For Minnesota Music Month, The Current polled the local music industry for April’s edition of The Scouting Report. A total of 112 people filled out this year’s Minnesota Music Month Scouting Report ballot, and 489 unique artists were chosen overall. The top 10 artists who received the most support include Crush Scene.

In conversation, Twin Cities rock band Crush Scene come off as best friends who just happen to play music together. Their easygoing affability is just as infectious as their catchy songs.

Crush Scene features vocalist/rhythm guitarist Madalyn Rowell, lead guitarist Rachael Guertin, bassist Janet Kolterman, and drummer Tasha Spencer. The band released a full-length debut, Rejection Theory, back in 2023. The group convened on Zoom since Rowell is on the road as the drummer for Minneapolis surf-punk band Black Widows, who are opening for Toronto’s the Surfrajettes.

Although Rowell has played drums for more than 15 years, Crush Scene is the first project featuring them singing and playing guitar. “I've always been a songwriter,” Rowell says. “Drums just came really easily to me, and guitar was always a lot of work. During Covid, I was like, ‘All right, I'm gonna learn how to play guitar.’ And I just started writing them out.”

Rowell hasn’t stopped writing ever since, and composes a majority of the band’s songs. “Madeline is always bringing new songs to practice,” Spencer says. “And we'll just be like, ‘Man, we still haven't finished three of the new songs you brought last time.’ She's just a songwriting machine, and it's great. We've effectively trained her, and now she's just spitting out content.”

While Rowell has honed her guitar skills since the pandemic, she is happy to be playing alongside Guertin, who adds a rollicking edge to the band’s countrified garage-rock sound. “I think I'm definitely like a drummer playing rhythm guitar,” Rowell admits. “That's why I appreciate Rachel's guitar playing so much, because she's a lot more melodic and kind of dances along atop the straight kind of rhythmic strumming that I do.”

Kolterman and Spencer’s first ever live performances occurred on stage with Crush Scene. Rowell had scheduled a series of residencies at White Squirrel and Mortimer’s in order for the band to find their live footing and have their sound coalesce. “The first year of playing and being in the front, I was incredibly nervous,” Rowell shares. “I was like, ‘Oh, God, I’ve got to move around a little, which is hard, especially because I was learning guitar.”

The group also used their residencies to help promote other local bands who were just starting out. For those shows, they surrounded themselves with people with whom they were comfortable, and played at venues that match their ideals.

“One thing that we've really tried to strive for, especially since Rachel is very active in TCUP (Twin Cities United Performers), is to work with venues to be transparent about how much money each band is going to make and what to expect,” Spencer says. “We do this because we love playing so much, and we love our community, love our scene. We're just very honest and forthcoming about trying to make the scene better and safer for everyone. We want to protect it because it's one of the few places in the world, especially right now, where people can truly be themselves and enjoy themselves and have some joy. So we're very adamant about keeping those spaces safe.”

After growing up in Burnsville, Minneapolis-based Rowell says they feel rooted the local music scene. “I was a little tween going to the Garage and fantasizing about playing in bands and playing music, but I just hadn't found my people or the confidence yet,” they add. “So I feel pretty connected, especially to bands like Babes In Toyland and Kitten Forever. Even the old-school stuff guided me to want to do it and know that it was possible.”

Crush Scene plan on releasing a string of new singles recorded with producer John Miller at Future Condo Studio, with plans for an eventual full-length later in the year. Along the way, expect a few band-produced music videos. “Madeline and Janet are both extremely powerful and successful photographers and videographers and cinematographers,” Spencer shares. “Writer, director, best boys. We do it all,” Rowell adds, with a laugh.

The new material is a fluid mix of their country-rock sound along with elements of lounge and punk, and even a foray into a poppier vibe on a new track called, “Price of Being Cool.” “We're really spanning genres with this album,” Rowell says. “John calls us ‘Girl Pavement,’ which we took as a huge compliment.” They also re-recorded their most recent single, “Cease and Desist,” because the initial version didn’t fully capture how it feels when they play the song live.

Crush Scene plan on playing a lot of local shows throughout the rest of the year, while also doing some barnstorming tours of the Midwest with their Green Bay friends, Holly and the Nice Lions. They also envision plotting some single-release shows to celebrate their forthcoming music.

While the band wishes they could have had a chance to play the dearly departed Triple Rock Social Club, there is still one legendary little room in town they still want to rock someday. “7th Street. We haven't played the Entry yet,” Rowell says. “We would definitely be honored to play there. Little teenage me is like, ‘That's my heart's desire.’”

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