When the pandemic shut everything down in 2020, the bedrooms of young Twin Cities musicians started seeing a lot of action, if you know what I mean.
Excuse me, I’m talking about songwriting, you pervs.
Among the many future local scenemakers then cutting their creative teeth at home were roommates Zofia Smith and Liam Armstrong. “They were independently working on their own stuff, one room apart from each other,” She's Green drummer Kevin Seebeck explains. When Smith and Armstrong realized their creative projects might be compatible, the kernel of She’s Green was established.
They shared some demos with Armstrong’s fellow Radio K staffer, Teddy Norwald, and it's an understatement to say he approved. “As Teddy says, Teddy just begged Liam to be in the band, he just on his knees begged him, ‘Please for the love of god, can I jam with you guys?'” jokes guitarist Haines Lucas.
With Seebeck settled in on drums, Lucas was brought in to add even more guitar. “Raines had showed me some photos of his pedal board and it was almost identical to mine,” Armstrong says. “So it was like we kind of just had similar tastes with guitar and also with our own music tastes in general. He was a perfect fit.”
The group had established a healthy local buzz even before they released their debut EP, Wisteria, in summer 2023. Smith’s dreamy vocals and the amassed textural guitars give She's Green a lot in common with the many neo-shoegaze bands of the moment. But don't overlook what sets them apart: They often chime or jangle rather than rush over you in heavy wash of distortion.
And while they don't dodge the shoegaze tag, when it comes to describing their music, though they qualify it. “Twee adjacent” and "a little dream-poppy" are phrases dropped into our talk. And Armstrong isn't afraid to get impressionistic about their sound, saying: “You could liken it to taking a walk in the woods and then just having some kind of almost spiritual moment with a wild animal or something.”
It's a fitting description for a band that joked they played "moss rock" to the Minnesota Daily last year. “We want to create that environment that allows people to have a place to return to, that kind of feels indicative of home,” Armstrong says. “I think that's a really cool thing that art can do.”
Explore the entire Picked to Click class of 2024 below.
