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Hands Playing the Piano
Hands Playing the Piano
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Washington | Culture > Entertainment

Oh how I Love you, Cameron Winter

Jaya Parsons Student Contributor, University of Washington - Seattle
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

The first song off Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal that I heard was Drinking Age. A song that gripped me by the throat and made me want to sob.

Often I find myself wondering if there’s any hope for music to return to what it once was. If there’s a chance of hearing Zeppelin guitar or vocals like Jeff Buckley anymore. 

While I try to stifle my boomer opinions of music, there is something in me that longs for voices that are often not heard anymore. 

The songs at the beginning of Heavy Metal are relatively simple in terms of the instrumentals, with minimal keys and drums. But what really stands out is Winter’s voice. 

Often people who aren’t fans of his vocals say things such as his voice sounds monotonous or boring. While there is a case to be made about the low vocal range he uses, there is no one in music right now who sounds quite like him. 

It takes a certain kind of voice to be able to sing within the same few notes in a voice that sounds so similar to talking.

The Tom Waits/Lou Reed-like vocals carry through Winter for the first half of the album until Nina + Field of Cops and $0 where the keys and vocals meld into something you can’t listen to without feeling like you’re floating through space (or deeply in agony).

He almost talks through most of his songs, while some of them he ends in operatic vocals that give the listener goosebumps without fail every time. 

I have yet to hear another artist nail the voice he has the way he does and it might be because he’s the only person who sounds like that. The 23 year old has the voice of a man in his 70s who’s seen the world and smoked his way through it in the best way possible. 

Anyone who hasn’t listened to this album or his work with the band Geese, is missing out on a world of beauty and melancholy that can only be found through his music.

Jaya Parsons

Washington '27

Jaya is a second-year junior at UW. She was born and raised in Seattle and grew up two blocks from campus. She is double majoring in journalism and creative writing and loves to write more than almost anything. When not writing, she can be found at concerts, with friends, at Sounders soccer games, or on the field herself. She is also a volunteer DJ for Rainy Dawg Radio and adores sharing music with anyone willing to listen. She is always happy to meet anyone who loves to write (or to be meeting anyone in general.)