Cameron Winter

About Cameron Winter:While on a grueling, year-long tour with his band Geese, Cameron Winter recorded the bulk ofhis debut solo album in a succession of hotel room closets, singing into the built-in microphoneon his MacBook. Staying awake for several days at a time to keep up with his band’s non-stopschedule, Winter’s newest work recalls creative mania in the depths of night. Often soexhausted that he would fall asleep in the middle of a take, the disparate tracks were sent toNew York and organized painstakingly by producer Loren Humphrey into a mystical, imaginativepiece of work.
More about Cameron Winter:Cameron Winter, singer of New York rock band Geese, is forging a strange new path; his newsolo album assembles early morning, amphetamine-fueled improvisations into searching, lyricalpop songs. Over the course of two sleepless weeks with producer Loren Humphrey, Cameronlost his voice from ceaseless recording, lost fifteen pounds after going hungry for several daysin the mixing chair, and now emerges with a soul-baring, must-listen debut album.
Even more about Cameron Winter:Born in the backseat of a taxi in uptown New York, Cameron Winter spent his boyhood workingas a pool cleaner by day and busking on the street at night, until his unique, caterwauling voicewas one day discovered by Tom Patton of Partisan Records. Finding success as the lead singerand songwriter of the band Geese, he now offers his first solo album, a distinct piece of workinfused with the spirit of New York’s greatest songwriters.
Even more about Cameron Winter:Cameron Winter’s debut solo album has been years in the making. On Heavy Metal, theprecocious Geese frontman assembles a variety of guest musicians – primarily sourced overCraigslist – to interpret his earliest songs, mostly written before the age of 15. Whether he’sjoined by a disinherited cousin of John Denver, a five-year-old bassist, or a Boston steel worker-cum-cellist, Winter’s unique charms shine through, made even brighter by passionate,untempered amateur accompaniment.
Even more about Cameron Winter:New York songwriter Cameron Winter’s intricate, emotional new material seems to draw itspower from pulling together opposite elements – Winter marries classic sounds to digitalproduction, the absurd to the profound, the true to the false. Taking inspiration from thecomplete spectrum of experience, the Geese frontman’s debut album is as much about his firstloves as it is about his harrowing experiences in a Bavarian prison; as much about his battleswith an addiction to blood-thinners as his oft-overlooked successes in the field of competitivewakeboarding. Heavy Metal is a bold first statement from a new, young voice who has manystories to tell – and seems intent on telling them all at once.
Even more about Cameron Winter:If you hear an unadorned, urgent sensibility pervading Cameron Winter’s debut solo album,that’s no accident; Heavy Metal was recorded primarily in a series of Guitar Centers across theNew York tri-state area, its ten songs an assemblage of hastily performed improvisations on in-store equipment. “It was actually a great way to work,” says the young singer-songwriter. “I hadno time to overthink anything, I just played straight from the heart and recorded everything. Aftera day or two I’d inevitably get kicked out and I’d move on to the nearest franchise and keepworking.” Despite the unorthodox production process, Winter has managed to emerge with adebut that is vital, lyrical, and as unique as the circumstances of its creation would suggest.
Even more about Cameron Winter:On his debut album, Cameron Winter puts forth a hallucinatory combination of dreamlikeimagery and crepuscular haze – not surprising, considering that the music was created whilethe Geese frontman was under the near-constant influence of, in his own words, “a crazyamount of extra-strength antihistamines and crushed up wellbutrin.” A far cry from his punk-rock-inspired work fronting New York rockers Geese, Winter purports that the inspiration for hisfirst solo effort was supplied entirely by listening to 1967’s Songs of Leonard Cohen “maybeover two-hundred times” while hospitalized with double-mononucleosis. Upon listening to HeavyMetal’s patient arrangements, warm production and hypnagogic lyricism, it’s clear that the spiritof the greats has indeed rubbed off on the young singer-songwriter.
Even more about Cameron Winter:Cameron Winter’s debut album is a long time coming. Having spent the halcyon days of hisyouth listening to a steady stream of top 40 radio as he worked long hours as a signmaker’sapprentice, Winter was imbibed with a precocious understanding of songwriting and a deepappreciation for music at an early age. After quitting his job suddenly and striking out on his ownat the age of 16, Winter stowed away in a Spirit Airlines luggage compartment and flew to NewYork, where he would find success as the frontman of rock band Geese, playing volcanic,irreverent punk music. On his new LP Heavy Metal, a startling other side to the young musicianis revealed, lyrical and otherworldly, presenting a highly modern interpretation of classicsongwriting.