this here too. >> Okay. So you're you're still building a bit of a scene there. So, I mean, I guess I would consider you more of a a pioneer, you know, you're still kind of the flagship performer of building your local scene. I think that's fantastic. >> Yeah, that's how it feels right now. But, uh, the when I'm playing there, I'm happy when there are 10 to 20 people and I'm super happy when I'm playing in Berlin. And then because I was thinking about like doing a little one day festival uh to get some more of these artists and even if only the German uh country artists who more into this outdoor stuff to to bring them together and play them but it's then it's always difficult because you don't know how many people in Berlin are interested but at the same time we got like the do you know the uh country to country festival COC >> okay >> it's also based in in Berlin and there are like Last year there were the headliners were Midland and Laney Wilson. So they got all the big names. Um and then the people from all over Germany came over for this festival. >> Okay. So maybe the biggest difference there is that um America already has such a huge established scene both both underground and mainstream whereas where you're from particularly um you're still very much building that scene. I I think that's really cool. You're part of something really important and um I think it's important that you keep keep doing what you're doing. Um okay, so moving on. How has the American scene inspired your music? >> That's the I would say the most inspiration comes from the American scene. >> Okay. >> Especially uh Charlie Crockett, Nikki Lane, Margo Price, Sarah Ferrell. so important for me because when when uh I heard them for the first time like I heard uh Nikki Lane and Marco Price like 10 years ago for the first time because my ex-girlfriend was really into that and also got there for a visit to Nashville and was really into and I was more like at this time I'm I'm a hard rocker and then then I heard this oh that's so cool that's that's catchy that's but also country and they directly got me with this music. But then um I wasn't into this for a few years and then I heard Charlie Crockman. I said, "Oh, you can be groovy at the same time, too. How great is that?" >> And then um the only one is not from from the American scene, but he lives in America now as Oval Peek. He was a really big influence for me, too. >> Yeah, I love Orville Peek. Um I think he's fantastic. Um I like a lot of that stuff, too. you know, things that have that strong kind of like um cuz I grew up in the DC punk scene, so I tend I tend to gravitate towards um artists that have a little bit of that kind of raw almost like punky edge to them, you know? >> I like them, too. And you named off some big ones, too. I love Crockett, uh Nikki Lane. Um I'm not famili familiar with Price, so I have to check them out a little bit more. Um all right. All right. Well, let's shift gears a little bit that, you know, we've got your music down. I think you and I are cut from a lot of the same cloth here. Um, where do you find inspiration for your fashion? Cuz I love your look. You have a very unique look. Like, yeah, it you can tell that it's western, but the way you wear it and the way you put it together is very much your own unique thing, and I think that's super cool. So, where do you find where do you find inspiration for that? >> Uh, mostly from the 70s. I totally love the the uh the style of 70s like the flares and lots of denim and and yeah, you see like the mustache, the long hair and then uh I love it. So like the bands before I play was glam band and the funk band and we uh always got this look of the 70s. It's totally important for me. And then >> but at the end it's almost the same. It's vest, it's denim, it's flares and it works. So the only thing that changes the hat like >> Yep. Yep. That's what I was joking with um you know with punk rock. We basically just change our boots. They go from combat boots to pointy toes and I go from you know maybe trucker hats to bigger widebrim hats like you have on now. >> Um yeah it's it's really cool. I you know that's one of the first things I noticed about you when I came across your page on Instagram was I'm you know I'm a hair stylist barber by trade. So, I'm immediately drawn to someone's look first. So, when I saw you, I said, "Oh, I like this guy." And maybe a little bit of a Lei Lemie inspiration there for you from Motorhead a little bit. >> Um, okay. So, I think that's awesome, dude. Um, what is your favorite onstage outfit? Say you have a big show and you want to look your best. What's your favorite look? >> I'm looking forward to play a big show one day. Then I will looking forward to have a nudie suit or something. But right now when I play the the smaller shows, I really like denim like blue jeans, the Canadian tuxedo. That's the best. [laughter] >> Awesome. I love that. >> And my my white uh Statsman then I'm happy. >> Yep. That sounds great. I I can see you playing some much bigger shows down the road. I I believe in you because I love your music. Um >> okay, so look, we're coming to the end here. I've only got uh two more questions for you. So, let me ask you this. You're on the burgeoning scene of something in in Germany, right? You're on the forefront. That's fantastic. Where do you see the future of Western fashion going where you are now? >> I don't know how it is in in the USA, but uh I really would prefer that there would be more chances to get all the stuff in Germany or Europe. Europe is enough for me then can order it. >> Oh, I see. really difficult to order stuff from UK and US right now and uh so I'm always happy when I find something here and if this would evolve a bit and you get chance to get something the same like about merch from from artists if they don't come here to play there's almost no chance to get it because the taxes and the shipping is so expensive that when you want to buy one shirt makes no sense. >> I see. Yeah. So maybe the future looks more um having more open access to >> Yeah, it would be great because like we live in in a world where we can like do this >> chat right now and there's no problem but it's so difficult to get stuff but everyone is ordering all the time and then then we've got like orders that don't get it. So there much bigger problems in the world, but when it's about fashion and you ask me this, that's that's uh I'm a bit bit uh a little pity that we don't get it so easy. >> Yeah, I I understand what you're saying and that's what is one of the many my bulldog is attacking me. One of the uh you know the cooler things with the modern world you know is that you know I can look at your music on Band Camp and we can access that. >> Um but yeah, I've I've run into that as well ordering things that were from overseas from us and running into that that problem. >> All right. Well, I don't want to take up too much more of your time because I know you probably have some dinner uh waiting for you. Um do you have anything you would like to promote? Do you have a new song or album? Um, maybe some shows coming out. >> Um, yeah, I released a few singles the last year, a 10 and then I saw it like you got a chance in on on the streaming platforms to combine it to like an album kind experience. So, it's called F full on fire singles one. So, check it out on the on the streaming platform uh your choice. And uh for the Berlin people who may be here to see this live, I play on Friday at a hairdresser called Wild Hair. So >> All right. >> That sounds awesome. >> Yeah. The best job in in Berlin, maybe in Germany. >> So is all of that music available on Band Camp? >> Uh yeah, Band Camp too. Yeah. And on the other other streamers, too. Yeah. >> Very good. Well, I will continue to promote your music and repost as much >> I can about before. Thank you. >> Yeah, I love your stuff. So, maybe one day we'll have you have you out here. >> We'll we'll keep working towards it. Well, >> that's unbelievable. >> Mr. Burner, I appreciate your time and uh I'll let you go, but we'll talk again soon. Okay. Also, too, man. Thank you. >> Thanks, brother. Bye. >> Bye.
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