Shower Curtain Ponders Grief in “Edgar” As Their First Single in Two Years
Photo by Ry Minter
Victoria Winter, the front woman of Brooklyn, NY-based band Shower Curtain, sat down with us to discuss all things new with the alternative-shoegaze band including playing live shows, finding balance in collaboration, and their newest single “Edgar”. “Edgar” ponders the essence of grief while shadowed by sludgy yet liquid guitar noises mixed with Winter’s soft euphoric vocals. Reminiscent of their love for shoegaze and slowcare type genres, “Edgar” opens a new door for Shower Curtain’s sound. With their debut album in the works due 2024, Victoria walks us through the process of the band’s songwriting and production techniques where she clearly outlines the art of collaboration.
Photo by Ry Minter
[UNPUBLISHED]: As this is your first single release in two years, I’m curious to learn more about this gap in releases. What’s something significant that you experienced in this gap that you’ve used in your songwriting?
[SHOWER CURTAIN- VICTORIA]: Yeah, I moved to New York and the project just went from being something that was done on the side for me as a soloist to becoming something more collaborative. It was in 2021, after the pandemic when shows began to start again, that’s when I began playing more consistently and when I began to understand what it felt like to be in a band and to be the front singer. Up until then, I would play shows once in a blue moon, and I was mostly just making music for myself. I knew that if I never put out music again, I would still write it anyway. But when I first moved to New York, that was when I really started grinding in that way. I also think I did evolve as an artist and matured more. I was more confident in taking risks both in writing and performance wise, so I think it was all part of the maturity and growing up process. I feel like I can’t leave out the band, especially Ethan who is the guitarist and the producer. Meeting him was a huge leap for me and having someone make music with me - I feel like that collaboration set a new tone for what’s going to come.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Edgar” does represent a great milestone in your history as an artist as it’s the moment you move into more of a grungy rock sound. Can you walk us through how you found a home in Brooklyn’s shoegaze scene?
[VICTORIA]: I think in general, I have been listening to more heavy things over the past couple years whereas when I first started the project in 2018, it was very much in the era of bedroom pop. With artists like Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy, and I really love those artists and still to this day. I feel like they totally influenced me but I then started to explore a little bit more of an edge that I felt like was always there but I was afraid to explore. I think I was just overall listening to more alternative songs. I feel like even as a girl, you can be a little more uncomfortable being loud - until I began to tell myself that I can use more distortion, I can have my guitar be louder and just be more unapologetic about it. I feel like it’s a reflection of my own personal listening habits but also just me being more down to take risks.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I really love the hard guitar that echoes underneath your softer vocals. How do you feel the production speaks to the meaning behind the track?
[VICTORIA]: I wish Ethan was here to answer that one but I do feel that Ethan and I both have a vision for what the song is going to feel like. [“Edgar”] is a song where I do feel like the vocals bring a lot of emotion out, so I think that they should be heard. I believe our collaboration with production is really good because I really wanted this song to be more sinister and to stand out/be its own thing. And Ethan is able to question what that means. I can make a guitar sound and he will then interpret that into whatever I’m feeling. I’m not a musician at all, I’ve never studied it or anything so all I can really do is speak about the emotions that I’m feeling. He’s someone who understands music completely, and he can translate what I’m trying to say in production.
[UNPUBLISHED]: With the release of the band’s first album coming in 2024, are you hoping to create a world embodied with more of a hook on shoegaze or are you looking to experiment completely with the sound?
[VICTORIA]: With this album, it’s been a long process of understanding what it’s going to be. At first, I thought it was going to be more shoegaze but then I started writing more stuff as we were recording. Some artists go into their writing with a vision and how they’re going to execute it. In some ways, I think that’s more beneficial than what I’m doing because you get to set an intention before you even start to write. I do feel like the genre of this album is going to have some songs that are more shoegaze-y, some new tracks are more edgy and aggressive, and then other tracks are more sweet which are reminiscent of my older stuff.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How do you feel having Shower Curtain once as a solo project first, to now becoming a band project has altered your outlook on what Shower Curtain means to you?
[VICTORIA]: I always say that it wasn’t my first intention for it to be a solo project, I was just like ‘oh shit I’ve gotta put some stuff out there’. But now that it’s a band, I love it. Collaborating has made me a way better artist and has totally opened my eyes in seeing what we could be. If anything, I look at my bandmates and I know they are also taking on what this project can be. Ultimately, of course I’m always going to be seen mostly as the face of it but I think as more time goes on with it the community and partnership is evolving.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You’re set to play a single release show on November 9th, what do you usually look out for in the audience reactions when playing a new song?
[VICTORIA]: Yeah, I feel like playing a new song live is how a lot of artists and myself think about certain songs. Sometimes I think ‘oh that song is gonna be a hit’ and then the audience perceives the ‘hit’ as a totally different song. This might be really stupid but it’s cool to look at what songs you play where people are pulling out their phones to record. Those songs would then be a single or the beginning of an album. If you notice, after a while, it’s usually the same two or three songs.
[UNPUBLISHED]: When an audience listens to “Edgar” for the first time, is there a specific lyric in the song or production moment that you hope they are drawn to the most?
[VICTORIA]: Mostly, I do hope people pay attention to the lyrics. When you do understand the context with the sense of the song, it does give it another meaning. I feel like everyone has gone through that before, but it’s really whatever people can interpret for themselves.
