Winter Announces New LP, Enlists Hatchie on Latest Single “atonement”

Samira Winter and Harriette Pilbeam take on Hollywood in the video for the second track released ahead of What Kind of Blue Are You?.
First Listen

Winter Announces New LP, Enlists Hatchie on Latest Single “atonement”

Samira Winter and Harriette Pilbeam take on Hollywood in the video for the second track released ahead of What Kind of Blue Are You?.

Words: Mike LeSuer

Photo: Athena Merry

August 02, 2022

Last month, Winter—the dream-pop project headed by Samira Winter—revealed the dreamy, downcast single “lose you,” the latest in a series of tracks released over the years since her Bar/None debut arrived in 2020. In being within the same vein of glistening, nostalgic pop as Hatchie’s recent LP Giving the World Away, it’s no surprise then that the two have teamed up on Winter’s new single “atonement,” which also introduces her new album What Kind of Blue Are You? that includes “lose you” on its track list.

Rounded out by the psych-minded production of Froth’s Joo Joo Ashworth (brother of SASAMI), the new single—and the album it appears on—is a dense network of reverb with Winter’s vocals floating above it all. “atonement,” though, stands out with its duetted chorus and the type of ’90s-sourced drum beat familiar to the Hatchie discography. “I laid out the guitars and added a funky breakbeat loop to the demo and sent it over to Joe Agius of Hatchie,” Winter recalls. “We had been sending each other ideas throughout the pandemic and this one really clicked. Joe and Harriette quickly came back with a groovy bass line, melodies, and lyrics that led to the song title and concept of the track. We kept a lot from the demo and wrapped up the rest of the track with Joo Joo in the studio, creating the bit-crushy drum beat and some extra guitars.”

“We met Samira on a visit to LA back in 2020,” adds Hatchie, “but didn’t have a chance to work together in person for years because of the pandemic. ‘atonement’ is one of the songs we’ve worked together on via the internet and was one that really wrote itself and was a lot of fun to make.”

Arriving with the single is a video that sees the two songwriters running around LA in outfits pulled from the same era as most of their musical influences, with a light blue tint to the visual that looks familiar to music videos of the early-’90s. “The concept for the video immediately came to mind when working on the song together,” notes Agius, who shot, directed, and edited the video. “The dark and talkative verses contrasting with the bubbly hopeful choruses really conveyed the kinda energy I wanted to translate. It was so much fun just running around LA together over a few days, exploring and filming with a second-hand tape camera I’d picked up the day before.”

Watch the video below, and expect What Kind of Blue Are You? out October 14 via Bar/None Records. You can also find Winter's recently announced tour dates with Peel Dream Magazine here.