Photo: Brantley Gutierrez
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Anyone who’s seen Karina Rykman perform, whether fronting her electrifying trio or holding down the low end with Marco Benevento, knows the infectious energy and sheer joy she brings to the stage and to life in general. These have propelled her along a unique path, from skateboarding city kid soaking up music like a sponge, to developing her own voice as an instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Along the way, she spent years learning the ropes of the music business from the inside, toured nationally as a teenager, and developed a reputation as a must-see live act, blending psychedelic rock, indie synthpop sensibilities, and deep-groove improvisation.
In the last year alone, she’s shared a stage with My Morning Jacket, opened for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds in Riviera Maya, and made headlines for not being Beyoncé. And she’s about to hit another milestone: headlining her biggest NYC show yet at Webster Hall. We caught up with Karina to trace her journey through the New York scene and beyond, exploring the experiences, friendships, and creative partnerships she’s made along the way.
MH: You’re days away from headlining your biggest NYC show yet at Webster Hall. As a lifelong city kid, what’s your relationship with the venue?
KR: Oh man, it’s so iconic to me. I’ve seen so many incredible shows there – the list is a mile long: Kurt Vile, Remi Wolf, TV On the Radio, Lianne La Havas. And some of the underplays I saw there completely blow my mind: Metallica, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails. The first show I ever saw there was Chromeo in 8th grade, and I just saw Neal Francis in March.
And with all those shows, outside of an amazing sit-in with Vansire in March, I’ve never played there, not once, not even in an opening band. So, headlining feels insane, dude, literally insane. It’s so surreal.
MH: Prior to Webster Hall, your biggest show was last year at Racket, right?
KR: Yeah, we sold out Racket last year, and it was amazing. Immediately after, they were like, “You want to do Webster Hall?” I was like, “Yeah I do! What?!?” And they were like, “Yeah, like, duh.” Holy shit! Them telling me that based on my sales at Racket, they believed I could play Webster Hall…okay! And look at us now. It’s a huge milestone, representing that growth and the belief the promoter has in us based on the fan support we’ve built.
MH: What was it like coming up as a teenage musician in New York City?
KR: I never had a lesson, but I could learn from friends and teach myself stuff, and I was lucky, lucky, lucky to find my community, my people, just through music. Growing up in my building, many kids my age were friends…we would just call each other and be like, meet downstairs in 5 min. We would go over to each other’s apartments, and my friends would show me just enough so that I would feel comfortable enough to sort of sink or swim in setups with people who were far better than me, way older, and way more schooled.
I joined a rock collective starting in 9th grade, and all of a sudden, all my friends are just as obsessed with music as I am and I’m in five bands! All we wanted to do was learn as much as we could about Music, with a capital “M!” Jazz, metal, jamband stuff, hip hop, old stuff, new stuff. I wanted to be able to converse with anybody about any kind of music. That’s where I learned how to be good at the instrument…you were responsible for learning all these songs in a week to rehearse: if you didn’t know your shit, you were letting down the whole group. My ability now to learn a bunch of songs really quickly was ingrained in me from that. That united so many like-minded kids…we all formed our own bands from that. Everybody was just jamming and doing stuff…I played so much and with so many people in so many formations. And we were fervently going to see live music, getting pummeled at a Primus show the night before the SATs. (That’s a true story!)
MH: You also dove into the music business early, moving from internships to becoming GM at a concert promotion company while still in your 20s. What motivated that deep dive into the industry side, and how did it inform your perspective as an artist?
KR: I was doing anything to be around music. I had my first internship the summer between 10th and 11th grade at Vector Management. The next year I interned at Relix, where I met Pete Shapiro and so many people I’m still friends with and do work with. The following summer, between 12th grade and NYU, I met Jake Szufnarowski from Rocks Off…I told him I’d love to be his intern. He said, “Cool, you start tomorrow.” That turned into a full-time job, and I worked for that company for seven and a half years and became the GM very quickly. I was throwing myself into things, wanting to meet people, do stuff, be around music, learn the business, learn everything…cut to eight years later, and I’m running the show. It’s an amazing thing, really. It definitely informed my perspective, understanding how things work from the promoter and booking side.
MH: What were some of your early band experiences?
KR: My 8th-grade punk band, False Arrest, was big. That was my first band, and we used to email promoters to book shows, basically lying as 13-year-old kids about how big a crowd we could bring. Then when I was 17, I joined the Sound of Urchin, and suddenly I’m on stage at Irving Plaza trading licks with Bill Fowler.
MH: Was that scary?
KR: There were moments of fear for sure, but I learned how to get past that at a young age. I was pretty fearless looking back, and I think that served me well. I put myself in situations where every single time you’re getting better, and you’re learning, and you’re part of the conversation. It was important for me to feel a part of a conversation and a part of a community. That’s what it was, and that’s still what it is. My friends, regardless of whether they’re professional musicians or not…we jam, and we pick up guitars, and we play shit, and we teach each other shit. It’s really amazing. I feel lucky that this is what I fell into because it’s a universal language.
MH: Your parents are both university professors. How did they feel about your pursuing a creative path?
KR: Even though what I do is far from academic, my parents very much recognize that my interest in music is much like their professional interests. My parents really figured it out: they’re so obsessed with what they do. They worked so hard to get to where they got, and even in their late 70s, they still want to do it, which I think keeps them young. So I think they were super stoked that I had found my thing because it was very apparent that music is what I cared about.
MH: What do you think it was like for them when you wanted to go on tour as a teenager?
KR: People would ask them, “Oh, you’re going to let her go on tour when she’s 17?” And they’re like, “Well, yeah, try to stop her.”
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