Winter + Shower Curtain

Sound & Blood Sisters Samira and Victoria Winter Reflect on Their Journeys and Daydream About the Feminist Future of Music

By Ginny Barnes

Musicians and sisters Samira and Victoria Winter share a bond across the endless space between Los Angeles, California and Curitiba, Brazil, where they are each sheltered-in-place during the pandemic. In the words of Samira, her younger sister Victoria’s music (Shower Curtain) is bedroom and dreamy, with “a teen girl vulnerability that reminds (her) of Liz Phair’s first record.” And according to Victoria, Samira’s music (Winter) is ethereal, like a journey, “as if the music took you away and you forgot about reality.” 

What draws me to their music is its healing sincerity. I spoke to Victoria and Samira over Zoom about their relationship to music and Brazil as well as their shared visions and support for one another. Because they are sisters, our call reminded me of those long FaceTime hangs we’re all familiar with in quarantine, spending the better part of an hour catching up with a very distant, but dear friend, sharing your dreams and frustrations. When you hang up, you feel comforted. Because no matter what comes between you—COVID, oceans, wildfires—the connection is always there.

Ginny Barnes (GB): An aspect of both of your projects is that you grew up in Brazil. What were your first memories growing up with music in Brazil? 

Victoria Winter (VW): We grew up in a very charismatic family. My dad would show us Rock n’ Roll and Punk influences. He’s American. He had a Punk band growing up, so I remember him putting on music loudly in the car. Our mom showed us a lot more popular Brazilian music. For foreigners listening to it, they definitely see Bossa Nova influence. In Brazil, it’s called MPB. Me and Samira started playing together only three years ago when I drummed for her on tour when she came to Brazil. 

Samira Winter (SW): I moved to Brazil when I was ten. I had lived a little bit in São Paulo. I lived in Mexico a little bit. My story is a little different because I moved a lot when I was a young kid. It’s tricky for me because it gets really mixed. I have experiences in English and Portuguese that I don’t really separate. My childhood was very multicultural. I went to an international school, so I think it all combines in a way that’s cool. It doesn’t feel like I have to separate Portuguese from English. My favorite music memories are from when I was a little bit older when I started taking guitar lessons with a teacher from Brazil. That made me really love and develop a relationship with Brazilian music.

GB: That’s another aspect in both your music, it’s bilingual. It’s something that is of yourself that is mixed.

SW: Yeah, I would even say, a big part of my music history is the experience of listening to music when you’re a teenager. It’s something that’s been a theme in Winter. On and off connecting with that teenage, dreamy vibe, that beginner’s mind approach to playing and writing. Vicky and I connect a lot on that. Even though I’m obviously not a teenager anymore.

VW: I’m not a teenager either!

SW: That’s right, you’re not a teenager either! But we enjoy that vibe and lens of making music.

VW: And always being youthful, regardless of your age. Never feeling like you’ve done it all. Always going back to that mind that’s really open.

GB: That’s lovely. So you’ve both worked on each other’s projects?

VW: Samira has worked on basically everything that I’ve done. If it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t have done anything. 

SW: Not everything!

VW: It’s true. You were like, “Oh, you have these songs? Let’s record.” I had never thought about that. Basically, she low-key produced my EP. My involvement with Winter was during this one tour. 

SW: I would disagree a little bit. When I’m working on Winter stuff, in any capacity, music video, photoshoot, new song, finished song, I’ll definitely go to her for advice or a perspective. Winter isn’t really a band in the sense where I have bandmates that I can talk to about stuff, so she’s kind of my ultimate, all-time bandmate. I can always just be like, “Hey what do you think about this song?” I might not always take her advice, but she’s been a part of Winter in that way and guided me in one way or another.

VW: It’s also because we’re really good friends too. 

SW: And we have similar taste. We trust each other’s aesthetic opinions.

VW: Also because we’re sisters.

SW: Yeah, it works because then the communication can be really straightforward.

GB: What do you learn from each other?

VW: Working with people on music videos or being in other people’s bands, I’ve seen how much Samira’s influenced me in how to act and communicate. I see so many people that don’t have those skills. Since I was younger, she’s really encouraged me to take those first steps of having confidence in your vision and pushing forward, not letting the outcome stop you from making it happen. And not being afraid to talk to people. I see some people are really shy to collaborate. She’s taught me to reach out. If you like someone, go talk to them, network. 

SW: Vicky’s taught me to be more selective, and take more ownership about what I do, to make it really special and sacred. Not letting different people do whatever they want. That’s the bad side, if you’re on the extreme of being very open, you don’t ever want to get the point where you’re compromising. I’ve learned from Vicky that sometimes it’s better when you do things more. You make the art. You make the video. You are the director.

GB: Anything you want to share about your recent EP and album? They were each released right before and during pandemic. What was that like?

SW: With the album, it strangely felt right. Even the title of the record. I had finished the album last year, and I was like, it’s going to be called Endless Space (Between You & I). COVID happens, and I’m like, “Wow should I released it?” I felt 100% sure, “yeah I do want to”. Listening to it during this year, it sounds different to me. The title feels so COVID. The cover feels so COVID. In a weird way, I feel like it was kind of psychic? It just kind of worked out in a cool way. It feels like a companion. It’s been helping me throughout COVID and maybe other people too.

VW: It was funny because when I released my EP, I had a ton of technical difficulty. Most of my audience is in Brazil, and the EP didn’t go up on my Spotify page in Brazil the first day. I got a bunch of messages like, “I can’t find it”. Then I did a show in my hometown, and it was by far the largest event I had thrown. We sold out this bar. That was really cool, but then a week later the pandemic hit. A lot of the shows that I had planned didn’t come through, so it was weird. I had a little taste of the experience of releasing it, and then it was taken away from me. I’m working on stuff now. I had a music video come out. I’m like, “it’ll happen when it happens”. It’s just the touring aspect I was really excited for because I had never done a Shower Curtain tour before. I also know that I have so much ahead of me.

GB: What moves you to persist in your artistic practice through these waves of good times and really challenging times? 

VW: My project is an extension of who I am. I see it as an alter-ego. It’s always going to be going on. I never force myself to write music if I’m not feeling inspired. Since Shower Curtain is me, and I feel so strongly about it, I know that it’s not just music. It’s thinking about aesthetics or directing a video or making paintings or trying out visual material—it’s all part of it. Maybe in a few months it’s going to be something else, but it’s never going to go away. It may be dimmer or more at full force depending on what I’m going through.

SW: There was a point when I was 23 where I was like, “if I’m going to do this, I have to give it my all” (and) not join any other people’s bands, not create multiple things. I was like, I need to just focus, and that’s kinda been the train I’ve been on. I want to understand what it is that motivates me. I definitely have a little bit of an addiction of having new songs. The minute I don’t, I put a lot of pressure on myself. I’m a Taurus, so there’s a part of me that’s like, you need to work harder. In a way, it’s a lifestyle thing. I like the cycle of writing, recording, shooting a video or doing a photo shoot, and always having what’s next. I like being super busy with it, for better or for worse. 

GB: How do you want to be remembered?

VW: One of my most important legacies is for girls (and) women (is) to be present and really explore parts of their creativity that they’ve felt discouraged to. And to always be vulnerable and personal. To have everyone who consumes my art, whatever form it is, feel close to me and intimate. I want women to really be badass and stand up for themselves and not take shit. 

SW: I keep having little daydreams about how I literally just want my all girlfriends to learn how to play an instrument. I know subconsciously or consciously, women are told that we can’t do it. But so many women could just do it. Everyone can do it. You can do it. Legacy wise, I see myself mainly as a songwriter, creator. My favorite part of the process is creating, so maybe a legacy towards people who identify with that. Being a source of inspiration through my work. If my music can provide any healing that would be a legacy I’d want to leave. Music that helps you grow emotionally. I want to make at least 10 records, so just having other people believe that they can do it too. Especially as I’m getting older, I keep thinking about how often we post photos of women when they’re young. Like Björk for example. Björk is alive and well and active. I want to see photos of her now.

VW: The older women are, the less consumable they are for society. I was just hearing about it. 

SW: I’m turning 30 next year. I don’t want to feel any sort of shame. I want us to get used to seeing women who are older playing music. I was watching a Cranberries’ interview, and the YouTube comments are all talking about [Dolores Quinn’s] beauty. Like, oh wow she’s so young and innocent. I’ll compare and contrast an interview with Kurt Cobain. They are not talking about how good he looks. 

VW: That’s something we’re both kind of getting away from, the ”cute” aesthetic. Being cute and sweet has not worked in my favor. I had a conversation with a guy that contacted me to be a guitarist in his band. Everything that he said was like, “oh your little video is too cute, your aesthetic is so cutie”. In Brazil, you use the diminutive of a word, and he used like, three tiny terms to describe me in five minutes. 

SW: I did the cute aesthetic for a long time. It comes naturally because I do like things that are cute. But it’s a complex thing that has so many different layers.

VW: I want to show more dimensions of myself, but the cute speaks louder to others because I’m a girl. 

SW: That’s part of the legacy, that women have so much dimension, an equal amount of dimension. It’s not just one archetype.

Listen to more on Bandcamp: Shower Curtain and Winter and follow both on Instagram: Shower Curtain and Winter.