For Minnesota Music Month, The Current polled local music fans for April’s edition of The Scouting Report. A total of 245 people filled out this year’s Minnesota Music Month Scouting Report ballot, and 455 unique artists were chosen overall. The top 10 artists who received the most support include Mother Soki.

Mother Soki, real name Annie Tammearu, has had a rising music career locally since 2023. Around that period, she moved back to Minneapolis after attending school in Chicago. We caught up before she embarked on a spring tour, and discussed the Minnesota music scene and how that influences and informs her music.

“Everyone is just so welcoming in the scene and very determined to play music and play shows,” she says. “Everyone is so talented, and there’s a wide range of genres, so it's fun to be able to be welcomed into that.”

When Tammearu initially returned to the Twin Cities, she knew that networking locally was important. “The community was great [in Chicago], and it’s just as welcoming, but it's almost like my genre fits a little bit better [here],” she says. “It made me a lot more inspired being back home, and it made me a lot more open to ways I can expand my music.”

She met producer Jack Pfeffer and it hit it off creatively. “He changed a lot of the possibilities for me, he has ways to elevate my music that I don't think of,” she says. “I give him that opportunity to play around a lot with music.”

Although starting over in the Twin Cities came with some challenges, experiencing TikTok virality with the song “Rivet Gun” was a huge lift. The song was enough of an attention-grabber that it brought a large crowd her second-ever show at Art House North, a church-turned-event-venue in St. Paul.

“There were so many people there, and it was so fun,” she says. “Everyone was so excited to hear ‘Rivet Gun,’ and see all the other bands as well. I remember how nervous I was. Now every time I'm getting ready to go on stage, I'm totally calm and collected. A year ago this time, I was like, s****ing my pants, and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ so nervous. Once you get in the hang of it, it's just so beautiful.”

Mother Soki was one of the featured acts at First Avenue’s Best New Bands of 2025 show in January. The showcase gives a platform to emerging artists who often haven’t played the venue’s mainroom stage before.

To get familiar Mother Soki’s music, she suggests checking out her song “Joneses” first. “In my eyes, it's a perfect song, and it combines a lot of elements that I love to use, and a drum machine and synth,” she says. “The song itself just means a lot to me. And I remember it was a doozy when Jack was mixing it, because the best songs are usually the hardest.”

During her spring tour, Mother Soki stopped at Zhora Darling in Minneapolis earlier this week. “People can expect two unreleased new songs,” she says. “Overall, this is one of my favorite sets thus far in these tours. And I look forward to rehearsal, because I'm just like, this sounds beautiful. I love to dress up. I love to have fun. If anyone wants to have a good time, they can come [to my shows].”

You can read more about Mother Soki here.

Related: Minnesota Music Month Scouting Report 2026: The top 10 new local artists