We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sohlin Partida a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sohlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had been interested in music since I was little. My parents influenced that really early on in life, especially punk rock and metal. I was a little kid on the playground singing Walk by Pantera in elementary school. So the interest has been around for as long I can remember. I went through a couple of different hyper fixations throughout middle school and high school (sewing, digital art, film making, Youtube, and more) until I finally picked up the electric guitar sophomore year.

I still consider myself a novice to intermediate guitarist. I got into it on and off after high school and took a long break to start working full time at the ripe age of 17 as a lube tech at a Chevy dealership and eventually went on the run a team of technicians as a Service Advisor, which I realized was nowhere close to what I wanted for myself, regardless of the pretty stellar paycheck for putting in 10+ hours of overtime a week. I was exhausted and depressed.

My partner at the time and I went to see a show. It was long 20-hour long road trip to North Carolina to see All Them Witches which we were both big fans of. I saw them and I felt something turn in me. There was a sort of magic happening on stage. I hated my job, I hated not having friends or adventure. I was ready to make a big change, I was wasting my 20’s away by not doing what always knew I wanted, make big dreams happen.
I came home, quit my job, bought a ESP LTD and a guitar cab, and started practicing again.

I found Shysters looking for a vocalist (which I was not looking for at all), I auditioned, got the spot, and said yes for the hell of it. When we decided it was time for a bassist I decided to rise to the occasion and connected to the bass much more than I anticipated. The rest is history.

Sohlin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m the bassist and vocalist of Shysters, a punk-rock/metal band out of Austin, Texas. Shysters in my first and only band comprised of me, my guitarist Evan, and our new drummer, (and Evans brother) Nathan. The band has been together for almost 2 years now. We are currently working on our first album but have a new single dropping in early October.

The band originated as strictly punk-rock, but over the course of the bands growth, we started writing heavier music. Maybe because of our personal influences in metal, but more so because of the destructive change that happened to each of us as we continue to grow and use music as an outlet for the bubbling frustration of adulthood; bills, relationships, responsibility. Which is why we are known in our small community for our genre blending, angry, in-your-face nature of music.

Since the music we have available is limited right now, we are depending heavily on the quality of our live shows to turn heads and grow our following. We strive for, more than anything else, energy on stage. An angry but focused wall of power. We don’t just want good music, we want to make explosive music, and we feel like, for the most part, we’re headed down the right track and we feel proud of what we have out and what we’re working on. That being said, we are still learning. Not just about music and writing but the politics of the scene. What bands you associate with, what people you associate with, venues, bookers, etc. your image as a band and the decisions that you make as a group speak louder than your music and we have a lot of new knowledge about how that can make or break a band. We want to not only speak to our audience in our music but also our actions. Not to mention the biggest benefit of thought out decision-making, a greater chance at success, which is of course, is the dream.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think the biggest driving force is the hunger to success through this. Like most small musicians, we all work. Some of us in very labor intensive jobs. It’s a daily struggle to go to a job that means nothing to you and is simply a place-holder so you can eat until you get what to do what you were really born to do. It’s like putting on the same mask day after day and the only relief is when I get to be myself on stage and through my music. There’s something very inspiring about the feeling of pure loathing you get from mindless, passionless, busy work. This is something that we’ve all connected on, we’re dreamers. There’s nothing that drives me more than dreams of thousands of voices screaming my songs, it makes the hard work easy. Practices, shows, writing sessions, etc. there’s a lot that goes into a band let alone a band that is as dedicated to that future.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This industry is as incestuous and blood sucking as any other. The more I learn about this industry (granted, it is only the tip of the iceberg at this point in my career) the more I curse the way it treats it’s driving force, the artists. From the low-ball payouts on streaming platforms to predatory record label deals, there is a lot that needs to be fixed for the musicians to thrive. All that being said, I think that audiences and artists are drawing away from the corporately illustrated money-grabs that are commonplace in this industry.
Listening has never been easier, but the experience of live music and has become more and more expensive. Scalpers jack up ticket prices to build a profit, venues are charging more than ever, bookers are charging more than ever, merchandise sellers are taking a bigger percentage of profit than ever, and this negatively impacts the listener and the artist. Now the listener gets to go to an overpriced show, buy an overpriced shirt, and go home and stream a bands music in which every member has to have a day job to keep going.
But because of all this, I think listeners, especially in Austin, are appreciating the local music scene now more than ever. Local artists are putting together their own underground shows to cut out the middle man and now with the help of online distributing companies, we can release our own music on our own time for cheap. Meanwhile, listeners can see up close and personal shows every weekend for a fraction of an ACL ticket. I think things are headed the right direction with the tools becoming available to musicians so we can run our own careers, but getting to that neon-lights-fame-and-fortune-dream-come-true definitely is not easily attained in the current climate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/shystersband
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shystersband/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Shyster-mob-61556322994820/?_rdr
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Shysters-atx
• Other: https://shystersband.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits

Luna Lockhardt
@lockhardtphoto