Winter On Emerson College Memories, “What Kind of Blue Are You?” and Making Shoegaze History
All photos courtesy of Athena Merry // @goldrosecrown
When Samira Winter first got to Emerson College, she was a typical Boston music journalist hosting radio shows for WERS and WECB, interviewing bands, and attending DIY shows. However, while in the crowds of these shows, Winter longed to be the person on stage and start her own musical project. By her senior year in 2013, she decided to fulfill this dream and created “Winter.” Since then, she has released four full-length albums with What Kind of Blue Are You? being her latest LP.
When Winter entered the Zoom call, her eyes lit up at the sight of my dorm room in the background. After bonding over our shared experiences living on campus, she was heartbroken to hear that her favorite cafe to grab an egg and cheese on a croissant from had been replaced, and that the Piano Row building ironically removed its pianos. Clutching onto a yellow mug with white flowers that matched her bright personality, she asked multiple questions about my major and even encouraged me to join a band with my drumming experience. “This feels so full circle,” she said with a warm smile.
Winter grew up in Curitiba, Brazil, where she took part in multiple extracurriculars including Model United Nations, dancing, writing for a newspaper, and attending music classes. As a child, her parents introduced her to American punk music and MPB (música popular brasileira). Despite writing songs at the age of 12 and playing in high school bands, music didn’t remain her main focus until Boston exposed her to noise music and DIY house shows.
“[The Boston music scene] is so niche, and you won’t find it anywhere else in the U.S. ... For me, that was really eye-opening because I had never witnessed experimental, ambient music,” Winter says. “What really got to my heart, and what inspired Winter was just all the shoegaze, noisy, indie bands.”
Winter recorded her first singles with her friend from the Berklee School of Music, which led to securing her first show at the Great Scott venue in Allston. After visiting her friends at Emerson’s Los Angeles Campus, Winter fell in love with L.A. and moved directly to the city post-grad. “The part of Brazil that I'm from is not a super sunny, extratropical place,” she says. “It’s in the south, so it's a little bit colder and more gray. So L.A. for me–I was like, ‘Oh my god, beach and sun, and a cool new fresh energy.’” When comparing the L.A. and Boston music scenes, she explained that Boston is much more transitory due to the large number of colleges in the area, while L.A. is more established.
Winter often includes Portuguese lyrics in her tracks, such as in the bright, summery track “Bonsai,” offering a cultural freshness to the dream-pop scene. “When you know another language, there's this other side of you that you can only access when you're speaking that language, and no one will know that side of you unless they speak the language,” she says.
Although her previous work has incorporated multiple shoegaze elements, Winter and her co-producer Joo-Joo Ashworth fully submerge themselves into the genre in What Kind of Blue Are You? Released in October 2022, this record is inspired by 90’s grunge and shoegaze influence, combining textured fuzz, distortion, and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine’s iconic glide guitar. The LP highlights Winter’s maturity and musical growth as an artist, especially as she explores her deepest and heaviest emotions.
Over the spacey, tranquilizing instrumentation in “lose you,” she vulnerably sings about her friend being stuck in a predatory, abusive relationship: “I don’t wanna lose you / He just wants to bruise you.” Inspired by The Sundays, the nostalgic, jangle pop track “sunday,” dives deep into the harm social media has inflicted on young girls over the years: “When she looks at the screen does it make her afraid? / How they want her to be, but it’s not even real.” “mr. on-my-mind” goes on to discuss the reality of letting go of a relationship that no longer serves her, despite feeling comfortable in it.
Despite the darkness of her lyrics, Winter emphasizes the importance of healing from these experiences. This notion is especially seen within “kind of blue” as she urges herself to “fight all those strange fears.”
“There’s a yin and yang to it because some of the songs are more depressing and self-deprecating,” Winter says. “But, in some of the songs—and especially with the title tracks—there is a sense of optimism, and I think Winter’s always had an underlying sense of optimism.”
While discussing my favorite track with Winter (“sunday”) she couldn’t help but crack a wide smile, as witnessing young people “dig the album” touched her. She hesitated when asked what her favorite track on the album was—as if she had to choose a favorite child—but leaned toward “crimson enclosure.” “It’s really short and sweet and just heavy. For me, the heaviness and distortion just does something to my soul,” she said through a laugh.
Winter recently played at the Lilypad in Cambridge as one of the stops on her What Kind of Blue Are You? fall tour, which she described as being a “homey” show. In the spring, she will hit the road again as an opener for shoegaze artist Tanukichan. “I feel like we’re gonna be making some history with both of us being shoegaze, dream-pop women touring together,” she says. Winter is extra thrilled about the Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Austin shows in particular, due to the cities’ vibrant music scenes and cultures.
In 2023, you can also expect to hear some remixes of Winter’s record and an expansion of playing the tracks live.