Words by Willa Rudolph
Photo by Juliette Boulay
Brooklyn-based band Shower Curtain released their first single in two years a couple of weeks ago, “Edgar,” accompanied by a moody music video. “Edgar” grapples with impending grief, the anticipation of an event that will inevitably cause you pain. The song specifically is about the lead singer Victoria Winter’s cat, who was diagnosed with Feline Leukemia Virus, but describes grief in a universal way.
Shot from the perspective of Victoria’s cat, Edgar, the music video follows his eyes through the intimacy of her life. She sings of mourning the health of her beloved pet, as he runs around the neighborhood, joining Victoria and her friends for a game of basketball, saying hello to others smoking on a stoop, and running through their corner bodega…
The video, shot in NYC by director and cinematographer Nikos Campbell, features friends from the Brooklyn DIY scene like Lola Star, Computerwife, Fasting, Punchlove, Ringing and Buff Ginger.
“Edgar” begins softly and solemnly with, “I know you can tell / it’s in your eyes. / I know you can tell / It’s time, it’s time, it’s time.” Grungy and leaden guitars usher us into the heavy breakdown–there’s sadness but also a sense of anger in Victoria’s grief as she dips back down into the second verse. The song ends with Victoria pleading, “Stay here,” while the band ferociously tumbles through percussive drums and guitar and bass sounds.
The release of “Edgar” represents Shower Curtain’s progression from bedroom pop to murky and viscous rock, as the band has spent the last two years developing their sound and immersing themselves in the shoegaze/rock n’ roll Brooklyn DIY scene.
On November 19th, they’re playing in Victoria’s home country of Brazil at Balaclava Festival alongside big-deal-bands like Unknown Mortal Orchestra and American Football.
From their press release, Victoria says, “It feels very liberating to share this song with the world. Not only is it marking a new phase for the project, but I think an overall process of maturing as a creative, letting go of the old aesthetic and sound that defined Shower Curtain when I lived in Brazil. The new sound is, of course, a reflection of the project evolving from a solo project into a band, and the band’s contribution to this song is evident in the instrumentation. ‘Edgar’ is a very cathartic song about seeing my cat getting weaker with an auto-immune disease. He survived his hospitalization back then, but now he struggles with terminal cancer. In many ways, the stages of grief that are written about in the lyrics still persist with me.”
Read our conversation with Shower Curtain below:
WR: What is “Edgar” about?
Victoria: Edgar is about my cat, who was diagnosed with Feline Leukemia Virus and I was told he only had a couple of months to live after a hospitalization. The song talks about the feeling of desperation during that time. I was very worried every time I went home, felt extremely guilty about going out and not being there 24/7 and just had so much anxiety and paranoia over not wanting him to pass away. I think it carries through the voices of grief that are constantly oscillating between intense despair, and softer voices that just notice small changes in someone.
WR: What is your favorite part of the NYC DIY scene?
Victoria: My favorite part is hands down the community I have, I have made so many friends and I love getting to make new friends and connecting with people at our shows and other shows I go to. I also find myself so lucky to be able to have the access to so many venues and to be in absorbing so much culture and talent from my peers. Back home I would be lucky if I got to play one show every 6 months, so being in such a culturally abundant scene is never something I want to take for granted.
WR: Did you start Shower Curtain always hoping it would become a band?
Victoria: Definitely not, I mostly just created a name to post songs on the internet, but I was too insecure to even front my band and I did not want people to listen to my music. It was only after playing a show as a band in 2019 that I began thinking I could enjoy fronting a band, and after that it took 2 more years to truly pursue the project.
WR: How are the song and video in conversation with one another?
Victoria: I think for the video I really didn’t want it to be sad or too serious, because I felt like it wasn’t a moment to be overly dramatic, however I thought it would also not make sense to be so silly. The idea of the chase is one we felt could be developed into more silly scenes but also we wanted to have a metaphor of him being gone and me being worried. At the end of the video I am wearing a different outfit because we wanted to leave it up to interpretation if I ever found him again in real life or if he was gone the whole time.
WR: What sort of grief are you dealing with in this project?
Victoria: My cat was a miracle and did survive until now (almost 2 years after the initial diagnosis) however, he was recently diagnosed with Leukemia cancer and I was now a second time told he only has a couple of weeks/months to live. So in a lot of ways those feelings are being revived a year later.
WR: How does the video feel like a product of the song?
Victoria: I think not only in the storyline mentioned above but also we have been playing this song for almost two years now, so having a lot of the people that have been a part of our story in the video makes a lot of sense. Friends in bands like buff ginger, ringing, computerwife, punchlove and fasting being featured in the video marks the new phase that this song carries us in.
WR: How did your band form? How long have you all been playing together?
Victoria: This exact formation has existed since a year ago. Shower Curtain began the band format more seriously in September 2021, and then Ethan joined the band in March 2022 and Jill and Sean joined in November 2022. It started mostly as just something I was loosely trying out when I was new to New York but only truly solidified itself into a band in the last year or so.
WR: Is “Edgar” preceding a larger project?
Victoria: Yes! We are recording a full-length record for the first time and Edgar will be on it 🙂
WR: What can fans look forward to from the Shower Curtain?
Victoria: We have a feature in this new single coming out November 11 by a Brazilian band called terraplana, but also hopefully we will drop more singles and can release our full length in 2024.