The Leonard Cohen album that shaped Cameron Winter: “The standard I wanted to hold myself to”
In the digitalised world, it often feels like the internet needs one artist to keep well fed, one artist who we can thrust forward and say is “having a moment”.
Sometimes it’s relatively baseless and transparently trend-led, while other times it’s refreshing, reminding the world that great bands still do very much exist. Right now, the artist of the “moment” is Geese, and they are very much a great band.
Their latest album Getting Killed was yet another alt-rock triumph, thrusting Cameron Winter’s obscure musical ideas into the limelight, pairing his distinct vocals with his band’s angular musical ideas. Moreover, the promotion run for the album has put the DIY back into music, pitting the band in the middle of raucous streetside gigs and showcasing their scruffy aesthetic on top of slick Hollywood chat show locations. It’s been a well-needed sprinkling of salt back into the confused musical earth.
Naturally, Cameron Winter has become somewhat of a cult hero in the process. His songwriting style has been the curiosity of modern music fans who’ve followed every progressive step of culture’s verve in the modern age. The internet has always hidden pockets of talent in its obscure corners, be it the relentless realms of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard or the wildly dense artistic concepts of Geordie Greep, and Winter seems to be the new bastion of this subcultural attitude.
These artists are hugely important to modernity because they act as a bridge into understanding the past. They are one more step in a rich lineage of musical innovation that helps keep contemporary generations wholly informed about the historic journey of the music they’re interested in. Winter’s rise to fame has provoked a refreshing interest in the authentic past, amongst millennial internet dwellers, and he’s been on hand to satiate the appetite.
Diving into the curious depths of Reddit, Winter answered fan questions about musicians who helped craft his solo record Heavy Metal. Released in between Geese projects 3D Country and Getting Killed, Winter’s record saw him exercise his introspection, creating a softer, more experimental, and psychologically complex sound.
When asked about what artists in particular helped him form his own version of this, he said, “I listened to the debut Leonard Cohen album every single day during the main bulk of recording. It definitely was the album I held up in my head as the standard I wanted to hold myself to.”
It’s a high bar Winter set for himself, for Cohen’s debut album is perhaps one of the greatest works of individual songwriting ever laid down. Lyrically, Cohen displays his poetic prowess with his unique juxtaposition of accessible complexity, while his orchestral-tinged arrangements provide a compelling musical backdrop. Either of these parts would have made for a classic album on their own, but combined show just how precise Cohen’s artistic voice was.
While it’s a stretch to put Winter’s name on that level just yet, there’s no doubt that he’s laying the bricks for a pathway that will eventually get him there.
