Tape Them: Winterkids

Chances are you have not heard of Winterkids before. Technically this makes you less of a person than Gigwise because we have and quite frankly they have made our lives feel that much better. Made up of siblings James and Hannah Snider as well as Bradley Osborne, Chris Muldoon and Tom Downer Winterkids (So named as they were all born in the Winter, simple eh?) craft glorious simple pop songs that fill you with joy and a sense of wonder. Gigwise caught up with lead singer James to gain an insight into one of the best new bands around.

First things first then- How did Winterkids form? “We’ve been together for two years now and I met all the guys in college in Guilford and we were all doing music courses and we all wanted to have a bit of a jam, so we all went and made a bit of noise in a practise room. We then decided it would be good to get somebody to come and play some keyboards and organs and my sister is a classically trained pianist so we bought her a couple of keyboards. She slotted in really well and filled out our sound." Bands featuring siblings are often riddled with arguments and rivalry (See Oasis for details) so how do James and Hannah get along? Do the other ‘Kids have to duck for cover during their screaming fights? “Haha no, our drummer is actually her boyfriend so we are more like a family anyway. I have always got on pretty well with my sister so there are no arguments”. So who are the bands Winterkids look to for inspiration, who made them want to pick up guitars and write songs? “ It’s pretty vast really. There isn’t one particular artist we all.phpire to be like. Personally I am a big fan of Pulp and I love The Cure too. Tom likes Regina Spektor and Rufus Wainwright whereas Hannah likes classical stuff. It’s a pretty wide range of music that goes into our music.”

So what inspires James to put pen to paper for a Winterkids song? “Well we have just done our album and all the songs on it are based on personal experiences so we are calling it ‘Memoirs’ because in a way each song is like a diary entry. I write about things that have affected me and things I have gone through”. With the lyrics written the songs now need music, how do the ‘Kids approach the musical side of song writing? “Well each song is different really. Sometimes I will come up with an idea or a melody and bring it to band practise, other times Brad our guitarist will write a riff. The last song we wrote for example is called ‘Playing Cards With Gingerbreads’. We recorded half of our album then went out on tour. When we came back to record we wrote a song about our whole experience as a band and ‘Gingerbreads’ came out of it. It’s going to be the last track on the album."

With 2006 drawing to a close what does 2007 hold for Winterkids? “Well we have been recording an album at Sawmills. We are working with a guy called Frazer Smith who used to be in Shed Seven and John Cornfield who did the Razorlight album and has worked with Boy Kill Boy. What we are going to do is produce 300 copies of the album and sell them to our fans on Myspace, with the money we produce we are going to buy our tickets to South By South West in Texas. We haven’t got a label to release the album for us so we are going to do it ourselves. We have a label in Japan who will be releasing the album in March. We knew we wanted to record an album with or without a label so we managed to get some money together from our management and our parents to go and record at Sawmills. So when it’s all mastered we will do personal art work and make it look a bit nice and hopefully the money we earn will get us to Texas.” A very DIY approach if ever there was one.