Why the Unhinged, Meteoric Gen Z Magic of Geese Matters
Cillian Murphy has been obsessed with this group of youngsters led by Cameron Winter and their distinct angsty manner of expressing veiled ideas.
by JV Ordoñez
Published on Jan 5, 2026
Geese frontman Cameron Winter has been hailed as the next great voice in modern music and could be an all-timer thanks to his unique singing style, raspiness, and slurring vibrato that has people obsessed over whatever he's hooting and hollering about over a bunch of fuzzy guitars and tasteful drum smacks.
The post-punk/ dad-less rock band consisting of Winter (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Emily Green (guitar), Dominic DiGesu (bass) and Max Bassin (drums) had an explosive 2025 with the release of the critically acclaimed Getting Killed album that saw them elevate their previously niche reputation in the alternative music space.
Album art for Getting Killed (2025)
Their latest full-length record included the beloved singles such as the rebellious "Taxes" and the disturbing "Trinidad," that literally kicks off the LP with Winter screaming his lungs out "There's a bomb in my car!"
If this album is your first contact with Geese and their eccentric frontman, more likely than not you are either instantly enamored with Winter's distinct vocal style or Bassin's crisp and boisterous drumming, or just gobsmacked and confused with what your ears are being exposed to.
The outfit's sonic signature is more of an acquired taste akin to aged wine or some exotic delicacy. It took a few listens for us to really get into Geese's groove and singing, which we saw as a cross between Julian Casablancas from the Strokes and Thom Yorke from Radiohead.
It's not like this album is the band's first rodeo as they have also been getting a lot of love for their 3D Country record released in 2023 and Winter's own solo project Heavy Metal. The outfit had also made a waves in the music space with their debut record Projector in 2021, and have dropped several EPs since 2016.
Back to Getting Killed, after you get through the experience that is "Trinidad" and that disturbing edginess, you shuffle into "Cobra," the most footloose and danceable track from Geese's discography.
A song about not being swayed by charms from a lover's metaphorical flute-tune. This song is one of the band's more accessible and groovier cuts from this record, which otherwise consists of noisy, grungy, and erratic performances.
"Au Pays du Cocaine" is another somber, reflective, and painful song that hides behind simplistic imagery such as that memed-on "Like a sailor in a big green boat" line that actually takes inspiration from a Bruegel painting and lines pleading a lover to come back. The track is a detour from their typical exuberant and boisterous garage rock sound.
The title track "Getting Killed" is just a stream-of-consciousness-driven hard rock cut engulfed in different stems and layers of psychopathic rage that you can't help but tap your feet to.
The lead single off the album, "Taxes," is a rather short cut but doesn't shy away from building up a euphoric payoff in the song's hook. This soliloquy is what everyone wants to say, but can't realistically say, refusing to pay taxes and defiantly saying "You're gonna have to come over with a crucifix. You're gonna have to nail me down," juxtaposed with Winter's expressionless face in the music video. It's one of those songs that encapsulates the essence of Geese: raucous, biblical, and death-rattling beauty for the current zeitgeist.
We now get why they picked this song as their Jimmy Kimmel Live! piece since it's an energy shot of serotonin and euphoria straight into your chest.
"Islands of Men" is a guitar-jam track that builds up over the course of five and a half minutes over an authentic commentary on modern masculinity and the loneliness epidemic, with the screaming from Winter pushed back a little.
The band pulls back the veil of chaos a tad here as they send a clear message to the wayward men of today: "Will you stop running away from what is real?"
Other standout tracks from Geese come from their sophomore record 3D Country starting out with the banger that is "Cowboy Nudes." This song is an ode to many of the classic '60s blues and hard rock songs, with Winter yet to fully embrace his trademark slurring vibrato and opting for a more versatile belting style that showcases his range and grit. "I See Myself" is another great cut from the Americana-inspired post-punk record that feels like a psychedelic, cowboy spaghetti western for this generation.
The guys from Geese are still just unapologetically a high school jam band with a bunch of sick ideas and a transcendent aura. In fact, Winter met drummer Bassin and guitarist Green during their time at Brooklyn Friends in Downtown Brooklyn and they then all enrolled at the Park Slope Rock School.
Album art for 3D Country (2023)
Diving into Mr. Winter
Album art for Winter's Heavy Metal (2024)
Winter's warmly received solo record Heavy Metal (which ironically certainly does not fit into that genre) spawned quite possibly a generational love song simply called "Love Takes Miles."
"Love will make you fit it all in the car" from the track is definitely going on the list of simple yet poignant lines I want on my epitaph and gravestone.
The neo-classical/folk songwriting chops are also on full display from the twenty-three-year-old on "Drinking Age" where his disjointed baritone vocals on lines like "Today, I met who I'm gonna be from now on. And he's a piece of shit, yeah" serve as an emotive vehicle for his introspection on addiction and existential dread.
A huge feather in his cap is his solo piano show at the historic Carnegie Hall, where he fleshed out songs from his solo record with staggering rawness and melancholy.
This was a wild thing to achieve to cap off the year, the latter half of which has been affectionately dubbed the "season of Geese."
Whatever poignantly wild thing Geese is doing sonically and artistically as a whole, and with Winter at the helm, they are freaking out the music world in the best way imaginable. Intrinsically speaking, it isn't too early to anoint these guys as the next great rock band since they've been releasing projects since about 2016 and only now have broken into the relatively mainstream alternative music space (which sounds like an oxymoron).