Austin Mahone recently sat down with 101.5 Jamz/Phoenix and discussed his musical inspirations, meeting Justin Bieber and who he plans on working with in the future.

The 16-year-old musician has seen much popularity on YouTube and is frequently compared to fellow singer Justin Bieber. He filled listeners in on his rising stardom and how he stays grounded.

“I’m happy with it. I mean it’s a lot to take in all at once but it’s really fun and I’m enjoying it,” Austin said.

With over 350,000 YouTube subscribers and over 750,000 Twitter followers, Austin’s fan base is growing rapidly. Austin revealed how he has acquired so many fans, also know as “Mahomies,” on social media.

“I started my [YouTube] channel with my best friend Alex and we had this channel making random videos doing nothing and then I decided to post some covers on there and I got a lot of positive feedback from it,” he said. “So, I made a different channel and did nothing but covers on that one and built this huge fan base.”

As far as being compared to his idol Justin Bieber, Austin is grateful.

“It is pretty big because he’s so successful and I hope to be as successful as him one day,” he said. “And it’s flattering because he’s one of my inspirations.”

On a recent trip to New York he met Justin Bieber. While he didn’t say much besides, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Austin shared some tips Justin gave him on the music industry.

“He was outside the elevator when I got off,” Austin said. “He gave me some advice. He said as much success that I might get and however big that I might get I just have to keep going and not to stop just because I’ve gained so much, just to keep going and going.”

Having met one of his dream collaborators, Austin said he’d love to work with Drake and Ne-Yo some day. With his successful first single “Say Somethin’” written with Mike Posner and Bei Maejor, Austin Mahone is well on his way.

- Randall Tyree and Rashinda B., 101.5 Jamz