The DUSK Issue: The Spine Stealers
WORDS & Photos By Bailey Krause
The Spine Stealers don’t make the type of music you think of when you think “Madison DIY,” but they are Wisconsin to the core. Self-proclaimed “spooky folk” artists, Kate Ruland and Emma O’Shea make up the duo. The two Sun Prairie natives met in middle school, carpooling for their club volleyball team. Though they didn’t become close friends until after graduating high school, “We found each other on Twitter, as one did in 2015.” Soon after, Kate moved to Chicago, and Emma to Eau Claire to attend UWEC. Music was never on the radar, until the COVID-19 Pandemic hit in 2020, bringing them back to Sun Prairie. The two began messing around with old acoustic guitars around campfires, “It was a period of reflection – gave us an opportunity to slow down, and we were back in our hometown which brought up a lot of memories and emotions. The only logical outlet for us became making music,” Kate said. Both recalled sitting around and playing barely-finished songs for their families. Their name, The Spine Stealers, came from a drunken night with Emma’s dad. He suggested they pick a heavy metal name to juxtapose their sad folk and threw a few out until Spine Stealers stuck.
I met the duo at their studio, a small yellow building just south of the Isthmus. Kate was kind enough to sit and listen to me ramble about my hometown and various majors, while Emma grabbed a scone from the neighboring Lakeside St. Coffee House. The studio walls were covered in collages and notes from friends, string lights hung above door frames. Stacks of National Geographic Magazines and a few empty Miller High Life cans decorated the cozy room as the rare January sun shone through a large picture window. It felt as if I had walked right into one of their songs.
The Spine Stealers released their first full album, If the Sky Falls, Beyond the Sidewalks, back in October of 2024, “We wasted a lot of time and money in the studio just figuring out how to do simple things, like using a metronome,” Kate said. But the two have found their footing, especially when it comes to lyricism. Inspired by the Midwest, The Spine Stealers do well not to stray away from the harsher aspects of life in Wisconsin. Emma said, “There is sadness in life and there are those blatant feelings you can’t avoid. I think it’s amplified, there’s a lot of the circle of life and death around here with the seasons. I’m an incredibly sentimental person to a detriment, so the midwest is the perfect place for me because I’m able to tap into that melancholy.”
Both confessed that when they first left their hometown, they were not planning on coming back. But it seems they’ve found great comfort in being somewhere so familiar. “Not in a nihilistic way, but you are meaningless around here, which just means you’re free to be a stranger and do whatever you want - it’s a slower life. You worry about the small things, there’s not some grandiose idea of what you need,” said Emma. There’s a sense that without the Midwest, there would not be The Spine Stealers. When I asked Kate about the imperfection of life in Wisconsin she replied, “It honestly is perfect.”
As an avid folk enjoyer, I’ve found that many house shows around UW-Madison’s campus are severely lacking in that department. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good head-banging-mosh-tastic basement show, but it can get exhausting. I spoke to Emma and Kate about this, and they agreed, though Emma made sure to voice her appreciation for the scene. “The Madison music community is so supportive. It’s made up of actual musicians and not those who are controlling musicians, which is really special.”
I asked them about their experiences with being slower, indie-folk artists within the Madison scene. Emma responded that, “There aren’t that many women-fronted bands and musicians in Madison in general. It was imposter syndrome of both that and ‘Why am I not bringing the party?’ … It felt like I wasn’t making music that people could have fun with. Though as time has gone on, I think we’ve found the right rooms to play in.”
Kate followed up by saying, “It felt a little weird at first, but people have their own tastes. It’s good to show up and experience something different from the bubble you might’ve built for yourself.” Both expanded on their personal appreciation for musical variety, and the widening of it, “It’s a nice relief to have variety on a bill where the audience can experience a wide range of emotions. It gets tiring listening to sad folk music for three and a half hours just like it gets tiring jumping around non-stop,” Kate said.
This musical experiment has been incredibly beneficial for both women. Emma told me, “Kate’s my best friend, we live together, we get to experience all of this together. It’s brought us even closer – I have a really hard time picturing myself doing this on my own.” Kate’s favorite part has been “the personal and spiritual growth that’s happened because of relinquishing myself to becoming an artist in this way…So much self discovery has happened because of this thing, it makes me wonder how much less of myself I would understand without it.”
She continued, “This is a very vulnerable and uncomfortable thing – from a writing standpoint, from a physical standpoint of performing in front of people. It’s natural for some, it has not been for me. Just learning to not get in your own way - it’s kind of a mindfuck. It’s a heavy dose of self acceptance.”
