Upper school history teacher Roxana Pianko’s debut into folk Americana band Grow and Twine happened three and a half years ago when a friend reached out through Facebook saying that his friend, Ryan Devens, who had just moved to San Francisco from Nashville and wanted to create music, needed a female vocalist to form a band.

“[My friend] said that he had just heard through the grapevine that I had done music in the past and asked me if I would be interested in meeting up with [Devens],” Pianko said. “[Devens] came over to my house and we played through one song in the basement, and when we finished, we both kind of paused, and then we were like, ‘Yeah, this could work.’”

Pianko sings as the lead female vocalist in Grow and Twine, while her friend Ryan Deveisser sings as the lead male vocalist and plays the guitar. Devens provides the third harmony when they sing three-part harmonies. Tobi Grunick was the original drummer for the band, but since he could no longer continue, Kyle Teese now drums for them.

Grow and Twine released an extended play (EP) called Wind Fool in 2014 and are working on recording a currently unnamed full-length album, which will come out later this year.

“Currently, the album that we are recording is actually happening in this old church in San Francisco,” Pianko said. “We are recording in the main room. The acoustics are just really good there, and actually, we set up our mics right in the middle.”

The church is located in Duboce Triangle. Grow and Twine records songs in specific locations like the church.

”We have recorded in different places—in studios, in tiny little bedrooms that create really cool sounds—so it just depends on the type of sound that we are looking for, and we will try to find a space that will help us to be most successful with the sound that we are trying to create,” Pianko said.

Grow and Twine also practices its music in different locations. The members have a practice space in San Francisco, but Deveisser and Devens are roommates, so they usually practice at their home in the city’s Western Addition district. They also perform primarily in San Francisco venues and clubs like Neck of the Woods and Bottom of the Hill.

Grow and Twine’s producer, Jacob Montague, helps record the music for their albums.

“[Montague] actually makes his own music, which is really cool,” Pianko said. “I have had the opportunity to record for his music, so he is like one of my heroes because he is a really amazing musician, but he is also a producer. He produced our EP and is producing our full-length album, too.”

Pianko and Devens write music together about all sides of love and relationships. Pianko draws her inspiration for music from positive and negative circumstances that happen in life. Devens is from Tennessee, so southern music inspires him.

“We do not really create to please the audience. We create for us to be excited about what we are creating, and we hope that the audience will be excited about what we have created because they have seen that we are excited about it,” Pianko said.

Her favorite song in their new album is “House on Fire. Deveisser, Devens and Pianko created a music video for this song, among others.

“We used this old space in the financial district in San Francisco, and we just happened to be really lucky in that we are surrounded by really creative people who just make their art available to us,” Pianko said. “I think we did like eight takes of it just over and over, pausing, moving angles and getting things set up. On our end, it really was not that hard, other than singing for so long.”

Photographer Happy Nguyen recorded the “House on Fire” music video for Grow and Twine.

“Happy is the one who actually did all the work, and he did a pretty great job,” Pianko said. “[He is a] super talented guy. It is just really cool getting to be in a city like San Francisco, because everyone has some kind of a talent and everyone is willing to help everyone else.”

Pianko finds Grow and Twine unique because of the community surrounding the band and its members.

“We actually hang out together, dine together and do things together,” Pianko said. “Maybe that is something that makes us unique, that we really love each other and we are actually a community. I think that is kind of a special thing.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

Courtesy of Roxana Pianko

Devens, Pianko and Deveisser perform for a video shoot in San Francisco.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on January 24, 2017.