Culture Cabinet

For Samira Winter, the creative force behind the dream pop project Winter, songwriting is a way of mapping time. As she puts it, each album its own time capsule. Her latest, Adult Romantix, out Friday, spans a period of personal change, geographic shifts, and emotional deep-dives, serving as a chronicle of years shaped by longing and memory.

Raised between Brazil and the United States, Winter carries both cultures in her creative DNA. She began writing songs at age 12, treating music as a private diary long before she shared it with anyone. Her sound took shape in college, when she discovered shoegaze and dream pop in Boston’s underground scene. “I started Winter in Boston,” she says in an interview with Culture Cabinet. “I was inspired by Galaxie 500, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Pavement, Yo La Tengo. And I just kind of set out to discover my own dream pop language.”

That search has been gradual. Her approach reflects years spent working within the DIY space: building slowly, intentionally, and with care. “More and more, I’ve been able to get closer to what I actually hear in my head,” she says. “It feels really good.”

Writing for Adult Romantix began after her 2022 record What Kind of Blue Are You?, a release that marked a turning point in both sound and process. “I’m always writing,” she says. “Except right now, because I’m focused on this release. But the minute that it’s over, I’ll go back.” The songs that followed emerged over two to three years, shaped by life in flux and the shifting mental landscapes that come with it.

Literature became a key source of inspiration. While rereading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Winter found herself drawn to its tone and themes during a period of personal isolation. “I was out of love and feeling kind of lonely,” she says. “That book really allowed me to enter the world of Mary Shelley through her beautiful writing and escape.” She connected deeply with the metaphor of the monster standing not as a villain, but as something misunderstood. “Frankenstein, he’s actually not evil inherently,” she says. “It’s a metaphor of potential, the inner monsters that we have.”

This interest in emotion and atmosphere carries over into the music. Adult Romantix blends gauzy textures with distorted edges, evoking a sense of half-remembered summers and blurred connection. There’s a quiet intensity running through the album that strikes a mood that leans into melodrama, desire, and reverie.

The record also brings Winter’s Brazilian roots into sharper focus. On the track “Without You,” she sings in both English and Portuguese, a move that felt both deliberate and instinctive. “Portuguese is the language I speak with my family,” she explains. “It’s very personal to me. That song is really vulnerable, so when it came to writing the second verse, I felt like it was a great space to sing in Portuguese.”

I ask if there’s any change in her approach to writing a song in Portuguese, as opposed to English, but she tells me bilingual songwriting feels natural. “Maybe because I’ve been living in the U.S., I haven’t made as many bilingual songs as I could have,” she says. “But with this album, I wanted to make sure there was some Portuguese in there.”

As the album prepares to make its way into the world, Winter’s hope for listeners remains simple. “I hope people can feel inspired by my music or the art I make in any capacity,” she says. “If they’re creative or have an itch for art, or learning an instrument, or any form of expression, I hope it inspires them to do it.”

At its core, Adult Romantix is a love letter to not only places and people, but to the creative process itself. It’s also a reflection of an artist who’s never stopped evolving, and who hopes her music inspires others to do the same. “We live in a society that doesn’t support the arts or those expressions, even dancing, singing, all of these things that are so human,” she says. “I hope that listening to my music can inspire people to pursue their own dreams.”

There’s a sincerity to Winter’s vision. A belief in the power of art not as escape, but as expression. “It’s natural to be creative,” she says. “It’s a human quality that everyone is born with.” And Adult Romantix, in all its dreamlike melancholy, invites listeners back into that space: reflective, imperfect, and deeply alive.