The indie folk band Upstate has been together in one form or another for 15 years, but to hear the group’s members tell the story, the outfit is only now fully becoming its true self.
For starters, on their new album “Abalone,” guitarist Dylan McKinstry, who had previously been involved with the band as a producer and “hired gun,” as he puts it, is now a full-fledged Upstater. “This record really was the first time that all four of us co-wrote all the songs together,” he says.
Mary Webster, vocalist and acoustic guitarist, notes how recording live, directly to tape, means the new tunes are “way more raw and genuinely ‘us’ than they would have been otherwise. It’s so easy to record digitally and splice every detail, especially as a singer, but recording to tape got us out of our comfort zone while simultaneously freeing us.”
The founding core of Webster, Melanie Glenn on guitar and vocals and Harry D’Agostino on upright bass have guided Upstate through a career that has landed them on tours with genre heavyweights like Mt Joy, Lake Street Dive and The Wood Brothers. With the current lineup, three-part harmonies – comprised of Webster, Glenn and McKinstry – are back in focus. The group’s singing has drawn comparisons from the press to The Roches, The Andrews Sisters and The Boswell Sisters and the aforementioned Lake Street Dive. One journalist heard “Manhattan Transfer with a touch of Loretta Lynn.”
What does the band think makes it stand out?
“I think we’ve led with humor and personality over perfection and societal expectations over the years, which have connected to the humanness of our audiences,” Webster says. “Anyone can sing and play, but can they also make you feel more connected to what it is to be human and imperfect? We’ve also led with our collective yet individual voices as songwriters, which keeps the repertoire interesting and engaging instead of one-noted.”
While the fourth album marks a band continuing to develop its sound, the members’ personal lives have inspired new veins to mine for lyrics as well as change the way the group operates.
“I think something that’s changed throughout the years and I think plays a very big role in that change in a way is that almost all of us in the band have started families,” McKinstry says. “There is now a total of five children among the four band members. We’re in this season of building families and trying to be professional, full-time working musicians at the same time, and that really flies in the face of the usual trope of the rambling, childless musician.”
Regarding McKinstry’s larger role, Webster says: “Dylan has always been a significant part of this band since his joining, whether it was playing, singing, collaboration, audio engineering, mixing or writing. This will be Dylan’s songwriting debut on an album and his songs turned out beautiful and authentically Dylan.”
The band’s story appears to have definitive rungs on the ladder, such as landing tours with higher-profile acts, but McKinstry says, “I think each one of those opportunities kind of felt in a weird way less of a stepping stone and more of a milestone. Because I think those represent acts that members of the band felt hugely influenced by, so just the opportunity to do that was incredible.
“There’s so much hard work that went into getting those opportunities, but I think it always felt like this big, incredible surprise, this incredible gift that the band got those opportunities.
“I live in New York City and I’m friends with some of those bands just from living in the city and being in the scene. And part of what we experienced was that they’re just really, really nice people, and I think the thing that we’re reminded of in this industry is being a nice person actually goes an extremely long way. I think that’s something that we learn from those opportunities of playing with those other bands: You just have to stay really good to people.”
Another important transitional moment for the band came with the creation of their previous LP, 2024’s “You Only Get a Few,” McKinstry reckons.
“During that recording, or before that recording process started, there was a fairly major shift in the band that was me sort of joining in a more significant way on guitar and electric guitar, and the percussion section changing to a drum set rather than a cajon, and that change in instrumentation really changed the band’s sound quite a bit and opened up a lot of creative doors, I think, and changed how we could arrange things. I think that was a really important milestone.”
“Abalone” will be released Oct. 2 direct through Royal Potato Family and on Bandcamp. It will be available on streaming platforms on Nov. 6. Upstate will perform at The Bitter End (147 Bleecker St., New York, 10012) on Thursday, Oct. 1. Tickets and info here.
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