A 22-Year-Old Who Lives With His Parents Recorded a Solo Album at Guitar Center. We Can’t Stop Listening.
Close BannerClose00Days:00Hours:00Minutes:00SecondsWatch LiveGQ Bowl in NOLACulturePeople send GQ columnist Chris Black a lot of new music. Most of it is so bad it makes him wonder if his friends know him at all. Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal is another story.By Chris BlackFebruary 6, 2025Adam Powell/Courtesy of Partisan RecordsSave this storySaveSave this storySaveA few weeks ago, a music producer friend from Los Angeles sent me a link to an album by an artist I had never heard of. This happens to me a lot these days, and most of the time the music is terrible and makes me question my own taste and how it’s perceived. (Is this what you think of me?) Anyway—this time, the album in question was good. Staggeringly good, in fact, and I have been listening to it ever since—on my MacBook Air speakers, on the melancholy streets of Stockholm, and in the Tube in London. It’s called Heavy Metal, and it’s by a 22-year-old named Cameron Winter, whom you have also probably never heard of. He still lives with his parents.Winter is the singer of a band called Geese, a country-tinged psych-rock band that has toured with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but his solo album sounds nothing like that. In press releases and interviews, Winter has spun a story around Heavy Metal. He’s said that he made the album with musicians found on Craigslist, that his bass player is a five-year-old named Jayden, and the cellist is a steelworker from Boston. He’s claimed that he recorded the album, or parts of it, in various Guitar Center locations in New York City, moving on to a different store each time management wised up and kicked him out, which feels like something a shitty emo band would have done in the late 1990s. Is any of it true? I don’t know, and I don’t care. All of this has contributed to the lore around Winter and his music, which contrasts nicely with how likable and accessible the album is. Partisan Records released it at the end of 2024 and it’s available on all major streaming sites, as well as on CD and vinyl. It listens like a hidden gem, but it’s easy to connect with, which is the perfect combination for a modern classic.So what does it sound like? Bob Dylan, Neutral Milk Hotel, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, David Berman, and Rufus Wainwright came to my mind while listening, and I could go on. Even with those reference points, Heavy Metal isn’t a throwback that fetishizes the past. It’s contemporary and idiosyncratic. He warbles and sputters heart-wrenching lines in a mellow, froggy baritone, followed immediately by something funny in a way that only a young person trying to figure it all out can. It has incredible texture, which gives it a timeless quality that most modern music just doesn’t have. I can’t imagine being this gifted at anything at 22, but Winter uses his powers for good.Several indie frontmen have recently released solo records that have crossed over in a big way. Think MJ Lenderman of Wednesday, or This Is Lorelei, the solo project of Nate Amos of Water From Your Eyes. I don't know if that illuminates a more significant trend. Being in a band or part of a group gives you an us-versus-the-world mentality, especially at a young age. Going solo often doesn’t feel like an option. But making something on your own, free from constraints, allows for something different and dynamic. One of the lines that stuck with me most is “I’ll talk to every crowded room, I’ll go to great carnivals of pain and fight, entire fields of cops to keep a coconut in my hand.” It's an incredible way to say keep going no matter what.
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A few weeks ago, a music producer friend from Los Angeles sent me a link to an album by an artist I had never heard of. This happens to me a lot these days, and most of the time the music is terrible and makes me question my own taste and how it’s perceived. (Is this what you think of me?) Anyway—this time, the album in question was good. Staggeringly good, in fact, and I have been listening to it ever since—on my MacBook Air speakers, on the melancholy streets of Stockholm, and in the Tube in London. It’s called Heavy Metal, and it’s by a 22-year-old named Cameron Winter, whom you have also probably never heard of. He still lives with his parents.
Winter is the singer of a band called Geese, a country-tinged psych-rock band that has toured with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but his solo album sounds nothing like that. In press releases and interviews, Winter has spun a story around Heavy Metal. He’s said that he made the album with musicians found on Craigslist, that his bass player is a five-year-old named Jayden, and the cellist is a steelworker from Boston. He’s claimed that he recorded the album, or parts of it, in various Guitar Center locations in New York City, moving on to a different store each time management wised up and kicked him out, which feels like something a shitty emo band would have done in the late 1990s. Is any of it true? I don’t know, and I don’t care. All of this has contributed to the lore around Winter and his music, which contrasts nicely with how likable and accessible the album is. Partisan Records released it at the end of 2024 and it’s available on all major streaming sites, as well as on CD and vinyl. It listens like a hidden gem, but it’s easy to connect with, which is the perfect combination for a modern classic.
So what does it sound like? Bob Dylan, Neutral Milk Hotel, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, David Berman, and Rufus Wainwright came to my mind while listening, and I could go on. Even with those reference points, Heavy Metal isn’t a throwback that fetishizes the past. It’s contemporary and idiosyncratic. He warbles and sputters heart-wrenching lines in a mellow, froggy baritone, followed immediately by something funny in a way that only a young person trying to figure it all out can. It has incredible texture, which gives it a timeless quality that most modern music just doesn’t have. I can’t imagine being this gifted at anything at 22, but Winter uses his powers for good.
Several indie frontmen have recently released solo records that have crossed over in a big way. Think MJ Lenderman of Wednesday, or This Is Lorelei, the solo project of Nate Amos of Water From Your Eyes. I don't know if that illuminates a more significant trend. Being in a band or part of a group gives you an us-versus-the-world mentality, especially at a young age. Going solo often doesn’t feel like an option. But making something on your own, free from constraints, allows for something different and dynamic. One of the lines that stuck with me most is “I’ll talk to every crowded room, I’ll go to great carnivals of pain and fight, entire fields of cops to keep a coconut in my hand.” It's an incredible way to say keep going no matter what.
