'2026 is going to be the year of The Harlow Pennies': Pine City duo has big plans, debut album on the horizon

Pine City residents Michaela Engh and Allie Gosen have their sights set on a big year ahead for The Harlow Pennies, their folk-leaning musical duo.

"I've had a heart-to-heart with Michaela, and I said 2026 is going to be the year of The Harlow Pennies," Gosen said. "So we've got a lot of stuff coming up."

Those plans include releasing a live album after recording a mini-session at The Gothic Farmstead in Pine City.

"That way, everyone has something to listen to while we're working on our bigger project, our true debut album, Final Girls," Gosen said.

Final Girls, Engh explained, will be The Harlow Pennies' "very moody, broody" album; the songs and lyrics draw from various horror tropes.

On Tuesday, Engh and Gosen sat down with WCMP news director Erik van Rheenen to talk about the band's past, present and future, the Pine City music scene, being mistaken for Disney princesses, and more.

'Music was my favorite thing'

Both Engh, a Pine City native, and Gosen, a Pine City transplant in about fourth grade, found joy in music early in their youth.

"When I was little, music was my favorite thing," Engh said. "I would dance around the living room, and I'd just be singing and enjoying my time, and then my mom was like, 'you're actually kind of good at that thing you're enjoying."

Engh pushed through nerves to start singing in choir and at church, although it wasn't until "way later" that she picked up an instrument.

"It came out of necessity," Engh laughed. "Music was more so just singing for me for a very, very long time, and I honed that for a very long time, and pushed myself to be brave about it."

When Engh started learning to play the ukulele, the instrument became a conduit for putting lyrics to music.

"I started doing that probably at 16, I'd say," Engh said. "You know, those teen years, when you're feeling all those wonderful emotions."

Gosen acknowledged being a performer from an early age — when she was five, she played the role of Glinda in a daycare production of "The Wizard of Oz" of dubious legality.

"I've always been on stage, I've always been a singer, so it just never occurred to me not to be around music," Gosen said.

Gosen first picked up a guitar when she was around 13, hoping to learn a couple of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift songs. She's also played the trumpet since she was in fifth grade.

Gosen also pursued creative writing as a high school student — "For myself, I wrote a lot of poetry," she said — and, in college, started dabbling in songwriting when surrounded by musically-minded kindred spirits.

Engh and Gosen shared orbiting paths during school, despite being in different grades, but although they competed against each other in local competitions and shared the stage for a production of Mamma Mia!, they didn't speak once.

A mutual best friend, Emily Schueller, helped intersect Engh and Gosen's parallel paths on a trip to a coffee shop in Cambridge, where "Turning Tables" serendipitously wove into the soundtrack.

"Adele was playing, and we started singing along with the radio, and we hit this really cool harmony," Gosen said. "First time trying out this friendship, and I said, 'we're going to start a band.'"

'There's something so natural about it'

Engh and Gosen said their songwriting sensibilities coalesced when working in tandem.

"When we choose to sit down and do it, there's just something so natural about it," Engh said. "She'll come to me with an idea, or I'll come with a lyric, and I'll be like, 'hey, let's work on this together,' and it'll start putting itself together."

Engh laughed that the duo will squeal when they uncover a particular piece of musical alchemy during the songwriting process.

"Windows have shaken from how much we're jumping and screaming," Gosen added.

Engh said there's a kind of magic to reaching the final steps of crafting a song — a sense that overtakes the "frustration when you're getting to it."

The process isn't always easy: The duo laughed about bandying lyrics back and forth until finding just the right words.

"The frustration turns into the magic," Engh said. "You're like, 'oh my gosh, it was worth it to get right here."

The first song the duo wrote together, "Haunting," was written in Gosen's childhood bedroom. Gosen pitched the lyrical concept of a woman who was murdered by her ex, who she struggles to haunt in the afterlife because he doesn't believe in ghosts.

With a reliable repertoire of covers and their first song written together, the duo were close to fulfilling Gosen's prescient comment about forming a band. All they needed was a name.

The Harlow Pennies came from a pair of serendipitous encounters: Gosen was approached by a young girl in Duluth named Penny, who asked if she was a Disney princess. Engh had a similar moment at a convenience store, when a girl named Harlow ran up to her with a similar compliment.

"It's a little homage to those little girls who thought we were pretty," Engh said.

"It's our favorite story to tell," Gosen added.

'The community is wonderful'

The Harlow Pennies were invited by Jack Frechette to play at Art on the Farm for their first show, which the duo has played annually since.

"I remember being so nervous, that I was setting up my guitar and I could barely hold it, my hands were shaking so bad," Gosen said.

Engh and Gosen acknowledged their musical tastes align well for selecting songs to cover, drawing largely from storytelling-focused indie acts, including Hozier and Gigi Perez.

"Sometimes she lets me put in a Taylor Swift song," Gosen joked. "It's like a treat."

Gosen said she found the Pine City music scene to be welcoming to the fledgling Harlow Pennies.

"There's always someone you can lean on," she said, "Whether you need a new quarter-inch cable, advice, or to bounce a melody off someone."

"The community is wonderful," Engh added. "When you step into the music scene, I didn't know it existed until we stepped into it. And then you see this community of people, helping each other through things they already understand."

Gosen said she's grateful to Pine City for providing outlets for area creatives.

"I think it really goes to show how passionate the community is, not only about art, but about expression and creativity, and making sure there are these outlets for people, both to go and enjoy a performance, and also to give artists a stage. Which is just fantastic."

The Harlow Pennies recorded their first songs together with their producer at his home studio in Mora — an experience Engh chalks up to as "overwhelming but exciting."

"We already have the most supportive community, so nothing's taken for granted," Engh said. "We're so appreciative to the people who give us opportunities and help us in any way. It is hard figuring this out, and they have been so kind and amazing during this whole process."

Engh recalled one show at the Braham Brewing Company, after being used to mostly playing in the background in the area bar scene.

"When we showed up and started playing, everybody watched," Engh said. "Everything was silent, the lights went down, we were the focus. It will always stand out in my brain, because I'm like, I've never been the artist. I've never been the person they came to see. And that was really jarring, but amazing, to be seen in a way I never had been."

Gosen remembered playing East Central Minnesota Pride, when the audience knew not just the covers, but The Harlow Pennies' original songs.

The duo also plays Pine City's prom every year, and Gosen has watched her students singing along with her lyrics.

"It's insane. Like, I didn't assign that, you didn't have to listen to my music, but you guys did, and I'm very, very appreciative of it," she said.

Final Girls coming in 2026

Engh and Gosen shared mutual excitement about the process of putting together Final Girls, an album that will feature "ghosts, ghouls, murders most foul, and a really fun road trip that takes a wrong turn," all drawn from the twin imaginations of a pair of horror movie enthusiasts.

"The whole thing is like a story," Engh said. "You're like, 'ooh, maybe I can start out happy,' but no, you're going to suffer. But it's going to be a hoot and a half."

Gosen said one song that's already done, titled "For Catherine," is an homage to the "romantic, gothic horror element," and, more specifically, to Wuthering Heights.

Borrowing from horror flick genres for a metaphor, the duo said their original intention was for the album to be a "summer slasher" album, coming out in June or July.

"Realistically, maybe that will happen, maybe it won't, so hopefully it would be in time for Halloween, if nothing else," Gosen said.

"We're spooky girls to our core," Engh added.

In the meantime, The Harlow Pennies are working with Lee's Pro Shop on new merch, including shirts, beanies, tote bags, and sweaters.

"It's a process, but it's coming," Gosen said.

The Harlow Pennies have big plans for the new year, including playing more shows and bigger venues than ever before.

"For me, it's the ultimate hope trampoline. We're jumping into it, and this proves to me that we can get as big as the stratosphere, if we wanted," Gosen said.

You can listen to The Harlow Pennies' music on their website.