She’s Green’s Deserved Rise Culminates in 'Swallowtail' EP

In just a few short years, grinding out shows in sweaty basements has turned into sold-out venues twenty times the size, and Minneapolis-based self-described “moss music” quintet she’s green isn’t planning on slowing down its meteoric rise at all. Having been active since 2022, the band’s ethereal blend of shoegaze, dream pop, and slowcore has drawn in fans drawn to their unique sound, with tracks like “Mandy,” “Smile Again,” and “river” as major catalysts for their success. Cutting their teeth on the road, followed by tours with Slow Pulp, Glixen, Hotline TNT and many more, showed the band and the world one glaring thing: she’s green is made for the big stage, but their hearts are still in those communal Minneapolis basements where they honed their craft.

“We approach every show the same, playing-wise. When we’re all five on stage, it could be in a basement or a big arena, but we try to bring the same energy to every show, a house show or a big gig,” says drummer Kevin Seebeck, a testament to the earlier days of the band and what makes a she’s green show what it is. Their personal approach to their live show and careers in general is apparent, and that continued hands-on approach to the art they care so deeply about makes them symbiotic with the fans that propelled them there. In regard to what they’re trying to portray through their shows, guitarist Liam Armstrong says, “I think we’re also bringing the sense of intimacy that a basement can give you with the audience, and you’re all on the same level in the same room, getting really sweaty, just that same fun spirit of moving around, and the catharsis of letting everything out.” Everyone needs a community, and everyone needs to let out a bit of steam, and what better concert to do it than a show where the artist cares just as deeply about the art as they do the fans who made their career with their art possible.

This ethos is quintessential to the shoegaze community, a genre built not just on shimmery guitar effects but equally on the enthusiasm of the crowds. But for them, while they are classed as a shoegaze group by their own supporters, it is not necessarily a label they are consciously aware of on a day-to-day basis, one they play into or otherwise care much about, for lack of a better term. Guitarist Liam Armstrong says enthusiastically, ”I just think genres, or saying an artist is one genre, kind of pigeonholes them, but it also doesn’t speak to how multifaceted artists can be, but we’ve never felt really pigeonholed by being called a shoegaze band, but I just think that we’re just writing songs [laughs].” This feeling is even more obvious to guitarist Raines Lucas regarding their brand-new EP swallowtail, stating that the label of shoegaze didn’t shape their sound in any way, shape or form; rather, it made them stray away even further, bluntly stating “how can we make this not sound like every other shoegaze record?” What emerges from this atmosphere is a project that is genre-bending yet sonically accessible, screamingly loud yet delicate, and, by far, their most cohesive and polished to date.

A lot of firsts for the group made swallowtail different from past projects: one being the ability to take that tube-screaming, drum-wailing, full-band live energy and translate it into the record by recording the album’s instrumentals all at the same time, which was something the group had not been able to do prior to this project. “The songs were live-tracked for the instrumental, and I was in the room too for those, so it felt like we were playing a show, and we have never done that because we haven’t had the proper resources to do it. So it’s really cool to actually go in and play together and have it be recorded, and then hear that in a way where it’s not just audio from a house show,” says lead vocalist Zofia Smith, a testament to the cohesiveness of their sound across all mediums; whether you see them live or listen to their music at home, that infectious energy translates. The new project was also “the first time we worked a lot with a producer [Sonny DiPerri], and it’s also the most time and energy we’ve spent on a project, so I think that hopefully translates to people. This really wasn’t something we just threw together; it was a big effort for us,” says Raines, and that dedication conveys seamlessly after listening. That effort also comes from kicking these songs around in a live setting for a long time before recording. Evolving tracks via their live show fits the group’s mindset to a T, slowly evolving the tracks in various ways until the final version seems, frankly, obvious. The single release ‘Close Your Eyes’ is a perfect instance, because “it literally came from a live jam that we were kicking around, just a couple of chords before practice, and I was just like, ‘Wow, this is really cool, there’s something here, this is a song starter.’ Then, month after month after month, Raines eventually figured out a really cool chorus set of chords. We figured out a rough arrangement, and we started testing it live a little bit. It felt like it needed more, so we kept trying stuff, removing stuff, changing the tempo, and adding a big middle section where there’s a bridge in the middle,” describes bassist Teddy Nordvold.

The fact that the track has been “kicking around for two and a half years now” (TN) is fully on display; you can hear how tailored every imaginable aspect is, and another example of their live show shaping the record is the sparse, yet hauntingly gorgeous sonic lull in the project titled Empty House’. “The original demo I made was fully dream-poppy and really different.” Liam states, “We had played an acoustic set on the Mississippi, and in the way we translated that song into what it became on that beach, we wanted to convey more than what it was before.” The sonics described above almost make the listener feel encompassed in a lush forest dreamscape, and, not coincidentally, forest imagery is a driving force behind Zofia’s equally lush vocals, while simultaneously Trojan-horsing pertinent themes through the new EP that need discussion today.

“I think [the lyrics] are a lot about being held, and I think because of everything that we have to deal with recently, with all the political bullshit, and the world that we live in right now… that sense of being held, that everything’s okay, everything is going to be fine, was the big thing for me,” says Smith. This feeling meshes flawlessly with the instrumentation, as a sense of yearning, yet delicate reassurance and comfort, can easily be felt even if a listener chooses not to listen to Smith’s wordsmith mastery through the project. Smith explains, “There are themes of hope, and also reminiscing on the past, and figuring out what things you could do differently, or a lot of introspection going on, but it’s definitely themes of reassurance,” all themes that we need to internalize just a little bit more, now more than ever. The pertinent lyrics, ethereal vocal delivery, washed-out guitars, delicate bass work, and hard-hitting drums blend together in a way I have never witnessed before; 5 highly talented musicians, but friends first, fully understand their sound and serve it perfectly to create one of the most cohesive and sonically logical pieces I have heard to date. It makes sense to attribute that to one of the factors of their rapid growth.

she’s green has had nothing short of a monumental few years, but that doesn’t mean the values that got them there are outgrowing them in parallel with the sweaty basements and grungy rooms they used to play in back in Minneapolis. Smith says that, by saying, if nothing else, they are adamant about preserving “that connection to the audience. I think a lot of bigger bands probably feel a little bit detached from them, but I perceive our fans differently, like we’re here together experiencing this.” Armstrong adds laughingly by saying, “We’re also in the crowd watching the other bands too. So we kind of do treat every show like it’s a house show.”

It is evident how ‘at one’ the group feels with the fans who have supported them and provided them with this platform. That sense of community, togetherness, sheer selflessness, and gratitude is etched into their identity with every action. At the beginning of my time talking with them, the question of “what’s one moment that really made all of this success feel real?” came up, with Liam replying with everything that is encompassed above: Playing a sold-out Slide Away Fest in Chicago with Hum, Nothing, and Chapterhouse just a week before the interview.

“I think the moment for me was honestly playing Aragon Ballroom last week, and I think just meeting all these super nice people and all these amazing bands that we looked up to for so long, that was a specific moment very recently that just kind of woke us up, and really made us realize, whoa, we started out covering [random] songs, and looking up to all these bands, and now we’re able to play shows with them and just hang out with them. It’s crazy,” says Armstrong.

With the unrelenting effort, pure passion, and unwavering vision she’s green has put into their craft, the hit songs that stick in your ear like your shirt clings to your body at their shows, and the swallowtail EP bringing more and more to a table you thought was already full, it’s really not that crazy, is it?

It was just bound to happen.