About winter
Winter McQuinn is a musician who plays extensively around Melbourne/Naarm, Australia as well as Europe and the UK with Sunfruits, jade imagine and as a solo artist. Winter also works as a freelance publicist at Third Eye Stimuli Records and co founded environmental music organisation Green Your Noise. Green Your Noise is a carbon offset calculator and environmental tool aimed at musicians and creative workers who want to lower their environmental impact. Winter holds a Bachelor of Music from Box Hill and Bachelor of Music Interactive Composition Honours from Melbourne University. Winter has appeared at stages and festivals including Falls Festival, St Kilda Festival, Bigsound Festival, Brunswick Music Festival, The Forum, The Tivoli, Manchester Psych Festival (UK), Misty Fields Festival (NL), Sideral Festival (FR) and more, touring regularly for the past 5 years.
Through his practice, Winter has worked with producers such as Tim Harvey (Aldous Harding), Jim Rindlefish (Mildlife), Jesse Williams (Grace Cummings, Leah Senior) Malcolm Besley (North East Party House) as well as organisations including Green Music Australia. Winter has also been nominated for two Music Victoria Awards with band Sunfruits and the Environmental Music Prize in 2023. Winter is passionate about creating a more equitable and regenerative music industry. Recent soundworks include sound design for Stories in the Wall animation project for Arts Centre Melbourne, and multichannel sound piece Drums in Motion for the Signal Sound commissions.
jade imagine live at Northcote Theatre 2023
Recording of ‘Move To The Trees’ Anglesea 2022
Sunfruits live at Luliepalooza 2023
Sunfruits live at The Croxton 2023
‘Move To the Trees’ by
winter mcquinn
Recorded and produced in April 2022 over one weekend by Jesse Williams (Leah Senior, Grace Cummings, Traffik Island), Move To The Trees showcases a more refined and sonically sophisticated side to Winter McQuinn’s solo music. Featuring talented musicians Jack Kinder and Lewis Mosley from Sydney band’s Hot Apple Band and Elena Jones from Sunfruits as well as Jaspar Robinson, McQuinn and co create a unique space through their artful intersections of hope and tragedy. A series of anthems for the future, settled in a post psych folk / 70s soft rock energy. Taking influence from the new-wave of 70s folk and rock influenced artists from the West Coast of the US ie Sylvie, Cut Worms, John Andrews, Anna St Louis, The Lemon Twigs and more, this album showcases a step up in songwriting and production for Winter McQuinn who’s ever evolving style and commitment to creating is inspiring and unique.
‘Rabble of bees’ by
winter mcquinn
'A Rabble Of Bees' is a collection written by Winnie McQuinn during the depths of both Covid-19 related lockdowns in 2020. These songs are centred around friendships, environment, government inaction, sacred geometry and relationships changing.
Comprising of Winter McQuinn, Evie Vlah, Elena Jones, Gene Argiro and Charlie Bowmaker, Melbourne / Naarm based psychedelic pop band Sunfruits have been making waves around Australia for the past 3 years. On their debut album One Degree which saw praise from The Guardian, Rolling Stone, NME, Shindig and more, the band presents anthemic psychedelic-pop and their most mature and conceptual songwriting to date. This album release took the band on tours across New Zealand, Australia, UK and Europe where they sold out shows in London, Hamburg, Nottingham, Melbourne and more. With their environmentally conscious, politically aware songwriting, Sunfruits showcase an impressive new-age take on psychedelia and pop rock that has seen them support bands including Grace Cummings, Mildlife, Nice Biscuit, The Lazy Eyes and appear at festivals including Manchester Psych Festival (UK), Misty Fields Festival (EU), Meadow and more. The band’s environmentally aware songwriting and actions have been praised recently as they were nominated for the prestigious Environmental Music Prize 2023 and climate fuelled lyrics were quoted in the Australian parliament by a Greens Senator. This commitment to meaningful songwriting, exhilarating live show and aesthetic brilliance put Sunfruits as one of the most exciting young bands coming out of Australia.
Website here: sunfruitsband.com
Recorded/live session work
jade imagine Drums (LIVE AND RECORDED 2022-PRESENT)
Bo Maker Production, drums, guitar, bass, percussion “The Pushover'“ album (2022-2023)
RUBY GILL Drums & Backing Vocals (LIVE AND RECORDED, 2019 - 2022)
HANNAH BLACKBURN Drums (LIVE 2021 - 2022)
IV LEAGUE Drums & Samples (LIVE AND RECORDED 2017-2019)
CANDY Drums (LIVE 2021 - present))
FEIGN JIMA Drums (LIVE AND RECORDED 2021 - present)
CONTROL PLUS ME Percussion (LIVE)
MATURE THEMES Drums & Percussion & production (RECORDED on various tracks 2022)
SUGARLAND EXPRESS Guitar (RECORDED on track ‘Party’ 2022)
MAJAK DOOR Drums & Percussion (RECORDED on track ‘Daisies’ 2018)
Zachary Leo Drums (RECORDED on track ‘Lay You Down’ 2019)
sound art / design
WARNING SIGNS A music video work 2021
STORIES IN THE WALL A soundtrack to a written story done by primary school kids, commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne 2022
DRUMS IN MOTION A multichannel drum work created with Melbourne drummers for the Signal Sound Commissions 2019