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 Third Date.

Third Date released their debut EP, Too Close, at the end of March, but their resonant songs have a timeless quality to them that feels like they have existed for ages. The St. Paul-based indie rock quartet formed in the fall of 2024 when guitarist/vocalist Katie Gleason met drummer Lane Aultman. The group was quickly rounded out by viola/electric violinist Anna Hare and bass guitarist Spencer Gosewisch, as they bonded over a shared love of Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers.

Third Date played their first show together in February 2025, and their frequent live performances — including a formative month-long residency at White Squirrel in November — helped the band find their creative footing while settling into their sound. “We said ‘yes’ to all gigs at the start,” recalls Hare. “We were very eager to get all the experience we could. We have only been a band for a little over a year, but booking as many live shows as we could to get our name out and to experiment with our sound was essential to bonding as a band.”

“I personally had not gigged much at all compared to the other members of the band,” Gleason admits. “I feel like it teaches you so much so quickly. Getting feedback and seeing how a crowd responds to the music is so huge, and I think it has directed how we move forward. And seeing other local bands play shows has been super inspiring to me, and has inspired some of my more recent writing.”

After receiving numerous requests from fans about releasing music, the band went to Wild Sound Studio in Minneapolis in October and recorded the five songs that are featured on Too Close. The project was produced, mixed, and engineered by Joshua Parlanti, and his veteran touch helped the young band blossom in the studio. “It was my first time in a professional studio environment, so I feel like I learned a lot,” Gleason says. “I think it really put us through a challenge as a group, and taught us how to work together through a really vulnerable situation.”

That vulnerability comes across on the EP’s elegant and emotional title track, which slowly builds to a rousing final statement guided along by Hare’s soaring violin strains. The song sums up the raw feelings expressed in the rest of the collection, and was a natural choice to close the EP and give the set its name. “It was the first idea that came to mind for that title. I think that we always knew it would be the last song,” Gleason shares. “It has a kind of cathartic feel, and I think it also thematically represents what the entire EP is about. All of the songs are in some way about feeling too close, or wanting to feel closer and not being able to. lt is that tension between a resistance to intimacy, but also a desire for it.”

Gleason typically brings solo acoustic demos to the band, with new material starting off with just her voice and guitar before the rest of the group adds parts that enhance her creative ideas. “That's definitely been the coolest part of this whole experience for me is bringing songs to this group,” Gleason says. “It's been pretty striking how quickly these three people understand where I'm going with it and just run with it. That's been a super cool part about it, that all of these very talented instrumentalists bring in their own sound.”

The finished songs have elements of a classic country sound due to Hare’s sentimental violin strains, which fluidly blends with the band’s contemporary indie-folk flair that is reminiscent of Big Thief and Blondshell. “Much of my writing as a bassist involves bridging the melody of the vocals and violin with the rhythm of the drums and guitar,” Gosewisch says. “As we practice a song our parts naturally evolve over repeated runs through listening and responding to each other's playing until the core of our lines take form. This process never really stops, and a song could suddenly evolve in a new and unexpected way even a year after we’ve learned it. Anna and I are both string players with an orchestra background. I think our similar experience and approach to writing makes it easy for us to play off each other intuitively.”

Third Date’s EP release show at the 331 Club featured two local opening acts — Harlow and Sophie Hiroko — that have inspired them creatively as well as embracing the group along with the rest of the Twin Cities music community. The nurturing, supportive qualities of the local scene has been so beneficial for Third Date as they have found their way forward as their sound and style has taken shape.

“It's pretty hard to overstate how important that has been for us,” Gleason says of the encouragement they have received from the local music community. “Even just getting the invite to play a show at the beginning was so huge. Having the opportunity to meet more people and play shows and people believing in us really early on, before we were more polished — I can't imagine what we would be like without that, and it meant so much. I can't express enough how grateful we are for it.”

In addition to the new EP, Third Date also have a batch of new songs that they plan on releasing on a future project, with a series of local shows planned throughout the spring and summer. As for dream gigs in town, the group members want to play Cloudland Theater and 7th St. Entry eventually, and hit the road for their first-ever tour outside of the state of Minnesota. “That's something that we're actively talking about now. It's something we're definitely interested in,” Gleason says of touring.

The local scene has fully embraced Third Date and helped the young band flourish and prosper, with Gleason praising the creative people who make up the Twin Cities music community. “It's really defined by really dedicated artists and just kindness all around,” she says. “It's a lot of enthusiastic people who are working really hard and who really believe in their craft, coming together and sharing that with each other. Just the level of support and kindness to me seems really unique.”

Gosewisch has some great ideas that would ensure that the small clubs where Third Date first found their way will be there for fledgling bands in the future. “I would love to see some kind of art and culture fund provided by the state specifically to small venues so they may better pay performers,” she says. “The Twin Cities pride themselves on their thriving and historic music scene, it would be amazing to see that manifest in some tangible policy that supports the artists and venues who are the beating heart of the scene. This would be especially beneficial for small touring acts, incentivizing them to come to our city and strengthening the bond between us and our neighboring communities across the country.”

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