Winter Stanley says he’s always loved music for the way it helps connect him to his emotions and his friends. “I picked up the guitar in elementary school, but really became interested in it during junior high,” he says. “When I started playing music with the church band, I experienced music as something communal and emotionally moving, rather than something you listened to passively. I think that planted the seeds for songwriting and performing.”
During high school, Stanley began playing in small acoustic projects. “I started writing songs with my friend, Keith Gidlund. We had an acoustic duo and played around Northern California. That was my introduction to performing publicly,” he says.
After playing with Gidlund for a while, they started a band—Winter’s Fall. The group included Gidlund’s brother, Pete, and their friend, Hans Ashlock. They put out a self-produced EP, Muddy and White. After polishing the arrangements by playing them live, they made their first album, the eponymously titled Winter’s Fall. They produced it themselves, with everyone playing multiple instruments. They made one more album, At All Angles, produced by Adam Myatt and Glen Jackson, before going their separate ways.
“Around that same period life started changing pretty quickly for me,” Stanley says. “I got married, had two kids and began building a career working in high-end custom cabinetry. Music slowly shifted out of the center of my life, at least publicly.
“I never really stopped writing or playing entirely, though,” he adds. “I worked on music in quieter ways and occasionally supported friends’ projects.”
After his divorce, Stanley ended up living close to Adam Myatt. Myatt had created Hand Me Down Recording, a studio and music label, in a warehouse in East Oakland.
“Adam encouraged me to come by and work on some songs,” Stanley says. “His studio is very welcoming. There are instruments everywhere, tape machines, old amps, synths, guitars hanging on the walls and different recording setups. It feels like stepping into someone’s ongoing creative practice, rather than a formal studio environment. That helped make returning to recording feel comfortable and natural.”
The first two songs they worked on were “Waves” and “The Trees Are Torches,” released as a single on Hand Me Down Records late last year. “Adam produced the songs and played on them,” Stanley says. “We took our time and let the recordings evolve organically. I played guitar and electric piano on ‘Trees.’ Adam played bass, synth and piano. He also played bass on ‘Waves.’ Those sessions became the start of me finding my way back into recording and releasing music.”
“Trees” is a country/folk ballad, driven by Stanley’s acoustic guitar. His mournful vocals are complemented by long, wordless sighs. Subtle keyboard fills float beneath Winter’s singing, intensifying the desolation of the lyrics as he croons—“I’m facing out, in no direction …”
Stanley’s interlocking guitar work opens “Waves.” His distorted electric lines and acoustic strumming flow in and out like the undertow of an unsafe ocean. A slow, syncopated backbeat supports a melancholy lyric describing someone walking through the darkness, trying to escape from an all-pervasive loneliness.
Myatt also produced “Cold Hands,” Stanley’s new single, released on May 30. The song opens with Stanley’s acoustic guitar playing the short guitar hook that anchors the song to a lyric describing the uncertainty one feels as a relationship comes to an end. His forlorn vocal and Myatt’s long, sustained organ notes create a bleak atmosphere.
“‘Cold Hands’ was produced the way the other songs were,” Stanley says. “We worked on it collaboratively, between his studio and my home setup. I’d often track ideas or layers at home—guitars, vocals, synth parts, harmonies. Then bring the tracks into the studio for Adam to shape, mix and build on. Then we’d repeat that process, back and forth. The arrangement revealed itself early, which gives the recording a more immediate feeling.”
Stanley will promote his new singles with solo performances. “After years of coordinating bands, rehearsals, gear and all the logistics that come with that, there’s something refreshing about being able to keep things lighter and more direct,” he says. “I still think about building a band around these songs, but right now I’ve been enjoying the intimacy and immediacy of playing solo.”
Winter Stanley will play Saturday, June 20, at Zocalo Coffeehouse, 645 Bancroft Ave., San Leandro. 510.569.0102. zocalocoffee.com. Listen to his music at: winterstanleymusic.bandcamp.com, handmedownrecording.bandcamp.com and wintersfall.bandcamp.com.
