The Spine Stealers make spooky folk inspired by dark lakes, brain-burned nostalgia and a melancholic hue. The band grew from the duo of Kate Ruland and Emma O’Shea, who learned guitar together during the height of the pandemic and began sewing songs together with old college poetry. After their first open mic in the beginning of July of 2022, they played their first show at the end of July, which led them to a whirlwind first year as a duo.

2023 marked their first year as performers and began with opening for Dead Horses at the Majestic Theater Folk Fest in Madison, WI, onto winning the Blue Ox Music Festival Virtual Band Competition and playing the festival that June. The duo released their first EP, River Teeth Tapes, in July of 2023. 

In 2024, they hit the highways, concretizing their place in the folk scene of the Midwest. The duo were featured on the lineups of Madison, WI’s Waterfront Festival and Atwood Fest, Rhinelander’s Project North Music Festival, Grand Rapid, MN Festival Rialto, and played the Lounge at Stoughton Opera house for Haley Heyndrickx, opened for Arcadian Wild at Stoughton Opera House. They released several singles over the year in anticipation of their debut album, If the Sky Falls, Beyond the Sidewalks, released in October of 2024. The year ended with a feature on the October and extended Gems VHS playlist. 

2025 took the duo to full band and began with opening for Basia Bulat at the Majestic Theater in Madison, WI as well as their first tour to Nashville, TN in April. The summer started with much work in the studio recording their second EP and features on several singles coming out this year. They will be traveling around the Midwest and outside as they are eager to take on their first national tour with Ross Thorn in August taking them out to the Pacific Northwest and rugged Western United States.