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For the moment, bassist/singer/songwriter Karina Rykman is pleased to be “riding an insane wave of adrenaline.” 10x38 fuse holder
Karina Rykman at The Range in Mason, NH. Photo: Sam McLennan
Karina Rykman is all over the place.
This year, the energetic leader of a blazing indie-jam trio piloted her band on tours that crisscrossed the country, passing through several festivals in which she was invited to sit in with acts ranging from Gaslight Anthem to My Morning Jacket.
The audience for Rykman’s appealing blend of psychedelic exploration and off-center songwriting has been growing. The proof is her shift to bigger venues this fall and the demand for a new pressing of her debut album Joyride, which was released last year.
Rykman is winding down 2024 with shows Dec. 5 and 6 at Nectar’s in Burlington, VT; Dec. 7 at the Sinclair in Cambridge; and Dec. 14 at the Portland House of Music in Portland, ME.
“I feel like we are in a go-go moment,” Rykman said when reached at her home in New York during a rare break from the road. “We’ve had no gigs in three days, and it feels like forever. I need to play.”
Rykman describes herself as the kid who was immediately hooked by the energy of live music. She channeled her passion into becoming a musician and developed into a formidable bass player, singer, songwriter, and entertainer.
Rykman met guitarist Adam November and drummer Chris Corsico while all three were students at New York University. But before those three solidified into a band, Rykman joined piano player Marco Benevento’s group, replacing bassist Dave Dreiwitz upon his return to the band Ween, one of her musical heroes.
While the Benevento gig elevated Rykman’s profile in the live music circuit, the experience, she said, also taught her an important lesson: “This is a hard job. I learned from Marco that you have to make it fun if you want to keep doing it.”
And nobody looks like they are having more fun at a Karina Rykman concert than she herself; the more physically enthralled the audience becomes, the more frenetic Rykman becomes on stage, with November and Corsico in sync the whole time.
Adam November and Karina Rykman at The Range in Mason, NH. Photo: Sam McLennan
Rykman is known for her leaps, skips, and heroic bass playing while perched on the edge of the stage. Yet her manic energy never overwhelms the music, a dynamically varied repertoire that runs from soothing groove to metallic shred.
Rykman said there is a method to her seemingly anarchic approach, citing King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Beck, and her favorite band Ween as examples of musicians and bands that can bend, twist, and break genre norms in ways that dazzle fans of the eclectic.
Talking about the album Joyride, Rykman said the project was assembled as a sonic tapestry, all of its threads knit together. The meditative instrumental “Plants” — the first song the band recorded together in 2019 — served as one of the inspirations for what became a zigzagging pattern.
Karina Rykman and Chris Corsico at The Range in Mason, NH. Photo: Sam McLennan
“I wanted to write a record with real songs. Something you could listen to and not need 14 hits of acid to dig,” Rykman said. She recalled that the project found its vibe when she wrote “Joyride,” a bittersweet dreamscape that, at least in her head, sounded like a “psychedelic-pop hit.” “That informed everything else,” she said.
And that led to the decision to not include the song “City Kids” on the album. That pulsating anthem, which puts a modern edge on New Wave twitch, is clearly a crowd favorite whenever Rykman performs it in concert. But it did not fit among the songs chosen for the album. “We had no idea that song would end up being a live hit,” she said, noting how the trio has begun to lean into “City Kids” with a bigger, crazier jam section. “You never know how a song will come to life.”
Along with the tracks from Joyride and the singles she recorded before that album, Rykman fleshes out her live sets with choice covers that illuminate her influences and help her establish an independent identity that extends beyond the traditional jam band sector.
Karina Rykman at The Range in Mason, NH. Photo: Sam McLennan
While members of such well-established jam bands as Phish and the Disco Biscuits have helped boost Rykman’s work, she prefers to include songs in her live sets by Butthole Surfers, Wet Leg, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Tom Tom Club, White Stripes, boygenius, Blur, Wilco, and — of course — Ween.
Rykman also started playing new material live this summer; she is airing out fresh thematic jams that will likely yield additional songs. But, as much as the trio is anxious to record the follow-up to Joyride, Rykman concedes that trying to be both “entertainer Karina” and “songwriter Karina” simultaneously presents painful challenges. “I beat myself up. I feel like I should be writing The White Album right now, but we’re playing all these gigs.” She said this in a sarcastic, somewhat tortured, tone of voice. “When you’re in a van all day, you can’t write.”
Still, for the moment, Rykman said she is pleased to be “riding an insane wave of adrenaline.”
Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.
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