Winter: A Real-Life Daydream

Paxton Poole 

Music Journalist 

With women’s history month coming to an end, I wanted to talk about one of my all-time favorite musicians, Samira Winter. Samira Winter is the lead singer of the LA based band “Winter,” named after her surname. Winter elegantly blends shoegaze, indie rock, and dream pop in an ethereal manner that makes the listener feel a sort of enlightenment.  

Samira Winter was born in Curitiba, Brazil in 1991 to an American father and Brazilian mother. Alternative music was a big part of Winter’s childhood as she recalls fond memories of listening to Violent Femmes with her father, a band whose influence is clearly a part of her music. Winter ended up moving to Boston for college where she started her music career, albeit with small and not very frequent solo shows. In 2012, Winter moved to L.A. where she would officially form her band consisting of herself, Nolan Eley, Kyle Oppenheimer, and Ana Karina. 

Winter credits many bands with inspiring her sound, most notably listing Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Cocteau Twins as her biggest inspirations. On December 24, 2012, Winter released their debut EP titled “Daydreaming” which is with songs that have a unique, mystical, warm and sunny atmosphere. The Cocteau Twins inspiration is very clear with this release. Every song on the EP has beautiful melodic guitar riffs paired with hazy melancholic vocals that make you feel as if you’re floating through the andromeda galaxy. Daydreaming was followed up in 2015 by “Supreme Blue Dream”, the band’s first studio length album. Supreme Blue Dream continues to build on the mood established by the EP with songs like “Pretender” but also leans more into shoegaze with loud distorted tracks like “Crazy.” 

2018 saw the release of two full length studio albums “Ethereality” and “Estrela Mágica.” Ethereality was more of the same type of dreamy indie music. Estrela Mágica is a trilingual album employing Spanish, Portuguese, and English allowing Winter to blend her culture with the gorgeous sounds she does so well. Winter went on to release a few more EPs and another album to much acclaim; however, in 2021 Winter dropped a single titled “Lua” which in my opinion is the bands magnum opus. The song is a mix of vaporwave and slowcore track that utilizes harps, saxophones, and bass alongside synthesizers to create an extremely transcendent feeling. Listening to Lua makes your body feel as if it’s levitating and soaring through old ruins in a dense jungle larger than the world. Releasing towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lua aims to give the listener an escape from all the stress of the pandemic and successfully accomplishes that mission. 

On October 14th, 2022, Winter released “What Kind of Blue Are You?” which somewhat strayed away from dream pop and focused more on the shoegaze sound. This release is filled with raw distorted guitar riffs, lots of reverbs, and heavenly vocals. Two songs on this album perfectly encapsulate what makes Winter so special, the songs in question being “Sunday” and “mr. on-my-mind.” Sunday can be best described as a psychedelic romp through a tall field of sunflowers, the sun’s rays granting you enough energy to leap over mountains. On the other hand, mr. on-my-mind is a stressful jumble of loud instruments that somehow flow together immaculately. The track is shoegaze in every sense of it, almost sounding like something you’d hear from LSD and the Search for God. 

Winter’s most recent album, “Adult Romantix”, came out late august of 2025 and is entirely a shoegaze album. While initially it may seem disappointing that the dream pop genre took a back seat for this album, Winter’s shoegaze sound is so core-shaking that nothing seems out of place. Adult Romantix definitely has a much darker tone than the band’s other releases, focusing on core themes of isolation, loneliness, and desire. Each song brings a reminiscent feeling of young summer nights, old relationships, and heartbreak. Winter’s lonely vocals pair perfectly with the insane backing drums and guitars in a way that paints a unique almost liminal aesthetic. Winter amazes me so much because of how the band can handle so many different genres yet stay consistently wonderful. Despite not knowing what type of music Winter is working on next, I’m sure their next release will be a real-life daydream.