The Artist: Cameron Winter
Cameron Winter was raised in Brooklyn and studied composition and jazz at Columbia University. While still in high school, he formed Geese with some friends - initially just a DIY recording project in a basement on a borrowed laptop.
But it didn’t stay small for long. Their debut Projector (2021) landed them a deal with Partisan Records and drew comparisons to Talking Heads, Black Midi and Television. Winter’s theatrical delivery and restless songwriting quickly stood out.
While Geese built a rep for chaotic art-rock, Winter was always chasing something weirder. In interviews, he’s cited influences from Stravinsky to Bowie, and you can hear that push-pull in his writing: structure and disorder, grandeur and grunge.
Heavy Metal, his 2024 solo debut, swaps post-punk for piano ballads, organs, horns and intimacy.
It’s messy, poetic and hard to pin down.
Just like him.
The Record: Heavy Metal (2024)
Heavy Metal opens with The Rolling Stones, a theatrical swirl of nylon-string guitar and weary grandeur. From there, it only gets stranger.
Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed) floats in with muted horns and a soft croon.
While Drinking Age is a piano ballad so self-loathing it becomes spiritual:
“Today I met who I’m gonna be… and he’s a piece of shit.”
Winter plays the washed-up romantic, the holy fool, the dirtbag philosopher. He’s funny, but it hurts.
On Cancer of the Skull, he sings about chemotherapy with a jaw harp and organ.
On $0 he declares “God is real… I’m not kidding this time,” like a man not quite sure he believes himself.
Each song unfolds slowly, awkwardly, beautifully.
By the time the organ closes out Can’t Keep Anything, the mask has slipped completely.
Heavy Metal isn’t loud - but it’s impossible to ignore.
Play Now:
🔊 Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Start With:
- The Rolling Stones - dramatic, strange and sad
- $0 - spiritual panic pop
- Drinking Age - a falsetto confession
