By Katie Asha, Deputy Music Editor
She’s Green are a dream-pop shoegaze band from Minneapolis, USA, composed of five members: Zofia Smith on vocals, Liam Armstrong and Raines Lucas on guitar, Teddy Nordvold on bass, and Kevin Seebeck on drums. The band was formed in 2022, and originally came together as a bedroom DIY project between Zofia Smith and Liam Armstrong, who released a few songs under the name Sad Films before deciding on She’s Green.
The group’s latest EP, 'swallowtail', cemented their status as a force to be taken seriously in dream-pop — or, as they’ve dubbed their own sound, 'moss music'. Drawing comparisons to the Cocteau Twins to Slowdive to Beach House, She’s Green seem to be leading the modern shoegaze revival, one twinkling and gritty song at a time.
They have been on the road continually this year — starting in China before playing an extended string of shows in the US and Europe — and are beginning their first ever headline tours in the UK and North America very soon.
Their UK dates include sets at Reading & Leeds Fest, as well as an in-store performance at Bristol's own Rough Trade on September 1st, 2026.
In the weeks leading up to their show in Bristol, I had the chance to interview Zofia and Liam about tour, a possible new album, and all things 'swallowtail'.
I wanted to ask about the relationship between your music and the natural environment. What season do you think you all write best in – what time of year inspires your music the most?
Liam: Definitely the summer… even in the winter, we’re being creative based off of imagining summer.
Zofia: When I’m writing in winter, I’m thinking about summer. There’s something really beautiful about everything feeling alive outside — in the winter, everything feels very pale and dead. Winter is good to write in terms of having such a strong feeling of longing for aliveness again.
Liam recently commented that to write the first full-length album, you guys might go and stay in a cabin in the forest for a few days to make music. I know you’ve done similar for other projects before. Why is being isolated beneficial when writing songs?
Zofia: I think the stillness really helps us think, whether it be sitting in the summer by a creek, or even just being in a room where there isn’t noise of cars passing by outside.
Winter has its own unique beauty in terms of stillness, and that’s one thing about an otherwise quite barren season that really inspires us. We’ll often record songs with our eyes closed, in a room without windows and other distractions. Winter is the naturally occurring version of that. There’s not as many people walking around outside, there’s no leaves moving, in Minneapolis we always get snow… it feels like the world has earmuffs on.
The band initially began with just Liam and Zofia making music together, releasing a few songs under the name Sad Films. What are your favourite sad films?
Liam: 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire.'
Zofia: 'When Marnie Was There', and 'In The Mood For Love.'
What about those films makes you resonate with them?
Zofia: Mine — 'When Marnie Was There' — is tied to family and your relationship to them. The main character is this girl whose parents have died, and then her grandma raised her before passing away too. She basically becomes best friends with her grandma’s ghost throughout the movie.
Liam: Definitely being able to spend more time with someone in your life who’s passed on is such a precious thing. I do it with my grandparents through photos of theirs, music they liked, their old diaries and other things.
Do you think you try to maintain a storyline and narrative throughout a project, or is it more like an anthology of cohesive work?
Liam: I think it’s less that we make songs based off of an overarching narrative, and more that a story naturally gets pieced together after the songs are made. Each song is a photograph or snapshot of a certain time, and then later on you can piece together a narrative utilising those photographs. It’s like scrapbooking.
If 'swallowtail' was a novel with a blurb, what would the blurb say?
Zofia: It is very coming-of-age while you realise the world is dying, and trying to figure out adulthood in the middle of all of it.
Liam: Definitely trying to find your place in that very chaotic new order of things.
Zofia: Waking up to a world that doesn’t want me anymore?
I know shoegaze fans have definitely taken you in as one of their own — something really lovely and welcoming — but you have said before that you don’t want to be pigeonholed into just one genre. Do you feel any pressure to conform to a certain sound?
Liam: It’s definitely a balance. Our main focus is doing the things that we really enjoy, that challenge us and get us excited as a group when we’re jamming.
Zofia: Thankfully we’re very like, 'if we’re having fun then other people probably will too'. One thing we do get is messages when people really like a specific song of ours, and want us to lean more into that sound. We got a lot of support on our song mettle after performing it live; the energy of it at a concert live is so raw and energetic and fun, so now it is something that we want to create more of.
Liam: It’s really fun to see what the reception of certain songs at shows is, and how our opinions of a song might change after we perform it live.
Have you had any other experiences with that, besides mettle?
Zofia: We were playing an unfinished version of 'close your eyes' a lot, when we very first started touring. People really liked it live, but we were reluctant to release it because we didn’t feel like it was strong enough. So we went back into the studio and made it better, we added a whole new section… and now, when we play it live, people adore it. That’s really nice, because it feels like we made the right decision: we could have released the version that people liked, but we wanted to wait until it would be something that people would love.
Is there a point you’re waiting for to release your debut album?
Liam: I think honestly 'swallowtail' was that point. It gave us this experience in professional studios for the first time.
Zofia: Yeah. We were worried at the prospect of going into a debut album never having been in a proper studio, never having worked with a producer – now we have done those things, and it’s given us that confidence to actually assert our own creative opinions when we’re working with other people.
Louis O’Sullivan
How would each of you define success at this point in your career, and do you think your definition of it has changed?
Liam: The goal post keeps moving. Our biggest milestone initially was playing a show outside Minneapolis. Success right now is this insane year of touring we’ve had — we were in China, around the US, I think we have done like five tours so far this year, and we have three more.
Zofia: I think the headline tour is such a big thing for us.
Liam: Also having 'swallowtail' out in the world; seeing it get a warm reception and feeling like we know what we’re doing. I guess the next thing will be the full length record.
Featured Image: Liam Armstrong
Will you be going to see She's Green in September?
