After eight years, Houston band Ancient Cat Society is back at it with their upcoming release Lonely Times. “It’s crazy, time goes so fast,” says the primary songwriter for the band Sergio Trevino. “I feel like we were so young when we released that last record, so young and spry.”
Lonely Times will be out for streaming on Friday, November 21 and a short Texas tour with Moon Panda. They will celebrate their album release at Dan Electro’s on Saturday, November 22 and are planning an in store performance at Cactus Music for early next month. The album, out on Splice Records, will be available on CD and vinyl.
“It’s like we haven’t skipped a beat,” says vocalist Haley Lynch, also known as Dollie Barnes. “It’s really nice, we can all come together and we all love each other very much. Even though a lot of time has passed, we pick back up where we last left off.”
Ancient Cat Society has always been a conglomeration of hometown talent with Trevino and his bandmates all playing double duty in other bands and solo projects. The band is made up of the vocals of Barnes, Austin Sepulvado on guitar, Tom Lynch on keyboard, Marshall Graves on bass and Tank Lisenbe on drums.
“There’s a part time energy to Ancient Cat Society if that makes sense but it’s special in that way too where it’s kind of like a family that doesn’t see each other every day and when we do it’s always special and nice.”
Lonely Times is a glorious reflection of that kinship, camaraderie and talent the group houses despite their time constraints. Trevino’s songwriting hits new poetic heights while each band member adds their own flare to the tracks.
“Compositionally I’m very much at the mercy of the players,” explains Trevino. “Haley and I will focus on the singing and harmonies and I’ll write the structure of the song and just stay in my lane as much as I can because I know that all those guys are better at it than I am.”
The band’s name appropriately holds the word “society” as they always partner with Houston talent forming their own extended network of musical guests including Will Van Horn and Kelly Doyle all the way to producing with longtime collaborators Steve Christensen and Adam Thein.
“It’s just surrounding yourself with people that you trust their taste because you do not want to have to change somebody or their ideas too much. You want them to express themselves and at the same time you want that to be reflective of you and what you’re typing to create so it’s really just creating that community and band together,” says Trevino.
As lead songwriter, Trevino has a gift for writing beautifully sullen songs which Barnes later takes on with her own deeply emotional and candied voice. Trevino jokes he wishes he could write an electronic dance banger, but it’s just not his style.
“I’m a happy person and pretty positive but I get all the negativity out of me usually when I’m by myself with a guitar. That’s how I deal with things and then I can go back to being a positive and mentally healthy person.”
Lonely Times will be available for streaming on Friday, November 21. Ancient Cat Society will perform with Moon Panda on Saturday, November 22 at Dan Electro’s, 1031 E. 24, tickets $23-29. For more information visit Danelectros.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.