Art, house shows and Feeble Little Horse: An interview with Lydia Slocum

Lillian Jones

Local Music Director

For me and other Austin residents, the last seconds of 2024 were counted down to the sound of “Slide” by Feeble Little Horse and then 2025 began! Seeing the Pittsburgh based band live on New Year’s Eve was a whole new experience compared to blasting their music in my car. Specifically getting to see lead vocalist and bassist, Lydia Slocum perform. She donned a handmade top of sewn together Ugly Dolls, white tights that had been drawn on, a pink plastic butterfly necklace and a tiara. Her live performance was filled with raw emotion and vocal switch ups — making songs live different from the recordings.

I was unable to talk to her after the show, but knew I needed to chat with this gal eventually. She was just so cool! Hearing whispers of a new single release incoming, I knew now was the perfect time. On a whim, I decided to send her a message through Instagram to see if she’d be interested in an interview. Lucky for me, she said yes and we hopped on a Zoom call.

Was Feeble Little Horse around at the same time you were in school? What was it like balancing the band and school?

Yes, it’s kind of all I’ve known so far. I just graduated in December! I was 19 when I joined the band, so I was just leaving freshman year. I was in christian school for 18 years, so the music scene was my window out of it. I was very shy and it was covid, so [the music scene] was like this awesome new world. Only a couple people at my school knew of the band so it was just this constant culture shift.

I would say we’ve always been kind of divas in terms of our workload as a band, so we didn’t have too much going on. I never felt like I had to quit school which I’ve been really grateful for and I got my degree with ease. I didn’t have to lose much time in school for being in the band. It’s really nice now to have everything be in unison. I don’t have to feel like I have these different worlds. 

How did you meet the guys in Feeble Little Horse? 

I went to school with this girl Renee, who I’m still very good friends with. We met in 6th grade and she went to Pitt and I did not. But I was a freshman and I was coming home and I didn’t have a boyfriend to hang out with. Renee was like ,”Do you want to just hang out with my new friends?”

Then I met Sebastian who is the guitarist and mixer. My friend was trying to tease me and she was talking about my SoundCloud to him and he was all interested in my SoundCloud. I was embarrassed because it was not very good. But then we ended up connecting on Instagram and he was like, “We should make a song together, I really like the stuff you’re doing”, so we made “Dog Song (Wet Jeans)” which was the first song. That was all over the phone, not in person.

When I came home for the summer, Sebastian, Ryan and Jake had me over and when I walked in they had mics set up and all this gear. I was like, why do they have all this gear? I didn’t really understand men that collect gear. I always just recorded on my iPad with my headphones. I was very minimal about it. They were like, “You ready to sing?”, I was like , “Sh*t! Okay, I’ll f***ing sing”, so the first thing we did was “Chores”. I just had a lot of it ready. They had sent me some stuff and I had so much to say because I was just stuck alone in my dorm room and I had my first ever breakup. I was so ready to just write my little diva songs!

We basically made all of Hayday in a few days and then didn’t see each other and then I learned the bass in like a week and we played our first show in an alleyway. 

So you learned bass for Feeble Little Horse? 

Yeah, I didn’t have a bass, I didn’t ever have any interest in playing bass… I’m not really a musician. I’m just good at hopping onto a song and doing things by ear. My ear is pretty good, so if you gotta good ear… you can kinda play anything that’s not too hard. I was learning it with stickers and stuff. It’s still kinda crazy that we did that. 

Do you make a lot of the artwork for Feeble Little Horse? 

Yeah, when I joined the band I had the urgent feeling to make all of the art. I wasn’t even that strong of an artist. I’ve been making art my whole life, but freshman year of college was my first ever art class.

I’ve done everything besides one music video made by Corrinne (Naomi Alligator). Besides that, I’ve really done everything. All the album art, all the flyers, all the t-shirts, everything. I was just like I wanna do it and they were like sure you can do it, it’s free!

It’s definitely made me a way better artist. Having that fire under me and having deadlines and having people not like what I’m making. Having to deal with criticism and adapting, that made me such a better artist. It’s given me better footing to get into grad school because I have this really awesome resume and interesting life experiences. I don’t know what would have happened without the band. I’m sure I could have done fabulous things. 

You also designed merch for Wednesday, what was that experience like? 

That was so cool! We had known each other because we played a show when we were both smaller in Pittsburgh. I think we were weird when we met. I was staring at MJ Lenderman — I was being so weird. But they liked us I guess! She hit me up on Instagram and she wanted a hoodie design.

I just listened to their album, Rat Saw God, over and over and drew it on my little iPad. They paid me really efficiently. That was the first time I ever made an invoice! They sent me a w-9, it was super official. I loved drawing that and it was very much just inspired by their songs and the visual they make with their lyrics. 

Who are your favorite musical artists right now? 

Imogen Heap. Over and over and over again. I know she’s getting popular right now, I’m so happy! I love it, I want her to be so famous — she already is famous, but even more famous! That album, Speak for Yourself, is really good. 

I love Polo Perks, he’s an awesome rapper. I love that fool. 

I love The Dallas Cowboys. I had those guys over at Hammer House and it was so much fun. 

Diane Cluck! Different vibe, love that girl. One of my favorite singers, she has a really beautiful voice and I think she’s very underrated. 

There’s a lot of new cool emo adjacent bands like Cash Only Tony’s. Also Kill Paradise. I like the 2008 pop punk music with the synths. I think it’s really cutie!

You help out with Hammer House (a house venue in Pittsburgh), what has been your experience throwing house shows? 

It’s honestly been so sweet and wonderful, I’ve hardly had any negative experiences. I’ve just been so impressed how people are so down to make things happen. I thought it would be a lot more hands on. There’s a lot of work involved, but once doors open everything kind of runs itself. I think that’s what is so cool about DIY, there’s very little sense of entitlement, everyone’s really grateful. People aren’t even allowed to use the bathroom and nobodies been a jerk about that. 

There’s this guy, Jack, that does visuals for it, he brings all of his own gear. My boyfriend sets up this VHS camera filming the bands and then it plays onto a TV at the back of the basement for people that can’t see. Every show we add something new. I think people are just really excited, especially in Pittsburgh to have outlets to connect and make memories. It just makes life more fun. It’s been such a joy, I love it! 

Is there reasoning behind your Instagram usernames @mylowerbackgroans and @the_asheley_catacombs? 

I named @mylowerbackgroans during covid, it has not changed since 2020 because I’m superstitious. I don’t like changing things. My lower back was groaning. It was hurting really bad. Before it was @myintestinesscream — I kept doing my-something-hurting, just to express myself. That Instagram for a long time only had like 16 followers, that was my little Instagram and I had a bigger one that I deleted. Honestly, I’ve probably made like 20 Instagrams in my life. 

@the_asheley_catacombs just came to my mind from my doll Asheley. I got her at a thrift store. There was this huge bin of all these dolls that hadn’t been assembled yet. Then I found Asheley — her name was printed on her. I stuffed her and put her together and showed all my friends at school like ,”guys this is Asheley, this is my new girl, gotta be nice to her”. 

Everyone at my old school was really hype about Asheley. Some of my friends hated her obviously because she’s super creepy. My friend Kate at school was like ,”no I do not like Asheley, what is going on?”, and she got a nosebleed and then Ava didn’t like Asheley either and her ear started bleeding. We were like guys…you have to be nice to Asheley. I used to put her on my shoulder, scroll on Instagram reels — we are buddies! I wanted to bring this girl into the internet, so what better username than @the_asheley_catacombs.

I’m storing everything in Asheley’s chamber. Everything I make is a part of Asheley’s chamber.

For the new Feeble Little Horse single, you designed the cover and then created a wheatpasting bug army. How many states participated? 

Oh my god, I don’t know. There’s 70 people that I emailed. I was so surprised that many people wanted to do it! It was on my Asheley catacombs account, I did not say it was about Feeble Little Horse at all. I just posted my little bug and said “spread my bug to your city” and I thought maybe ten people would do it and I’ll make them mix CDs and T-shirts — and I’m still gonna make everyone a mixed CD or T-shirt and it’s gonna be awesome! But, I was like “oh damn, it’s gonna be a lot of people!” I didn’t really pay attention to states, but at least ten. There’s a guy in Poland, a guy in Chile and then there’s those guys in what’s it called? Bushwick? Today actually me and the boys are gonna do some wheatpasting. You gotta put your money where your mouth is and do it yourself. 

I made the bug a really long time ago in class and I was too shy to show the boys because I was scared they were going to say no. But I was really attached to it and they ended up liking it, so I didn’t have to be weird about it. I think I’m probably going to make it a part of the music video because we don’t have one. None of this was really planned, it just kinda happened. I thought we just weren’t going to have anything for a video. It’s just one of those things that’s falling into place. I’m really grateful that people wanted to do it!

Describe the new single in three words! 

Well, the title is “This Is Real”, which is three words. I don’t know if I can make three words make sense! We sat on it for a really long time. I described it as if you only had one piece of paper for history class to doodle on. It’s like a mini album in one song because of how many mood swings it has.

There’s Sebastian in autotune singing, there’s me screaming, there’s me singing sad stuff, me singing sassy stuff, loud drums, weird synths and guitar. I’ve heard it so many times at this point, I don’t even know what it is. 

Hayday, we boiled it. It was really fast. Girl With Fish was on medium heat. “This Is Real” was in the crockpot for weeks just sittin’ there and brewin’. 

If each member of Feeble Little Horse was a bug, what bug would they be? 

Sebastian, praying mantis. Jake would be one of those bumble bees that’s really cute and doesn’t sting you. I would be a butterfly. Ryan is a ladybug. A yellow ladybug. 

What is your favorite memory with Feeble Little Horse? 

The first one that comes to mind is when we played at The Living Gallery in Brooklyn, we opened for Hotline TNT. I was just crazy. I was manic. I was so nervous I became not even nervous and was talking to everybody. While we were playing I was just like ,”we’re gonna prove it to these people that we’re worth it and we’re awesome”, I just felt so confident. Then we all moshed like crazy for Hotline TNT and that was really fun. 

That album, Nineteen In Love, became really special to me. Will gave me the CD. I was completely red and out of breath  like, “can I please have a CD?” after their set, he was like, “yeah you can just have it you don’t have to buy it!” I played it in my car so many times.

 

I just felt empowered. It wasn’t just about getting stuff off my chest and making friends. We’re actually awesome! 

Does Feeble Little Horse have any pre-show hype rituals? 

Playboy Carti probably sucks as a person so bad. I think he really really sucks so bad, but we really like the one song that’s like “bought my sister a jeep!” We like to have a hype silly little song. 

We always all hug and decide if we’re going to be hype or chill slackers for the night. Then me and Sebastian always say our ritual statement before we play our last song in unison. It’s “Down” and like no one listens to that song. It’s not popular, but we’ve made our own version of it live at the end with the screaming. It’s totally a different song basically. 

I have OCD that manifests in a weird way. It’s not about cleaning, I have rituals I need to do and weird thoughts. I think it’s fun how the boys lean into my weird rituals. I have to handwrite each setlist for every show or something bad will happen. It has to be certain paper — the paper has to spark joy. I just have little things that need to happen and they’re all nice about it and I’m grateful for that.

Who are some people you’d like to work with? Whether that’s designing art, booking for Hammer House or with Feeble Little Horse. 

Online Ceramics is my favorite brand. I’m obsessed with their graphic design. They inspire me so much and I would love to work with them. Or do a collab merch line with them or do anything with them — I’m obsessed with them!

I always thought it would be cool to have a song produced by A.G. Cook. That would be kind of crazy. 

I’d love to play with Polo Perk or Babyxsosa… somehow just synthesize the different sections of music that are floating around. Especially with Polo Perk, I feel like he’s a pro at bridging different genres. I would just love to be a part of that. 

I’d love to get Polo Perk at Hammer House. I don’t know if he would do it. He’s been in my dreams…he’s a character in my dreams sometimes. He’s a big part of my personal life. I also want to have Crotchet — a skramz band — at Hammer House. It would be super sick to have Crotchet and Polo Perk. But I’m pretty excited because I think I’ll have more opportunities in Pittsburgh to throw shows with better spaces. I think I’d be more excited to host bands like that if I know I can give them a better guarantee with more people and comfortability. 

Last question: If you were a Sim, from the game The Sims, what would your aspiration and traits be? 

If someone was making me as a Sim, honestly I would want to be really good at gardening. I would want to get to level 10 gardening, because you can make the cowplant and then the cowplant can make juice that will make your sim live forever. So I could be an eternal sim in that sense. I would just want my sim to have an epic garden, but I’m not into gardening in real life. 

My traits would be… the creative trait. Definitely have a lil’ creativity there. I would be family oriented, I wanna have a baby — not now! But my Sim needs a little baby! And then romantic. Not even in a boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever way, I just like romanticizing everything. And I would want to have the diva walk! 

That concludes my chat with Lydia Slocum! “This Is Real” is now available on all streaming platforms! If you haven’t listened to Feeble Little Horse yet, I highly suggest you do as they are one of my favorites right now. Keep up with the band on Instagram @feeblelittlehorse !