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It\u2019s midway through my conversation with London-based pop artist Jessica Winter, and I\u2019m laughing. We\u2019re talking over Zoom on a sunny afternoon, informing me that her rider at her recent headline show at The Divine in Dalston consisted of limp salad leaves and a single ginger and lemon teabag. No disrespect to the venue, mind you, this was at her insistence. \u201cI don’t know what I was thinking,\u201d she admits. \u201cI must have been on a health kick.\u201d She promises to amp up the rockstar vibe with ten bottles of whiskey next time, neither of us is sure how well that would pair with wilted lettuce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Booked to headline the GAY TIMES stage at XOYO for SXSW London on June 6th, lead performer Jessica Winter is well acquainted with the LGBTQ+ scene in the capital. Often gracing the floors of Dalston Superstore and nearby venues with her inebriated presence, she has quite literally been raised with the gays through her family. Her brother Joshua is currently on a mission to make Soho nightlife queer and sexy again through the bougie <\/span>Hotel @ 49A<\/span><\/i> club night. Winter lent her musical talents for the launch night, welcoming in the new party with an opening DJ set, promoted by an incredible image of her flexing her guns in a fishnet catsuit. She is torn between Divine and Judy Garland as her favourite notable icon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Growing up on Hayling Island off the shores of Portsmouth, Winter spent a lot of her early childhood strapped to a piano as a result of her hip dysplasia. \u201cI had this bar back and my legs were in the splits,\u201d she says of her earliest memory. \u201cMy Mum would put me on the piano stool because my legs could poke out on either side, and I’d be safe. And I used to play on that for ages, and I just remember loving it: like I was only two.\u201d She didn\u2019t start singing until she was 11 or 12. \u201cI never really considered myself a singer at all,\u201d Winter explains, only properly writing when she finally had something to say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Also hailing from Hayling is her musical collaborator, Alex Sebley, a former member of The Saudis whose musical career bubbles around the fringes of Fat White Family. The two met by chance years later in London, forming the eccentric indie disco band PREGOBLIN but friction arose around the time the debut single Combustion was released in 2018. I\u2019d surprisingly met Winter for a brief moment around this time, my ex was a bassist in the band and living with Sebley throughout our breakup. I remember a table full of collaged scraps of paper, including images of Winter assembled as they were making a DIY scrapbook video for that first track. Speaking to her now feels cathartic, being on the other side of that strange era.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p> Winter has notably produced for artists including Jazmin Bean, The Horrors, The Big Moon, Phoebe Green, Fat White Family, Walt Disco, Sundara Karma, Brodka, Lauren Auder, Solv, The Moonlandingz, and has toured with Rebecca Black and Death Grips separately. On July 11th, Winter is excited to drop her first debut album, cheekily titled My First Album<\/em>, with a UK tour starting with a performance at Rough Trade East. Inside, thirteen pop tracks tell the story of Winter finding herself through a series of personal anecdotes. She tells me that working on her solo material has been fun but stressful. \u201cIt\u2019s 100% me and I freak out about that sometimes, but it\u2019s not like I can give it up because it\u2019s a therapy and how I heal my wounds.\u201d There\u2019s no way around being authentically an artist without being truly seen.<\/p>\n In an age where AI music infiltrates streaming services like a mechanical cancer, the music itself feels rich and nostalgic, like razzing it down the motorway on a sunny Friday afternoon with the top down (and, optionally: your top off) after making a life-changing realisation. Playing with sounds in a very textural way, there are slices of Scissor Scissors, grunge, and Kylie Minogue. Each track has a personality and soul. \u201cI wanted to make it much warmer and more analogue,\u201d she explains about the production process, trying to capture the raw feeling of when she would listen to noughties pop as a youngster.<\/p>\n \u201cI was making sure that everything I did was trying to use as many real instruments as possible, taking it out of the laptop and putting it through vintage equipment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Emotion builds as the songs progress, peeling back layers until you find the heart of the person beneath. Already released from the album is her music video for the track ‘Wannabe’, where you watch Winter metamorphose into the misunderstood 90s goth icon Edward Scissorhands. It\u2019s the scene where he\u2019s outside awkwardly fingering the hairstyles of various older lady neighbours with his namesake appendages into something entirely new. In Winter\u2019s rendition, the models are styled into clones of her until the end, where she finally breaks free of creating the same style over and over again, becoming a bleach blonde babe in the process. It\u2019s fitting to the lyrics, where an unhealthy habit of self-comparison through social media is revealed. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to find out who you are, or you lose yourself,\u201d she affirms. \u201cComparison is a mirror, not a truth.\u201d This is especially true in the music industry, where mental health struggles amongst artists are infamously rife.<\/p>\n Winter relates to the misfit essence of Edward Scissorhands and how he doesn\u2019t fit in. \u201cHe wants to be liked and loved, and kind of just tries, but when he tries, he cuts people’s faces,\u201d she explains. \u201cSometimes when you’re trying, it just goes wrong. A lot of people can feel like an alien sometimes, it’s just good to remember that you are just equal to any other human being on this earth.\u201d It\u2019s directed by Roger Spy, the multimedia artist and musician. \u201cHe can sing, he can dance, he can direct,\u201d Winter appraises. \u201cHe is the next Michael Jackson, if not Michael Jackson incarnated,\u201d she quips, although the timeline of this reincarnation is questionable. It transpires that Spy has directed two more of her upcoming videos, in one, she\u2019s screaming atop a cliff in Wales, which will also be revealed on the album launch release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p> Lyrically, ‘Wannabe’ touches on the feeling of self-comparison on social media and using outside distractions to avoid yourself. \u201cIt\u2019s that comparing and despairing, seeing other artists doing way better than you or seeming more confident, but I\u2019m sure they\u2019re all going through the same,\u201d she describes. \u201cWhen you\u2019re comparing yourself to someone, you\u2019re not seeing them, you\u2019re seeing your insecurities reflected,\u201d but she has a tip to trick your brain into doing the opposite when you notice that happening. \u201cWrite it down and then write the opposite statement: one of compassion, not punishment. Do it every time and collect them in a jar. When the jar is full\u2026 burn them and let all those negative thoughts disintegrate into thin air!\u201d<\/p>\n Winter notes her current internet fixation involves an adorable combo of cute kittens and mini dachshund puppies, a blessed algorithm if there ever was one. \u201cSometimes I have to throw my phone across the room to get it out of my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Avoidance can be achieved through anything and everything. In one of the upcoming tracks, I See The Robin, Winter averts her attention from the present moment by looking for signs. I recalled my past superstition of robin sightings as a sign from my deceased Granddad, and she said the same. How many Granddads could one local red-breasted bird be symbolic of in one area? \u201cIs it serendipity, or is it a coincidence?\u201d she asks, perhaps seeing 1111 everywhere is only indicative of habitually looking at your screen at 11:11 each day. \u201cI think sometimes it’s a bit poisonous to be living in this fantasy land, because again, you’re believing this narrative in your head and you’re not being in the present moment, which is better. Usually.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s an equally gothic undertone across her entire discography, in part due to her relationship to metal and rock music as a teen. She was part of the punk scene in Portsmouth and adored the fashion, the music and the ethos. \u201cIt shaped me and I think it will always be a part of me, no matter what music or clothes I wear.\u201d Before the interview, I had been tipped off that she was partial to Epic by Faith No More. \u201cI got a top badge for that on Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I love about pop music is you can be as extreme as you want to be in three minutes, seeing how far you can push certain structures and boundaries,\u201d Winter explains. \u201cWhat I love about rock bangers is that it’s dramatic, you can hear that in my music. Punk music has theater and drama, I love all of that. It’s where I’ve come from. My whole family is very dramatic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/JW_GT_RT_3R8A3642-scaled-e1752784308329.jpg\")
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