Porch Light, Superhero

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Sawyer Brice

The five members of Porch Light.

Porch Light

media release: Porch Light’s debut albm is called Hush, but ‘hushed’ is not a word anyone would use to describe it. There’s plenty of delicate, gentle indie rock in their hometown of Minneapolis, and while they all love that stuff, this is not the point of Porch Light. Hush is a collection of big, unabashed rock tunes, full of riffs that announce themselves and choruses that reach and grab. Not to say it’s one-note; there are sing-along anthems, hard-rock bangers and nuanced ballads mingling within there. But all of them are songs meant to be played on stage, by five people without bells or whistles.

It’s an approach that’s taken them far. The five-piece have reached over a million monthly Spotify listeners and sold out headline shows across the country, with their latest headline tour including such storied venues as LA’s Troubador, New York’s Bowery Ballroom and Chicago’s Lincoln Hall as well as stopping at the likes of Lollapalooza and Shaky Knees. With all of this off the back of their first two EPs and an inviting internet presence that sees them take viewers into their basement practice space, it’s clear the appetite for straightforward, authentic rock music is alive and well. “I think fans have resonated with how raw and true to what it is the music is. We haven’t strayed from the original thing,” says bassist Henry Hughes. 

When Porch Light began in 2024, recent Minneapolis transplant Jackie Uhas (vocals) had started frequenting the city’s house show scene, while Zac Fogarty (guitar), Kyle Siemon (guitar) and Tony O’Keefe (drums) were playing in various bands within it. They were looking to start something new — “We mostly wanted to fill the spot in the scene that was there for something a little more rock-based,” Fogarty says — when they saw Uhas singing karaoke at a local bar. Uhas, who had grown up on classic rock before falling in love with the likes of Paramore, Hole and The Story So Far, was a perfect fit, and she brought in her friend and roommate Hughes to complete the quintet.

Each member brought their own set of influences to the group — from Fogarty’s love of Radiohead, to O’Keefe’s obsession with Blink-182 — but one thing that bound them together was a shared ambitious spirit. “I think it was Henry who said [at the start] that we can shoot to play First Ave as our goal, or we can really be ambitious and say alright, we’re gonna play Target Center one day. We all aligned on that,” says Fogarty. “We want to be the biggest band in the world,” Uhas affirms.

After two EP releases — Porch Light and Navy Blue — in 2025, the band started work on Hush at a remote cabin in the dead of winter. “Whenever someone had a creative idea we would just sit down and play it. There wasn’t really anything else to do besides play,” Fogarty recalls. As usual for Porch Light, the ideas came from fluid, improvisational jams in which each member made an equal contribution; the trust and connection required to make that possible came from the deep friendships that the band members have forged. “I feel like this band is so special because each individual person is writing for themselves. It’s a full accumulation of five people’s streams of consciousness into one body of work,” Uhas says.

After that writing retreat, they headed into Pachyderm Studios, the secluded spot out in Cannon Falls, MN where Nirvana made In Utero and Hum made You’d Prefer An Astronaut. Producer Caleb Wright (Samia, Hippo Campus) helped them to capture the immediate, collaborative spirit in which the songs were written. “We had just come off a tour, so [Wright] wanted to capture us being super well-versed on our instruments,” Hughes says. “We don’t put anything on the record that we don’t do live, so we try to keep it live in the studio. I feel like we leaned into being a band that has been touring now, and I think it shows on the album.”

It shows from the very first song, the storming and confident “Arctic”, where a driving, danceable rhythm on bass and drums sets the stage for a playful guitar hook, while the song’s climax lets Uhas show her stunning vocal range. Big-impact tracks like the riff-heavy “Paranoia”, the mid-tempo power-ballad “Living Room Blues” and the building, blistering “Shut Out” keep that momentum running through the entire album. It’s clear how Uhas has developed as a songwriter and lyricist; her enormous chorus melodies make for many of the album’s most memorable moments, while her intimate, probing lyrics serve as its emotional heart. “This project was a lot of just letting things go on paper and not trying to overthink it too much,” she says of her writing.

Much of the album deals with the process of moving on from a bad relationship; of trying not to let the past define you, while knowing it’s still got a sharp bite. On the reverby, dreamy “Crossfire”, for example, she laments exposing a new partner to the unhealed parts of her. Meanwhile, “Under” is all fire and rage, a “face melting” song on which Uhas channels her best Courtney Love as she kisses a bitter goodbye to a deadbeat situation: “I can’t say what’s making me stay so long but it isn’t you”. The record’s final track is “Baggage”, a moving account of starting anew in search for closure; it closes the album out on a guitar solo and a final, powerful chorus. 

While Porch Light are already moving beyond the bounds of their local scene, they’re clear that it’s shaped them for the better. “Speaking for my individual self, I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for the Minneapolis music scene in general. First Avenue was a huge catalyst, and The Current playing our music when we were just starting out and all these other local bands. There’s a really special thing here that really welcomes new artists and art in general,” says Hughes. And for all their ambition, the band are determined to keep their feet on the ground. “Numbers on social media really only mean so much. We’re trying to just keep building,” says Uhas.

Hush is the perfect ground from which to build, a debut album that shows Porch Light at their absolute best. “We put our heart and souls into making it, and we’ve been working our whole careers towards this point,” Hughes says. Uhas agrees: “It’s a really cool point in my process and my side of the band. I’m finding my voice in the sense of where I’m fitting into this realm of the music world, and what I can offer vocally and as a frontperson.” 

Summing up the push-and-pull between five individual voices that makes Porch Light come to life, Fogarty concludes, “It was cool to see the five of us just work together. Sometimes putting your sense of self aside, and sometimes holding it strong. Finding a balance between that is just really cool to see. I feel like we all found our places on this album.”