Nine Songs: Jessica Winter

Which is understandable, given that the Portsmouth raised artist has worn many hats throughout her career as a musician. Punk bands in her early teens provided the basis of her group Pregoblin, formed with Fat White Family’s Alex Sebley, and since disbanding the project, Winter has released a slew of singles and EPs since 2019, supporting fellow electro pop trendsetters Jake Shears and Rebecca Black on tour, through her own transcendent floor filler pop earworms, tinged with nostalgic production and that unmistakable extraterrestrial vocal.

Whilst her new album, aptly titled My First Album, is a culmination of all that has come before, rather than closing the door, it leaves it flung wide open, both honouring her past and exploring all that is still unknown.

Through bursts of moody guitars and 90s alternative sensibilities (particularly on the call to action bursts of punk on "All I Ever Wanted" and "Got Something Good"), you get transported to what enamoured Winter as a teen, but importantly what inspires her to this day through limitless and dream-state electronic music.

When naming the album, Winter took a retrospective look at her life and all that inspired her, whether that be real life experiences or the music she was listening to, “there was a real innocence in making this album because it was always going back to where I came from,” she tells me. “I'm releasing my first album much later than most pop artists would. I've had a whole lifetime of music, I've written over a hundred songs that are released, so I just thought people need to know it is my first album [although] I have been around the block. With the way I've named things in general I'm very matter of fact, I don't like dressing it up in something it's not, or trying to over egg the pudding!”

Speaking further on her journey to the album, Winter says she’s transformed in how she looks and behaves in life, “it makes you zone in on what it is you want out of life. What's important and authentic, and your identity comes into focus massively. Especially as a woman and how you want to portray yourself.”

“When it comes to writing the music, that is a voice all on its own that comes through from wherever it comes from, like a deep catharsis spiritual moment when you really have something to say. Sometimes it could be very silly, but it means something at the time and it's wherever you're at in your life.”

Finding her place is something Winter has navigated throughout her life, and her debut album has punctuated this feeling: “when it comes to actually putting out the album and how to do that in the current climate we're at, being older and where you sit with that in this TikTok age, with all this new speak, it’s definitely pulled loads of things into focus and where you fit and whether you feel like you fit.”

She continues, “[One of the] main issues that I've had is that I never really give a shit about the visuals or imagery at all, because I just love [the] music. I love playing piano and that's all I care about, I could wear a cardboard box and it's fine. When I was like sixteen I was dressing as a goth, then I was a psychedelic hippie. I liked so many different guises. Now, I realised that I was just this person who really didn't know who she was. I love how music has helped me be all these different people that I've wanted to be, and I still will be I'm sure. I feel like this is more defining through the EPs and up until now… I am becoming and feeling good within who I am and not having to be something I'm not.”

My First Album does feel as though Winter has confidently arrived in a place that is solely her own, sonically and visually. The aesthetics that accompany her music are strong and unmissable, whether that be slick social media posts or her artistic music videos, it’s nailed, partly inspired by her mum’s career as an 80s glamour model (“I just think it looks so good. I've always been proud of what she did” she says), but lies somewhere between the stylish sharp high concept lines of The Matrix, NYC yuppie and New Romantic.

“The way they shoot glamour models in the 80s was so high production and I love the structured themes,” Winter tells me, “so I've always had this weird identity crisis, where I've had a really ultra feminine mum who's glamorous, wears a tiny bikini and is really tanned [with] this perfect body. But then I've also been this man who loves wearing suits. When I put on my suit I've got that power, and then when I wear my little bra, gloves and high heels I'm ultra femme. I like presenting both worlds.”

The breadth of all that inspires Winter is reflected in her expansive song selection.