(CNN) — When Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson are your aunt and uncle – and your mom is Rebbie Jackson and your other uncles are the rest of the members of the Jackson 5 – getting into the music industry could feel like a double-edged sword.

So why do it?

“I actually have asked myself that before, but it wasn’t really because of (the) level of artists that I have had in my family. It was more so just, music is tough,” musician Austin Brown said in a recent conversation with CNN. “It is just tough, tough, tough, tough. But for me, there wasn’t any other way. It makes me feel good about expressing myself.”

Brown is an independent artist who along with his band BLVK CVSTLE recently released “The Festival” album.

For years he has been leaning in to his art, which he said “allows me to ge

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