As the band release new single ‘mettle’, we catch up about their affinity with moss and plans to go “both quieter and louder”.

If music could grow like moss, she’s green would be a sprawling patch of sound, layered, intimate, and insistent, weaving through every corner of the senses. Zofia Smith’s voice floats over the twisting guitars of Liam Armstrong and Raines Lucas, while Teddy Nordvold’s bass grounds the sound and Kevin Seebeck’s drums give it steady momentum. Together, they form she’s green.

she’s green did not explode onto the scene; they slowly seeped in. What started as a low-pressure, almost accidental project took shape once all five members were locked in. It became more than late-night jam sessions and half-finished demos and got real enough to start hauling amps into strangers’ basements.

The band’s earliest shows took place underground, beneath low ceilings where every vibration from the speakers rippled through the crowd. “Those were a lot of fun, but it didn’t really feel official in any way”, Smith shares.

Soon, the five-piece started playing at local venues, trading makeshift stages for proper soundchecks and printed set times. The shift did not happen overnight, but it was undeniable. By 2024, they were loading that same gear into a van and heading out on their first tour. “We are constantly going through new stages of being a band”, Armstrong explains. “We are constantly waking up to the feeling that we should really take this seriously”.

The name she’s green traces back to something elemental. “It isn’t a crazy story – we were just throwing out names, and nature is something we all relate to”, Smith says. Long before they were a band, they were friends taking hikes, spending hours outside, orbiting the quiet landscapes that would later shape their sound.

Over time, the name rooted itself more deeply. “As time has gone on, there’s just been attached more and more meaning to the name”, Smith explains. What started as instinct began to feel intentional. “It feels like it’s this expression of the matriarchal energy of nature”, Armstrong adds.

Both lyrically and sonically, she’s green leans into something tactile – grass under fingertips, cold air in lungs, the hum of wind through trees. Their sound feels lived-in, rooted. Raised in the wide-open stretches of Minnesota, with childhoods spent wandering woods and disappearing into open space, the natural world has imprinted itself on the band.

Music became an extension of that landscape, another place to get lost. In both sound and setting, they found refuge from the manufactured human society. “We are all very sentimental about natural spaces”, Nordvold reflects.

“Moss music” is the phrase she’s green landed on when no existing genre was quite fit. What started as a joke stuck, then slowly seeped into the way they write. Their inspiration drips from woodlands and riverbeds, the current of waterways shaping their sense of movement and restraint. Creeks, damp soil, the quiet persistence of green life clinging to stone. If you look closely in places like that, you will find moss.

“I love zoomed-in photos of moss – the microcosm of the forest floor, and the hidden worlds there. I thought, let’s try to evoke those hidden worlds in our music”, Armstrong explains. Those delicate textures and intricate details surface in their hazy blend of shoegaze, indie rock, and dream pop. “Another case of attaching meaning to something after the fact”, Nordvold laughs.

Outside of nature, the five-piece draws inspiration from a wide spectrum of sounds. Smith finds comfort in the soft haze of dream pop, while Nordvold and Seeback lean into heavier territory as metalheads.

Ask them to agree on one album to listen to for the rest of their lives, and the question alone almost derails them. “You’re about to start a thread in our group chat that’s going to last for months”, Nordvold warns.

“I’m thinking ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ by Cocteau Twins”, Armstrong offers.

“But Kevin wouldn’t agree”, Smith cuts in.

“Kevin is just along for the ride”, Armstrong fires back, laughing.

They pause, recalibrating. Nordvold shifts the tone. “I feel like all of us could get down with ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ by Stevie Wonder and be happy for the rest of our lives”.

“And we can all agree on Prince”, Nordvold adds. Heads nod. “But ‘Songs in the Key of Life’”, he doubles down, “is an undeniable 10 out of 10 album”.

“I love ‘Depression Cherry’ by Beach House, but I know the guys would find it sleepy and sad,” Smith admits.

“No, I love that record”, Nordvold says.

In the end, their final answer remains ambiguous, yet through their banter, the band’s musical diversity, passion, and friendship ripple and settle.

she’s green’s newest single, ‘mettle’, released last week. The track brims with atmospheric post-punk textures that pulse beneath a shoegaze haze. Intricate guitar lines and propulsive percussion steer the band fluidly between ethereal dream pop and gritty indie rock.

“‘mettle’ is very political in my eyes. I’m just channelling the upset. There’s constant bad news in the media, so it felt really good to go into the practice space”, Smith explains. The melodic dreamscapes are allowed to float momentarily before sharp, dissonant instrumentation grounds them in something more visceral.

The initial riff came from a place of frustration, but the track evolved into something hopeful. “Living in the U.S., so much crazy has happened in the last year”, Armstrong reflects. “Things seem like they’re crashing down, but seeing our community be there for each other is inspiring”, Smith adds.

With ‘mettle’, she’s green craft a sound that balances atmosphere, abrasion, and emotional depth in equal measure. An eerie mist drifts before a cathartic outburst strikes like feedback.

Spanning from nature’s scenery to a shared love of film, visual storytelling is central to she’s green’s creative vision. Whether through cinematic storytelling, photography, or visual art, it all circles back to the band’s fascination with moss and microcosms. “Having nature in [our visuals] is the most important thing to me”, Smith says.

Films have played a significant role in shaping that aesthetic. ‘Chungking Express’ by Wong Kar-Wai and Studio Ghibli movies, in particular, have left a mark. “We recently saw ‘Nausicaä’ on 35-millimetre, which was a spiritual experience”, Armstrong shares. “I also love ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. It’s been really inspiring in terms of vibe”, Nordvold adds.

Through these influences, she’s green translate the textures, moods, and quiet intricacies of the natural world into a visual language that complements their music. “We want to channel the feeling you get from viewing a painting, or to add a visual element to the feeling we get from listening to our music”, Armstrong explains.

When I ask what movie the band would have liked to soundtrack, the answers are as varied as their influences.

“The movies I love have amazing soundtracks already”, Smith laughs.

“It would be cool to recreate a ‘Blade Runner’-type movie soundtrack”, Armstrong says.

“It would be really cool for us to do a score for a David Attenborough-style nature documentary”, Nordvold suggests.

“Or like a microcosmos documentary, just like a bunch of macro videos of snails”, Armstrong adds with a grin.

“I must also put ‘Nausicaä’out there”, Smith says.

Even in their imagined scores, the band’s curiosity, connection to the natural world, and cinematic sensibility weave through every idea, revealing the same care and attention they bring to their music.

Following the release of ‘mettle’, she’s green are already looking ahead, crafting new music with a more deliberate approach. Nordvold explains that the band is exploring “a more refined approach” to their next batch of tracks. “There are a lot of dynamic variations”, Smith adds. “We go both quieter and louder. We have tracks that are more raw, and one that’s super heavy”. Even amid this intensity, there is space for moments that feel like mist settling over a forest floor.

“I’m excited for this seven-minute track to be released”, Nordvold shares. In a digital age dominated by short, immediate songs, the band embraces the patience it takes for music to unfold, letting the compositions breathe, twist, and grow.

Alongside it, Smith teases a more acoustic track. “I think it will really hit for some people”, she says, hinting at the emotional range the band continues to explore. Between sprawling compositions and intimate moments, their next wave of music promises the same blend of atmosphere, grit, and emotional depth that has become their signature.

When asked if there is a question they have always wanted to answer but never been asked, Nordvold does not hesitate. “What’s your favourite tree?”

“I’ve got to say willow trees”, Smith says.

“I think mine is a Norway pine”, Nordvold shares. “It’s the prevailing pine species in the Laurentian forest, where my grandparents used to live in Northern Minnesota. The sound they make when a light wind blows through them is one of my favourite sounds”.

“Or that big tree in Taiwan, Cypress, might be my favourite”, Smith adds.

“Yeah, some of those trees were almost 1,000 years old”, Nordvold reflects.

Even in the middle of riffs, tours, and extended studio sessions, the small question lingers like a quiet reflection of how deeply nature threads through she’s green’s music and world – still growing.