Austin Galante, Making Movies, Making Music, and Creativity

Austin Galante is an independent filmmaker, director, actor, and cinematographer. He's directed four feature films including the cult hit "Sanguine Teeth on a Driftless Road," an offbeat vampire road-trip comedy which picked up numerous festival awards including Best Comedy and Best Director. He's also an actor with roles across film and television. He has 34 film festival wins under his belt. Austin made his feature debut with "Suite Killing Machines," a super low-budget arthouse crime comedy that announced him as a director with a genuinely singular vision.  In 2025, Austin shot back-to-back features — his third and fourth films, "What Have We Won" and "What Have We Won: Deuces," both starring Robert LaSardo — with releases coming in 2026. As an actor, he's also delivered a standout turn as the antagonist in "All About a Check 3," and he's already locked starring roles in three more features shooting in 2026 and '27. In addition to his film career, Austin is a musician and spent years touring and producing music featuring artists like Cee-Lo Green, Snoop Dogg and KRS-One. We talk about getting into the film business, being a gigging musician, stories from the road, creativity, writing, making movies, juggling life and creative work, writing a screenplay, discipline and writing technique, daily routine while working on a creative project, cultivating creativity, poetry, living in Iowa, his films, vampires, editing films, acting, a superpower, artificial intelligence, and more. Links are on the podcast website