Photos by Brooklyn Zeh / Words by Willa Rudolph
Today, May 1st, Kingston, New York-based artist Ginger Winn has released a new single and video called “Escape,” off her upcoming 14-track sophomore album Freeze Frame (coming June 13th). She’s also performing live tonight in Woodstock, NY at Colony! (tickets here)
The alt-folk singer-songwriter tackles her own anxiety and fear with poetic lyrics and symbolic imagery. In the video, directed by Winn’s frequent collaborator, photographer and filmmaker Brooklyn Zeh, we follow the multifaceted artist through the woods in upstate New York, as she encounters and then eventually befriends a pitch black “wolf dog”–the very breed that her late father owned. The Wolfdog represents her own anxiety, which she cannot escape, and doubles as a representation of her father.
Having experienced the recent tragic loss of her father, she has harnessed her grief and created something beautiful from it. “There’s nothing to fear except the fear of me,” she sings.
Winn explains, “It’s about running—and trying to escape your own mind and thoughts, which is very hard to do. There’s a double meaning when I say ‘except me / accept me.’ Not only does the song mean ‘there’s nothing to fear except the fear of me,’ but it’s also a plea—as you hear the vocals crying out, ‘accept me.’ Social anxiety in an empty space like the woods is an eerie, indescribable, nonsensical feeling as real as the trees themselves.”
Ginger isn’t afraid to go deep and get vulnerable, working her way through real life obstacles in real time in the creative process of making the song and video, as well as the forthcoming LP Freeze Frame. She faces it all head-on. Winn says, “Shooting [the “Escape”] video and making friends with this dog was very healing—almost like I got to tell my dad goodbye and have one last moment with him.”
Appropriately recorded during a record-breaking snow storm in Cincinnati–at producer/engineer A.J. Yorio’s home studio–Freeze Frame deals with the intricacies and complexities that come with topics such as suicide, grief, anxiety, and fear.
Born and raised in South Carolina, Ginger has been singing and songwriting since she was nine years old. Just last year, she put out her debut album STOP-MOTION, produced by David Baron (The Lumineers, Noah Kahan, Shawn Mendes). And now, she prepares to spend the summer building her studio, Ginger’s Bakery, and producing music with new people. “We have lots of projects, including working with Sal Valentinetti,” she says. “I also just bought a camera and I’m excited to shoot around Kingston. It makes me feel close to my dad, especially hearing the camera shutter.”
“Freeze Frame is the most emotional project I’ve ever made. It holds my new grief, my longing, and all the tiny moments that pulled me through. I experienced the sudden passing of my father two months before final production and recording vocals, and it was so healing to put all those emotions into something so beautiful.”
Keep up with Ginger here! And if you can make it, don’t miss her performance tonight 5/1 at Colony in Woodstock, NY. (TICKETS)
