Cameron Winter, anaesthetic and the “lame” Geese single
Cameron Winter has a very curious sense of humour.
If he isn’t making sexual innuendos about Bob Marley during his most important interview to date, he’s agreeing to an impromptu TikTok discussion in an airport waiting room and dishing up the most scalding diagnosis of the industry in between lengthy “um-s” and “ah-s”.
The persistence of his curious sense of humour despite the media circus running in frenzied circles around him is commendable, really. The Geese frontman shot from relative obscurity (though Geese heads will be sure to tell you that the first two albums from the Brooklyn alt-rockers were everywhere for those with eyes to see them) into the stardom stratosphere. He’s been captured sharing earphones with Debbie Harry on the subway, for Christ’s Sake. Throw the man a bone!
It seems that even in the bright, sobering lights of official press channels, Winter is happy spitting curious, addled non-sequiturs that, eventually, amount to a dry, yet fruitful, grander narrative. But what happens when he is under the influence? That might be a privilege only his nearest and dearest get to see most of the time, but in July of last year, a high-as-a-kite Winter slipped through the channels and appeared on the glorious invention of an Instagram Live video.
With a light blue hospital smock draped across his chest, the bushy-eyed frontman appeared on the screen of some 500 fans who had all dialled in to watch Winter babble as an after-effect of the anaesthetic he had taken for a routine endoscopy. But it wasn’t just any other day, but it was the day before Geese’s biggest single to date, ‘Taxes’, was released into the world.
With gently slurred diction, Winter cut right to the chase, sharing with fans that the band had a “new single out tomorrow. It’s kind of…I think a lot of you might think it’s kind of lame, honestly,” he confessed sheepishly, before driving on, “But it’s like the big single-type song off the album. The rest of them are probably, like, cooler or something.”
Though his hospital stupour didn’t give away much more than this strange self-deprication, we can hazard a guess as to what Winter means. In the wider landscape of the Getting Killed metanarrative, ‘Taxes’ is one of the more radio-friendly choices. Besides ‘Cobra’, which whittles gently across a smooth, but twangy, field of sonic grass, ‘Taxes’ begins with a drumbeat, over which Winter’s famously warbly voice soars in. As the twinkly piano refrain hits halfway through the song, the obtuseness of the first segment blooms into a euphoric indie foot-stomper.
In this way, the track amalgamates the air of experimentalism throughout the wider project with a more radio-friendly fizz, which is, as a first single, perfect to encourage fans all aboard the Geese train.
Winter might’ve also meant it was “lame” because, well, it’s a pretty straight-laced subject: paying taxes. We all have to do it, we all quietly hate doing it, but we all understand it’s for the greater benefit of society. It’s unglamorous, especially in the context of his other bouts of lyricism, which usually take to exploring the biblical and the brazen. And yet, the “lame” track would open the door onto one of the biggest, boldest years in recent rock history. Somewhere, Winter is smirking.
