“It’s been such an insane whirlwind of a year. I’ve hardly had a second to catch my breath… When you’re swept up in it, it’s hard to reflect and put a bow on it,” says singer, songwriter, bassist extraordinaire, and phriend of PHILTHY Karina Rykman when I ask about some of her highlights of 2024 during a recent phone chat. The NYC artist, long known for playing bass for Marco Benevento (Dave Dreiwitz of Ween personally recommended her as his replacement when Ween got back together.), has spent the year touring behind her debut solo LP, Joyride, which dropped in August of last year and was co-produced by her buddy Trey Anastasio of Phish (Yes, her talents – and just general awesomeness – have earned her some friends in very high places…)
Karina Rykman’s 2024 runs have consisted of a steady stream of sold-out headlining shows, major festival appearances (CaveJam, Levitate, Mempho Music Fest…), and slots supporting some of her favorite acts (She educated-ly guesstimates 115 shows total.) And while many of these artists have been longtime heroes, there was one experience that she tells me especially stood out: “My Morning Jacket asking us to open a bunch of shows earlier this summer was a lifelong highlight, and them asking me to sit-in with them… In Detroit I was up there for like twenty minutes straight, and then a few days later we saw them at a festival at the Salt Shed in Chicago, and I wasn’t expecting it, but they asked me to play with them for a few songs. ‘One Big Holiday’ is a song I’ve been listening to since middle school!”
This summer I was talking to Benny Horowitz, drummer of The Gaslight Anthem, who was singing Karina’s praises (“This woman, when she walks into a room, she just lights it up!”) after having her appear on The Gaslight Anthem’s cover of Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes,” which Rykman confirms was thrilling: “That’s another huge highlight! It’s really Brian Fallon, who’s become such an amazing friend of mine, that made that happen… I played with them in Boston at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, and then New York at SummerStage, and then finally at Sea.Hear.Now, where Springsteen was the first sit-in and I was the final sit-it!”
I first met Karina Rykman about a year ago, ahead of an almost instantly sold-out December date at MilkBoy, which served as her second-to-last show of 2023. And while I’ve only spoken with Karina once prior to our chat this Tuesday, she makes me feel like a lifelong friend and lets me know that the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection holds a special place in her heart: “Philly always brings it!” In fact, she was in town yesterday for the Flyers’ game, where pre-game she took part in The Press Row Show, before befriending Gritty and apparently playing soccer with the Flyers themselves.
Her time with the Flyers’ crew came during a night off, in advance of Rykman’s second-to-last show of this year, which will take place tonight, Friday the 13th, at The Foundry at The Fillmore. “Oh Baby, let’s get spooky with it! Maybe we’ll have to throw in the Ghostbusters’ theme… It kind of puts a dangerous spin on the evening,” she jokes of the haunted holiday. “It feels like a great place to close out the year… It’s gonna be an old school Philly throwdown!” Karina says of tonight’s show, which will feature some additional local help, or “support”: “We’ll have our dear friends, and Philly’s own, Muscle Tough… It’ll be a great combination punch!”
Those who have seen Ms. Rykman before know that she and her band are prone to jamming and keeping every live experience unique. During our 2023 chat she explained, “There are plenty of songs played true to form, and plenty that we take for a walk. Every show is different!” However, she admits that there is something nice about these year-end shows: “The fact that it’s the last two shows of the tour means we’ll be going all out. The whole preservation of my body thing is gone [laughs].” She goes on to add, “It’ll be a great way to put a bow on this insane year!”
While Karina seems to be on tour more or less constantly, she says that there’s actually a lot that goes into the scheduling of jaunts. “We’re never on the road for that long at a time before coming home. The longest run was this spring, when we were out for three weeks straight,” Rykman tells me, going on to explain, “We’ve kind of perfected the weekend warrior lifestyle… We’re not just incubating in a van for six weeks at a time.” She says that keeping the time on the road concise is key to keeping it fun. “I don’t take any of this lightly, to play my own shows under my own name and have people come out… I make it so you wanna keep doing it, and not just me, but everyone in the touring party,” before reflecting on how amazing it’s all been: “It’s sort of like a once-in-a-lifetime thing… This is special stuff we get to do.”
2025 already has Karina Rykman scheduled to play a large handful of notable festivals, including Gov’t Mule’s Island Exodus 15 in Jamaica and Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds’ weekend getaway at Moon Palace Cancun this coming January alone. When I ask if there’s any new music in the works, possibly a follow-up to Joyride, she assures me that she’s been, “working tirelessly on the next thing,” before coyly suggesting that it will be out when it’s ready. And as much as Karina’s looking forward going all out at these last two shows and putting a bow on 2024, she also tells me that she’s got quite a bit of leisure travel planned for her month off.
“It’s pretty wild, I wrap up these dates and then jump on a plane to go to London with my boyfriend to go see Paul McCartney at O2, and then to Paris for a few days. It’s so nice getting to travel without touring [laughs]. And then we’ll do holidays with the family in New York… Then I’ll see four Phish shows, and then go to the Virgin Islands, and then get back to my own shows…”
*Get your tickets here.
