This week in Freak Scene, Wishbone Zoë marks the release of her new single, “Psyche’s Romp,” and an upcoming show at the Iron Horse by telling us how she got started, and where she’s going.

Some musicians release an album every few years, or once a decade, or at even longer intervals. Wishbone Zoë works at a faster pace: the Amherst singer, songwriter, bassist and guitar player has released three albums, an EP and various singles on her own since 2020, plus another full-length project as a third of the noise-rock project EIEIEIO, with Crimson Blue and Maxshh.

Wishbone Zoë’s lastest release, the single “Psyche’s Romp,” is the opening salvo from another new album that’s nearly finished. Featuring Zoë (a.k.a. Zosia Kochanski) on vocals and rhythm guitar with accompaniment from her father, Paul Kochanski, on bass, JJ O’Connell on drums and Aaron Noble on lead guitar, the song has a cracked power-pop feel with an airy melody that sails through rugged guitars and churning drums. It’s part of Zoë’s recent focus on making simple songs that rock. She performs Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Iron Horse with Taxidermists and Sweat Enzo (tickets).

In addition to making music, she’s also a poet, an animator and a visual artist. In this (lightly edited) Q&A, Zoë offers a sense of her artistic evolution, and how the various disciplines she practices are related.

What got you started making music?

Garret Salazar and I were just talking about this the other day: seminal moments were seeing School of Rock when it came out, and the White Stripes. My dad and his music friends and bandmates were my first influences and teachers, of course – my dad lent me his acoustic Washburn bass when I was 9 and I still write on it.

You've been busy releasing songs and albums over the past couple years. What's your creative process like?

I guess the only thing consistent about my creative process is that it always feels like a direct reflection on what I’m into at the time, fleshed out or not. Sometimes I’ll spend a season painting abstract; once the only language that spoke to me was poetry so I tried my hand at solely writing poetry for a few months. I make a lot of time, for better or for worse, for my art, even if it’s just a week on end in solitude reading, walking, journaling ideas and thinking out loud. The solitude is really crucial for listening to what’s talking the loudest and working with ideas and feelings without trying to control them. Every album and video I’ve done feels like a thesis and you can probably hear the influences of each of those times, at times maybe damningly clearly

Wishbone ZoeO Profound Wednesday

How would you describe your evolution as a songwriter?

When I was a kid making my first album I wanted to be a persona, like early Beck or like Tom Waits. I needed eventually to break free from what I perceived as a folk-influenced narrative and started trying to get really out with sound collage, instrumental improv, non-song performance art and animating on paper. In the last few years, I’ve come back home to songwriting and performing songs with the conviction that it’s my deepest creative voice. I’ve since gotten better at guitar and have learned how to write riffs and go way out into noise (playing with EIEIEIO taught me a lot about these things and the crucial lesson of not being afraid to be dumb and have fun while still valuing good musicianship). These days I’m challenging myself to write simple songs. These days I really just want to rock, too. Playing bass for stints with Band of Clones, the Musical Chairs, Thrasher Wheat, Bella’s Bartok and Prewn have crystallized this for me.

As a multi-media artist, what's the relationship between the music you make and your other artistic pursuits?

They’re are all in conversation with each other, all the time. Different mediums I’ve worked in all stimulate their own unique workflows and ways of thinking, but I always try to apply tasks and skills across media: acrylic and oil pastel painting can be approached like EQing and compressing, organizing a body of songs can be like assembling animation frames. Choosing words for a poem can be mirrored in how you choose to take in and process conversation and noise in a coffee shop.

Tell me about your new song, "Psyche's Romp," and the larger project that it's part of.

I wrote this big verbose Substack piece about “Psyche’s Romp” the song [last month], so in the interest of not getting any more verbose, I’ll say it’s the title track and definite centerpiece of the rock attempt! My dad, JJ, Dave and I played a set of Cheap Trick songs at Marigold a while ago for the fuck of it, and it formed the direction for how we chose to build these new songs into a band album. Cheap Trick, Big Star and the ’70s power-pop vein is a deep middle ground for my dad and I, and it’s indeed the family band, so while the record doesn’t totally sit there musically, the full-circle lifelong rock undercurrent goes strong on this one.

Upcoming Concerts

There’s been a reader request to include shows happening at Stone Church in Brattleboro, which seems reasonable. There are a lot of them, so they’re not all here yet, but this is a start: Ruthie Foster Aug. 14 (tickets), Improvement Movement Aug. 15 (tickets), ex-Sound Tribe Sector 9 member David Murphy Aug. 19 (tickets), Kaki King Aug. 20 (tickets), River Shook Aug. 22 (tickets), Mad Caddies with the Supervillains Aug. 26 (tickets), Jamaican “harmonic trio” the Meditations Aug. 27 (tickets), Vacation Manor Aug. 28 (tickets), Doom Scroll and Hans Gruber and the Die Hards Aug. 29 (tickets), Karl Denson's Tiny Universe and the Rebirth Brass Band Sept. 4 (tickets), Dirty Sound Magnet and Gran Moreno Sept. 10 (tickets), Juice Sept. 11 (tickets) and the Reverend Horton Heat Sept. 12 (tickets).

Jeffrey Martin Dec. 9 to the Iron Horse in Northapton (tickets).

I’m away this week, so that’ll do it for now. Thank you for reading! Previous issues are available in the online archive. Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen and are gratefully accepted. If you’re able, please consider a paid subscription!

This Week’s Shows

The full concert calendar is available here for paid subscribers.