With over 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, this local, up-and-coming shoegaze band’s influence spans beyond the small house shows where they got their start.

she’s green, comprised of Teddy Nordvold (bass), Zofia Smith (vocals), Liam Armstrong (guitar), Raines Lucas (guitar) and Kevin Seebeck (drums), have had many recent “firsts,” including the June 30 release of their debut EP, “Wisteria,” and an exciting performance at Fine Line Music Cafe.

“I love the scene here, I love going to shows here,” Nordvold said. “Being able to be part of the Minneapolis music scene with this band is very, very gratifying.”

About a year ago, the pieces fell into place and the five musicians played their first gig as she’s green. Their paths crossed in a series of lucky ways: through roommates, through mutual friends and by working at Radio K where Nordvold and Armstrong met as University of Minnesota students.

“We tried learning this demo that I had,” Armstrong said. “Then we kind of just started playing shows once we had enough songs written.”

Since then, the band has been in dozens of lineups alongside local acts such as Lapdogs, Daphne Jane, 12th House Sun and Psylo. 

Bonding with other Twin Cities-based musicians is an essential part of their success — the connections are valuable ways to form new friendships, expand their career and make their music as great as it can be. 

“It’s really easy to be inspired by other bands,” Smith said.

While their shows get bigger and bigger, friends help to ground the musicians. The group explained how, after unexpectedly playing at the spacious Fine Line, they found familiar faces in the crowd to quell their nerves.

“Our friends are really holding it down for us, which we appreciate greatly,” Nordvold said. “They’re at a lot of the shows we play and they’re normally right up front and rocking it out with us.”

Buried underneath the light, aurally pleasant melodies of she’s green’s songs are lyrics about depression, grief and growth. Though words are just one part of these intricate soundscapes, the musicians agree that connections with audience members are often rooted in the emotional depth of the lyrics.

“Sometimes I’ll make eye contact with people while I’m saying something really intense, and they’ll just kind of be like, ‘Whoa,’” Smith said. “I can tell they’re kind of shocked, but they can also really feel what I was feeling.”

The group finds inspiration from a variety of places: movies, different eras of music and, as made evident by their name and album cover, nature. 

“We joke about being a moss rock band,” Nordvold said. “We all love the outdoors.”

On “Wisteria,” Smith’s airy and soaring vocals contrast the heavy instrumentals, creating melodies that are reminiscent of the turbulent natural world. The EP contains five songs, which are intentionally arranged to replicate the structure of a live performance. 

The strong opening track, “Lakes,” ebbs and flows between dynamics. An ethereal wash of sound takes over in the chorus, but the verses are more subdued with their guitar-based melodies. 

Little gems of lyrics can be found within these songs. In “Mandy,” Smith sings, “Drifting through all the open space that calls me / Dancing through all the moments that define me.” Even though lyrics are not the main focus of the EP, there is a delicate beauty in the sparing words the songs provide. 

Listening to “Wisteria” feels like drifting down a glittering river in the sun, whilst simultaneously evoking feelings of sitting on a porch in the country as the dark sky cries. That’s the magic of the record — the listener gets to conjure up their own image of what each track represents.

All five band members are eager for the EP to make its way to the ears of their audience and hope that this project will draw new people to their music. 

As they refocus their energy on forthcoming projects, she’s green aims to continue creating spellbinding songs that serve as a way to work through a wide array of emotions.

“If we can provide a cathartic experience for people while doing something cathartic, it’s super rewarding,” Armstrong said. 

she’s green will perform next on July 21, location to be announced. In the meantime, listen to the five-track dreamscape “Wisteria.”