Shower Curtain

BIOGRAPHY

words from a wishing well is the debut record from Shower Curtain, the New York quartet fronted by Brazilian-American artist Victoria Winter (vocals/guitar), alongside Ethan Williams (guitar/vocals), Sean Terrell (drums), and Cody Hudgins (bass). Self-produced by Winter and Williams, words from a wishing well sketches early adulthood experiences in swirling layers of guitars. Winter wrote its tracks across her first few years of living in New York City, and they exist within a conversation between one’s own intuition and that of the universe. Channeling the sludgy distortion of 90s shoegaze and grunge, words from a wishing well establishes Shower Curtain as a standout in the city’s latest crop of bands.

Lead single “wish u well” offers a connecting thread into words from a wishing well, combining the pop tendencies of early Shower Curtain music with heavier production. One of the last songs written for words from a wishing well, Winter and Williams crafted “wish u well” across a pair of whirlwind sessions in the final days of tracking. “tell u (interlude)” emerges from these same sessions, and similarly pulls from Winter’s adolescence. Inspired by the Brazilian music she grew up with, the largely electronic interlude demonstrates the breadth of Shower Curtain’s forward-thinking alt-rock.

In addition to Winter and Williams, Shower Curtain is anchored by drummer Sean Terrell and bassist Cody Hudgins. Throughout words from a wishing well, guitars and vocal melodies co-exist alongside a textured blend of moments heavy and soft. “Bedbugs” turns up the fuzz as Winter lists obsessive patterns atop Terrell’s breakneck percussion: “Tapping, hiding, facing, searching, feel your hairs calling me out.” Album centerpiece, “You’re Like Me,” probes cycles of hurt between walls of distortion, and puts Shower Curtain’s dynamic approach to rock on full display.

Sinister opener, “benadryl man,” explores the struggle to feel safe in your own home, having trouble sleeping in a place not yet yours. Its screeching strings — performed by Catcher’s Zach Mezzo (violin) and Wince’s Wil Ren (cello) — are improvised and overdubbed, forming a makeshift quartet fit to score any case of sleep paralysis. “Everytime I go to bed // there’s a man sitting on the edge // of my velvet purple couch,” Winter sings, injecting metaphor into her real-life nightmares. “He’s hanging out when I’m not around.” This anxiety extends throughout words from a wishing well, and takes different shapes across tracks informed by grief, envy, love and lust.

“If one wishes into a wishing well, I’d like to believe that there is a reason why that wish would or wouldn’t come true,” Winter says of the album’s title, which reflects her search for spiritual guidance in life and music. “‘words from a wishing well’ speaks to the return of that wish from the universe.”