We were lucky to catch up with Houston Sloan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Houston, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I feel like traction began once I started going out to shows a few nights a week and introduced myself to as many artists, photographers, venue owners, etc…as I could. I really did not know anyone in the Austin music scene other than our bassist at the time, Lainey and our keyboard player, Michael Schatz. So I had to really immerse myself as much as I could in who is actively playing and it brought me many good times. From there, it became about maintaining and building upon relationships with everyone. There are all these heavy fuzz bands in Austin and to me it just makes sense to really support and show up to their shows and build up the community. This is my first regular playing band that I have been apart of so I cannot say much more because I am still learning how to maneuver in the field. Active use of Instagram has made me a lot of connections and there is a lot to learn about self promotion and using our money as efficiently as possible.

Houston, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Houston and I am from Salado, Texas. I went to high school in Jarrell and became friends with the only other person there who was into playing metal and rock music as much as I was, Michael Teinert. Fast forward to 2018 and I am a beekeeper in Beeville, Texas. I hadn’t written a song in two years and decided that I would start writing again but this time, it would be entirely for me and no one else. The music that I wrote is now being played by my band named The Creek Creatures. However, out of those initial sessions, I wrote a straight-forward metal song called “The Conan Song” since I am a fan of Conan the Barbarian. Months later when I moved to Pasadena, Texas, I learned about the Beonze Age Collapse, Ramesses III and the “sea people” as one historian called them. I became fascinated with the idea of Ramesses being “the last great warrior pharaoh of Egypt” and decided to dedicate a whole band to writing a fantasized soundtrack to his story. Being a longtime fan of Lovecraft, it really solidified when I learned that Dagon was a god to the Philistine people who were most likely one of the “sea peoples”. In 2020 I began writing and researching for this project for about two years and even decided to write two graphic novels to flesh out the complete story I want to tell. I moved to Austin from Salado in 2022 and met former Sheverb member, Lainey who helped form the initial band with me along with vocalist and high school friend, Michael Teinert, drummer Hunter whom I worked with at Guitar Center in Killeen, and a vocalist from Bahrain named Laila. This was the lineup that played our first show at Valhalla on Wednesday September 13th where we opened for Mutilation Barbecue. Since then, we’ve had a few lineup changes but now feel really solid with our current members: Patrick Acosta on drums, John Spargo on Bass, Michael Schatz on synths and saxophone, myself (Houston) on guitar and Michael Teinert on lead vocals. Having Laila in the band for a while got me to take inspiration from Arabic music and to write songs based on feel. Since then I’ve gotten into Coptic Christian hymns, regional artists such as Gaye Su Akyol and contemporary bands that have a similar vibe such as Wyatt E. and Lowen. For the story I have also gotten into touch with scholars such as Dr Eric Cline who wrote the book that I studied intensely for this project, 1177: the Year Civilization Collapsed and Associate Professor Laurel Bestock who helped get me in touch with an Egyptian Language expert that has offered to help us take lyrics we write, translate them into Ancient Egyptian and how to pronounce them to the best of his ability. So a lot of time, thought, sweat and maneuvering has gone into this project and it feels like we are finally finding our sound and building upon solid foundations. Last person I want to mention is a former drummer we had from February – August of this year, Ben Lindesmith who pushed me creatively in ways that got me outside of my comfort zone and pushed me to never settle for mediocrity.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Go to their shows and have as good a time as you possibly can. This is a responsibility on both artists and individuals at their show. The artist has to create something genuine and original that reaches people’s hearts while the individual attending has to be present and express how the music is making them feel. For example, the best way to show support for a local edm artist would be to show up and dance like no one is watching.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For now, I just want to tell the story of Ramesses III and the sea peoples. That is probably going to take the form of two graphic novels, one EP and an LP. The drive behind telling the story is that I just could not believe it had not been told yet in media and I decided that I would be the one to at least introduce it (even if my version involves Cthulhu). The drive behind writing music is something like an immortal flower that I keep tending to.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tearsoframusic/profilecard/?igsh=MXJ2ZWtqaHRtbHowOQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550886534304
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tearsoframusic?si=vqlT-FLtjxLC69Bv
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vqi873BhEhPJPlShdhC5E?si=qTnlzpjHTSqWzWCROtyBVg

Image Credits
Jarek Burford