Heating up stages across Los Angeles with their dynamic, true to the soul sound, WinterGrain is an uber-talented duo that has us in pure admiration of their harmonic folk-pop craft.
Beginning their musical journey out of Salt Lake City, Utah, Kate and Secily Anderson abruptly caught the attention of listeners with their polished and impactful writing and performance. With the help of Grammy Award-winning Ryan Hadlock masterfully handling the production of their recently released "Fists," it's without a second thought to righteously throw your hands in the air to this anthemic, bold and striking tune.
A true testament to creative minds alike, the unfettered artistic erudition of this song screams deliverance from the restraints society is subjugated to face in our lives. The immersive duality alone brings a sense of liberation, elevation, and grace while touching on the importance of unification and rising above and beyond. Blissfully written to provide a simplistic connection of emotion, the audience can interpret the sentiment involved throughout this piece with incredible ease and satisfaction.
The melodic instrumentals, in conjunction with the vibrant, pitch-perfect vocals, create a true sense of belonging, enthusiasm, and insightful atmosphere. Winter Grain's revelatory sound echoes greatness through the many prominent venues they've played in combination with festivals, private events, and on the radio.
With overflowing gratitude, we can look forward to hearing more of their tremendous talent with the upcoming release of their EP that's dropping this summer. With the blistering integrity Kate and Secily have portrayed. Audiences everywhere can count on Winter Grain to continue to climb to new heights, remain the beacon on a cliff, and invigorate our fists to stay forever in the air.
Hello Winter Grain, congratulations on the release of your incredibly orchestrated single, "Fists," and welcome to BuzzMusic. What does this song mean to you personally and how would you like listeners to receive the message that you're delivering?
When we write music we just write from our own lives without any sort of notion that the audience needs to feel a certain way. The lyrics convey what we talk about quite a lot in our household: people have gotten angry, sometimes rightfully so, sometimes only backed by conspiracy. We are getting older and notice that the fire within us burns higher for all things we consider just and kind. The world has other ideas and in fact, we have family members who would rather fight than discuss. It breaks our hearts but in the breaking, it opens us up to more love. This song conjures up images of fury, exhaustion, and yet ultimately solidarity. When you listen we only hope you feel and hear whatever it is that encourages you to burn higher.
Do you plan to continue playing as many live shows as possible or do you prefer to shift some of that focus to further studio recording? Kate is currently deployed for a year as she is an Army helicopter Medevac pilot. I'm in Los Angeles recovering from two major surgeries this last year so we are focused on releasing the rest of the songs we recorded last fall at Bearcreek Studio with Ryan Hadlock. If there happen to be chances for us to play we definitely will.
Before the creation of Winter Grain, what sort of musical journey or involvement did you two have that helped shape the talent you've come to currently infuse?
Kate and I met through a mutual friend years ago. We eventually connected in Salt Lake City and formed a band with local friends. We loved playing at Sundance and festivals and such. At the end of 2016 that band broke up and we decided to start a new project. In early 2017 we recorded our first EP at Bearcreek Studio after looking into Brandi Carlile and where she tended to record. In the time before we moved to Los Angeles we did a laser light show at The Clarke Planetarium in SLC which garnered us a Best of Utah Award. We played and recorded with up to 10 people at a time as we were really interested in collaborating and filling out our sound. Both our debut EP and the next were heavily influenced by bluegrass sensibilities. Our latest EP is much more pop with its instrumentation and production. We have been lucky enough to play at Hotel Cafe, House of Blues, Saint Rocke, Whisky a Go-Go and other events that have made our stay here in LA that much more memorable for us. We like that we continue to change and grow as a band and we are excited to see what comes of this next year.
Is this song a taste of what we can expect more of in your upcoming EP?
Yes, "Fists" is very representative of our most recent recordings. We focused on having tight harmonies throughout, lots of time spent on getting great electric guitar tone, and finding that space that is singer-songwriter, beachy, pop that flirts with rock. We are really excited to announce that Adam Neely is on a track that will be coming out this summer.
What can we expect next?
We are working on our next music video for the next single, "Better You." This will be coming out late spring with the full EP being released subsequently.