Cameron Winter is the New...
More nonsense from a nonsense guy. by Michael Harris B’29 published April 2nd, 2026
More nonsense from a nonsense guy. by Michael Harris B’29 published April 2nd, 2026
Ten years ago or so, a few music journalists gathered in a room and decided that the rock band was dead. Its heyday in popular culture was over. It had been eclipsed completely by pop and rap. This is no longer. “Rock is back!” exclaims those same music journalists. As the sun wanes on hip hop as the most popular music genre, rock returns to the cultural zeitgeist. There is perhaps a piece to be written about the rise of white supremacy and the decline of the most popular predominantly Black artform, but that is for another day. Today, we focus on this new era for rock.
Oasis and Radiohead are back! Coldplay makes more money than God! Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy gets interviewed about being an elder statesman of rock every other month! My friends laugh at me for asking why everybody cares about Title Fight so much! And there’s a new generation of rock bands and stars: Wednesday, Geese, MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, and many more. But there is none who have received as much attention as Geese frontman Cameron Winter. It seems in the long absence of true rockstars, Cameron Winter has been labeled “the new [insert name here]” for this generation. In an act of true boredom, I thought I’d list out as many people as possible for whom Cameron Winter has been labeled the new them.
Cameron Winter is the New Bob Dylan…
Every singer-songwriter gets their turn at being the new Bob Dylan. Cameron Winter has as much of a claim to the title as anybody. Between the biblical references in his songwriting and singing style that you have to explain how “it doesn’t suck, actually,” Cameron Winter is perfectly eligible to be the one-thousandth new Bob Dylan. Arguably, he’s closer to Blood on the Tracks Dylan than the early years despite the physical resemblance. Of course, nobody can be Bob Dylan other than Bob Dylan, but I’d rather it be Winter than Jesse Wells. Also, Wells seems like obviously more of a John Prine if you’re going to make a wildly insulting comparison to a genius.
Cameron Winter is the New Neil Young…
Cameron Winter has clearly modeled his aesthetic off of The Last Waltz-era Neil Young. Other than great songwriting and the unwashed hair, he doesn’t seem to me to be more like Neil Young than any of his contemporaries who clearly revere Young as the Godfather.
Cameron Winter is the New Leonard Cohen…
Geese have homaged Cohen with the Alive & In Person cover as well as played his songs live before. Not to mention, Winter’s voice is undeniably Cohen-esque at its deepest. This comparison seems the most apt of any that are commonly made to the giants of the 60s and 70s. The way the vocals sit over the instrumentation on Heavy Metal sounds to this untrained ear like it owes a lot to Leonard Cohen. I wouldn’t be surprised if Winter pointed to Famous Blue Raincoat and said “make it sound like this” at any point during the mixing.
Cameron Winter is the New Lou Reed/Julian Casablancas…
The linear movement from the Velvet Underground to the Strokes to Geese has been pointed out before. Geese clearly is influenced a lot by New York punk bands of old whether it be the Underground, or Television, or Talking Heads (the least punk but I think perhaps the closest comparison), or any other act that could have had a home at CBGBs. The Velvet Underground lead singer makes the most sense to compare to Winter vocally and he seems to want to occupy the same kind of cool as Reed, so this tracks for me.
The Strokes lead singer and weird Instagram DM-er Julian Casablancas was once the new Lou Reed. The Strokes also occupied a similar position in their rock-revival as Geese does in ours. And both Casablancas’ and Winter’s hair make me similarly envious and a little disgusted. Good comp.
Cameron Winter is the New Thom Yorke…
I like this one a lot. They’re both lead singers of respected art rock bands, they both love writing about alienation under capitalism, and they both have the capacity to sing in a way that is gloriously and undeniably whiny. Radiohead has had a lot more time to change their sound than Geese has so who knows how apt this comparison will remain. Right now, all I know is that Getting Killed is doing OK Computer-numbers in my person listening. Yorke seems to have much more of a vocal range and varied styles than Winter, but if Winter is good enough to fall short of Dylan then I think he can comfortably fall short of Yorke.
Cameron Winter is the New Nina Simone…
Obviously, Winter is crushed under the weight of this comparison but I felt it was worth including based on how much Winter clearly adores her.
There are obviously many more. I even heard one guy call Cameron Winter the “straight Will Toledo.” Just for fun, let’s do some of the other young bucks.
Waxahatchee is the new… Tom Petty
Wednesday is the new… Drive-By Truckers
MJ Lenderman is the new… Stephen Malkumus
Adrienne Lenker is the new… Bob Dylan but for real this time