Initiated in late 2013 as a songwriting
partnership between Ant Banister and
Ash Rothschild, as a fully fledged
band, Sydney’s Sounds Like Winter have
quickly become one of Australia’s leading proponents of dark, melodic post-punk
and darkwave synth.
Ash Rothschild was best known as the frontman
for nineties electro-alt.rock band Caligula.
Ant Banister’s prior background in music, production and a raft of other
creative media stretches back to the mid eighties, and is far too extensive to
chronicle here, but has included indie-electronica projects like Nanotech and The Flow, and synthpop band Lunar Module.
Early 2014 saw the release of Sounds Like
Winter’s first single, ‘The Dark’,
accompanied by a strikingly ethereal promo clip directed by Lachlan Peterson. With an atmospheric
guitar/bass/synth combo displaying the melodic influence of The Cure, New Order and Joy Division,
‘The Dark’ also showcased the brooding vocal harmonies of Banister and
Rothschild, calling to mind Depeche Mode,
or even Pseudo Echo.
Sounds Like Winter - The Dark from Sounds Like Winter on Vimeo.
Leaving Banister at the helm, Rothschild soon departed
to front bombastic schlock-rock outfit, Graveyard Rockstars, but retains a creative role from the wings as a ‘ghost writer’.
While Sounds Like Winter’s formative stages have been characterised by a revolving cast of personnel, guitarists Andi Lennon and Tommy Webbster have emerged as mainstays. Both are formerly ofSydney New Zealand
While Sounds Like Winter’s formative stages have been characterised by a revolving cast of personnel, guitarists Andi Lennon and Tommy Webbster have emerged as mainstays. Both are formerly of
The band’s aptitude for marrying early eighties
melodicism to slick, contemporary production values was again at the forefront
of their next offering, ‘Hollow’,
released mid 2014. Modern electronic alt.rock elements combine with an icy
synth echoing Joy Division’s ‘Isolation’, while a deceptively catchy hook
belies a bleak perspective underpinning the song; the day-in/day-out drudgery
of life as a nameless, faceless cog within a sprawling, grey corporate machine.
Latterly, ‘Hollow’ reappeared on the Australasian darkwave/industrial (etc) free
download compilation, ‘S.I.N.G.E.D Volume II’.
Sounds Like Winter - Hollow from Sounds Like Winter on Vimeo.
March 2015 saw the band’s next release, ‘Sanity
Is Calling’ (another Rothschild co-write), featured on the popular international goth compilation and conservation fundraiser, ‘For the Bats, Vol. II’. Without signalling a complete departure from the
band’s established sound, ‘Sanity Is Calling’ takes a decidedly more
guitar-driven approach, inspired more-so by the band’s post-punk/proto-goth influences
than previous synthpop-inflected singles. Coupled with the international
exposure via ‘For the Bats’ and a
video mash-up of classic black & white horror films, ‘Sanity Is Calling’
immediately broadened Sounds Like Winter’s appeal to the current wave of post-punk,
deathrock and ‘old school’ goth revivalists.
Sanity is Calling - Sounds Like Winter from Sounds Like Winter on Vimeo.
With buzz around the band steadily growing,
last night (19 August 2015) Sounds Like Winter dropped their latest video
single, ‘Ishmael’s Bones’. And what a stonker it is too – my immediate response
to the track was to call it “bone-rattling, sea-swaying Australian swamp-goth
of the highest order”. Described as a “tribute to the brave souls who set out
against all odds to explore this planet”, the band’s cultural heritage and
identity bubble to the surface with nods to the rhythmic bump’n’grind of Aussie
swamprock (The Birthday Party, The Wreckery, The Scientists et al); to Ant and
Andi’s shared vocal invocation of gruff, shadowy Victorian characters lurking below
decks; video stills of barbed wire, nautical maps and old maritime imagery;
through to the closing maudlin auld sea-shanty that bids us farewell. Immediately
compelling, ‘Ishmael’s Bones’ are brimming with both style and substance.
Ishmaels Bones - Sounds Like Winter from Sounds Like Winter on Vimeo.
Already being championed by specialist DJs,
clubs, radio and webcasts from around the world, and now fielding offers to
tour Europe and North America, Sounds Like Winter are about to embark on their
first offshore jaunt to New Zealand with shows at Auckland ’s
Whammy Bar on Friday 11 September and Wellington ’s Valhalla Tavern on Saturday 12 September.
Supports include Undiscovered Moons of Saturn, HUMANiSER
and DJ Frankie Flesh in Auckland , and in Wellington
RSVP (Facebook): Auckland Event Page
– Wellington Event
Page
Sounds
Like Winter online: Videos
– Soundcloud – Facebook