Originating from Utah, Winter Grain now calls Los Angeles home. With influences from Bonnie Raitt, Fleetwood Mac, The Milk Carton Kids, and First Aid Kit, Winter Grain is an acoustic folk-pop band who values craft, dynamics and vocal harmonies. Kate and Secily trade off vocals that weave together stories of nostalgia, growth, frustration, love and all the in-betweens.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Winter Grain about the latest music, technology, adapting during a pandemic and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Winter Grain’s third EP, Hollywood & Hard, drops December 3rd!

Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?

Our current hometown is Los Angeles and we love it!  Ryan Hadlock (our producer) said that we somehow sound like we are from California but we are still trying to figure out what SOCAL sounds like haha!  We love harmonies and guitar-based folk pop, so the foundation of our songwriting stems from those roots.  Around that, we tend to build songs leaning towards the likeness of Brandi Carlile, Kasey Musgraves, and maybe some Fleetwood Mac and First Aid Kit too.  The easiest way to decide what we sound like is to take a listen. 

How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?

We were living in Salt Lake City when life urged us to move to California.  Kate’s focused most of her life on Army endeavors so taking on a project with the gravity to up ’n move to L.A. was something still kind of a new for her.  I, however, have been in over 40 bands at this point and decided music was my life early on.  What we have created with Winter Grain is the kind of music we both want to make until we just can’t make music anymore.  We believe in ourselves and moving to Los Angeles was a tangible way of making that a reality. 

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

This is our third EP and most pop-influenced album.  We’ve typically leaned more into the bluegrass/country realm, but this time we eschewed less acoustic sounds for a more electric groove throughout.  That was actually a very deliberate choice as my left arm was having so much pain and I needed a solution. My teacher and our collaborator, Elliott Klein, suggested I stop playing the bigger strings on an acoustic and move to electric.  The result drastically changed our sound and we loved it!  As an aside: my arm pain was nothing to sneeze at and (come to find out) I had two bone spurs cutting off my spinal fluid. We recorded the 5 song EP in October of 2021 before we knew my diagnosis and the pain was almost unbelievable. I couldn’t feel most of my fingertips or even lift my arm above my elbow! The Music Gods were watching over us and somehow that week at Bearcreek Studio ended up being more magical than we could have imagined.

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

The past two years have been strange for us all, but our version of strange is—even…stranger? Ha!  So in December 2019 I had my first of two major surgeries and this one was for stage IV endometriosis.  The surgery saved my life even though I had two infections after where I actually almost died.  Thank goodness for modern medicine and living in Los Angeles to have just the best care ever.  So in the midst of my recovery, Kate got assigned to a deployment!  We were able to record last October and then I had my second surgery.  Shortly after, Kate deployed as a MEDEVAC pilot in support of the 82nd Airborne.  Can you imagine trying to be a band during all of this? It was truly a nutty time to try to balance it all.  That all being said, we kept the creative fires burning even MORE so because we craved that sense of artistry and passion that comes from making music.  Most of the songs on this EP were written after my first surgery.  We were writing while I was still limping around and Kate was packing her bags.  We are just so happy to be on the other end of this rainbow with her deployment nearly over and my health back. 

What was the last song you listened to?

“Broken Shoes” by O’neill and Jones.  These two (another married couple, no less) are friends but also immensely talented artists.  They wrote this song as a sort of tribute to Kate being a pilot.  We just took a moment to reminisce and get excited for the inevitable tour will we will go on with these two amazing humans.  We’ve never met in person (only over Zoom) and they live in England.  They are definitely pandemic friends that have become more meaningful to us over time and we consider them to be some of the most inspirational musicians we know.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?

We have an extremely large vinyl collection and love listening at home.  In fact, we are mulling over the idea of making a vinyl for our Bearcreek albums.  But aside from that, we are mostly Spotify users.  The ease of a streaming platform in our car and bluetooth devices make it our primary mode of  listening to music. Kate still makes a point to put on a Sunday morning record though, or will sometimes just get in the mood to turn out all the lights in the house with some candles lit and lay on the floor while a record plays.

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?

Instagram is our fave so please follow us there @winter_grain_music.  That being said, we have all the things like a website (www.wintergrain.com), Facebook, and Twitter.  Kate also has the guilty pleasure of writing a blog for us that is also linked through our website. She’s been a tough cookie to nail down this past year, but she promises to write more now that Uncle Sam isn’t demanding as much of her time.

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?

We are especially excited about our video for “Passenger Seat” as it features our great friends Salem and Ginny.  Salem is one in a handful of kids sponsored by Gibson as she is an incredibly talented guitarist/singer.  Ginny is a very talented and busy actress/singer as well and this is the very first music video I have ever made (Secily).  Learning a new skill at age 40 is daunting and I had a difficult learning curve.  That being said, aside from my little guitar licks throughout the track and the fact that it’s my fave of Kate’s lyrics, the video is something I’m particularly excited about.  Thanks for getting to know us a bit better!