Q&A: Get to Know Minneapolis Shoegaze Rockers she’s green
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ALEAH ANTONIO ☆
Photography Credit: Liam Armstrong
THE HIDDEN GEM FROM THE DEPTHS OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — she’s green are currently on their first tour ever. The band members tell me that they have never been to the West Coast before. In fact, it’s their first time visiting almost all of the cities on their run with Glixen, an up-and-coming shoegaze band from Phoenix, Arizona. she’s green is barely getting their feet wet in the music scene, but has already developed a bit of a cult following.
When I saw them on the first night of their tour in San Francisco, they managed to pack the venue just as openers. I was there by recommendation of a friend of mine, who once flew all the way to Chicago from San Francisco just to see she’s green. There is no doubt in my mind that they have dozens of other fans with the same devotion. Even a member of local shoegazers LSD and The Search for God came to the show as a fan. Their sweeping fandom doesn’t come as a surprise, though—she’s green is an insane talent.
Their discography is slim—three singles and an EP, Wisteria—but is without a bad song. Drawing inspiration from artists like Cocteau Twins, Brian Eno, and Beach House, they immerse the listener in expansive droves of guitar pedals with a feathery, celestial vocal performance from lead singer Zofia Smith that you can get lost in. The cover of Wisteria pictures Smith floating in a blue-green lake, almost like Shakespeare’s Ophelia if she was just dreaming. This is the best way I can describe what they sound like: the same way that earthly formations can make you feel outside of your body, yet still ground you.
You’ll rarely find a photo of them not in nature. The band—Smith, Liam Armstrong, Raines Lucas, Teddy Nordvold, and Kevin Seebeck—seem to always be amongst fields of clovers, their heads drooped below forest trees, or standing next to waterfalls. Smith once said in an interview that being around nature helped her feel more herself after bouts of dissociation and hard times. It seems to be a throughline in all of their music, including their most recent single, “Graze,” produced by Slow Pulp’s Henry Stoehr and mixed by Sonny DiPerii (My Bloody Valentine, DIIV).
They can’t escape nature’s hands, even outside of songwriting. When they first met Shane Friedman of their new label Photo Finish Records, they made it a point to take him to Theodore Wirth Park, one of their favorite spots in the city. Armstrong mentioned that he saw an owl in the daylight the same day, which he took as a good omen.
Keep reading to learn how she’s green started making music, their take on the shoegaze label, and their plans for new music.
Photography Credit: Liam Armstrong
LUNA: I saw you guys in San Francisco—I think it was your first show of the tour— and you were really good! I feel like everyone in the crowd loved you. How has tour been so far?
RAINES LUCAS: Well, you caught us at a good moment. That was an especially high note for us. All the shows have been pretty remarkably good. We had, not low expectations, but no expectations. All of that has been pretty shattered. I would say it’s been pretty genuinely remarkable so far.
ZOFIA SMITH: Yeah, honestly overwhelmed with the support. I wasn’t expecting people in the crowd to sing along. Everybody that’s also coming up to us and telling us about how our music means something to them has been really special.
LUNA: Tell me the story of how you all met and how you got started.
SMITH: It started off with Liam and I. We were friends and roommates, and we were both individually making music. We overheard each other making stuff and that really worked out between us. We wanted to turn it into more of a live thing because we were just doing all computer type beat stuff. Then we met Kevin jamming at our house. Kevin knew a couple of our roommates as well. Teddy worked at the same radio station as Liam.
LIAM ARMSTRONG: Yeah, we worked at [University of Minnesota Twin Cities] college radio, Radio K, and that’s how we knew each other.
LUNA: What is the music scene like in Minneapolis?
ARMSTRONG: It’s kind of a smaller city, so the community I feel is very tight knit. We know a lot of people in the scene and the bands are all really eclectic, like very unique types of music. Everybody plays something different. The way we got our start was playing house shows in this college neighborhood near the UofM. I think that’s still going on, like people still do DIY shows in student-rented houses and stuff. It’s an awesome place to play music.
SMITH: I feel like the basement scene really thrives. I don’t know exactly now how well that’s doing, just because we’re not students. I feel like it’s pretty big there.
TEDDY NORDVOLD: These days, there’s a good amount of bands and artists that are getting more national/international attention from the scene. I used to be watching them in basements around. This guy who’s got this project, Miloe, he’s been in the UK now and he’s been all over the country. Same goes for friends of ours and bands like Gully Boys and Bugsy and Heart to Gold. There’s a lot of amazingly talented people that are starting to get their flowers and it’s super sick.
LUNA: What is the shoegaze presence like in Minneapolis?
NORDVOLD: It’s definitely on the come-up right now. I feel like there’s a lot of newer bands that are toying with those kinds of sounds. Some really good friends of ours, like this band called 12th House Sun’s killing it right now…Shoutout Another Heaven, that’s a really, really cool shoegaze band that’s been in the game for a long time from Minneapolis.
LUNA: When you guys were first making music as she’s green, were you intentionally making stuff that was shoegaze, or were you just jamming and seeing what happens?
ARMSTRONG: We were making a lot of different stuff at the time. I mean, I was working on some indie stuff. I started making hip hop beats and stuff. I think I definitely wanted to try to make shoegaze for a few of the songs that we have out, or I was just drawing a lot from inspirations like that. I guess it’s just how it worked…It wasn’t like, we want to be a shoegaze band. It was just like, we want to put out music that reflects the kind of music that we really enjoy. [Zofia] wrote “Mandy”...
SMITH: I just had very raw, like, no pedal, very basic, straight guitars and vocals in a demo. I feel like that’s how a lot of the songs have started—very raw and baseline. When we come together, we just gravitate towards shoegaze because it adds that element of emotion and extra texture that really enhances those feelings. I would say the first couple songs that Liam and I made, we were definitely in a shoegaze phase…like what we were listening to when we were really diving into the ‘90s music at the time. But now, we’re really finding our own sound, which is great.
LUNA: How do you feel about the shoegaze label for the band?
LUCAS: We’ve all had that shoegaze phase, but I would speak for all of us when I say it’s probably like ten percent of what we’re actually listening to, even though we love the music. We’re never, ever making music for the shoegaze listener. We’re never like, “Shoegaze people will really dig this.” You know, if they do, that’s awesome, but that’s not the focus at all.
LUNA: One thing I like about the shoegaze community is that, when people are into a band, they’re really into the band. I feel like you guys have those sorts of fans already. After you released Wisteria and your other singles, what has the past year been like?
NORDVOLD: One of the coolest things is like… sometimes, name-searching is kind of fun on social platforms. I’m just like, I wonder if anyone is posting about us or something. I’ll find a Turkish channel on Youtube that posted a lyric video for “smile again” with the lyrics translated into Turkish. I’m like, yo, this is so, so cool. I’ll hit up Google Translate and I’ll try to write a thank you in whatever language it is… It’s been completely mind-blowing to see these songs that came together in your basement talked about by people in all the far-reaching corners of the world. It’s beautiful.
SMITH: Everyone has been so kind and supportive. I don’t know, it’s overwhelming. I’m excited. It’s unreal, for sure.
LUNA: How did you guys end up getting signed to Photo Finish Records?
LUCAS: The guy who works there, his name is Shane, he flew out to see us at a basement show in Minneapolis. I think that was very special and cool that he flew all the way from New York to do that. He got to see us in our element, too.
ARMSTRONG: He was really excited about us, and I think that’s what drew us in.
SMITH: He’s just so genuine. There’s no bad energy.
LUNA: Tell me about “Graze,” the single you guys released recently.
LUCAS: It was a very old demo from I think 2023. Me and Zofia went to a Slow Pulp concert in Madison, and we were very inspired, one of my favorite bands personally. We were like…I don't know how to describe it…We were like, “let’s make some real heartfelt music.” We hadn’t done that…
SMITH: It was such an emotional experience for us. It was such an amazing show. Coming out of that, we were so excited to write.
LUCAS: Just very inspired. We went back to this old demo that Liam made a long time ago and we were like, “Oh, I forgot about this.” It was sitting there for maybe five or six months or something like that. We were like, we could turn that into something. The three of us on an acoustic guitar wrote the beginning of the song, and then the rest of us got together as the band and finished the song.
SMITH: How did the connection happen between you and Henry Stoehr (Slow Pulp)?
LUCAS: I went to school in Madison, Wisconsin, and they’re from Madison, Wisconsin. They played some shows for the university and I helped run those shows. I was just a massive super fan and nerded out, but I got to help run the show and meet them. They’re the most down to earth people. So nice. Henry at some point was like, “Yo, I just listened to she’s green, this is awesome.” I knew that was a good sign. We asked him if he’d be down to help us out, and that was it.
LUNA: Any other plans once you guys wrap up this tour?
ARMSTRONG: Definitely going to be working on new stuff.
NORDVOLD: We’re trying to record some stuff soon.
ARMSTRONG: We have a lot of stuff written. I think it’ll be a good time to just hop in the studio and record once we get back.
LUNA: Did you guys want to mention anything I didn’t bring up already?
NORDVOLD: I want to make it clear that we don’t hate shoegaze and we don’t hate the shoegazers [laughs]. We got a lot of love for them and we got a lot of love for the genre.
LUCAS: “Shoegaze band she’s green denounces shoegaze.”
LUNA: That’ll be the headline when this goes live.
NORDVOLD: They’re gonna tear us apart on Reddit.
SMITH: I love the genre. We just don’t wanna be in a box.
NORDVOLD: There’s definitely going to be music in the future which is very different than a lot of what’s come out so far, which I’m excited for.
she’s green is currently on tour with Glixen. You can get tickets to an upcoming show here.
