Winter believes in life after love on new album Adult Romantix

“I stand by falling in love and getting your heart broken,” Winter says. “I think it’s beautiful to be alive and to be able to feel and love.”

Samira Winter has been building intricate and enchanting dream-pop worlds as Winter for over a decade now as a fixture among the DIY music communities in Los Angeles and New York City. But she’s never made something as wistful-sounding as her new album Adult Romantix, due August 22 via Winspear. Written in the aftermath of her deciding to leave L.A. for New York, leaving behind 10 years worth of connections and memories, Adult Romantix is a celebration of pure, unadulterated feeling — like on lead single “Just Like a Flower,” released today, a pulsating power-pop jam that mirrors the excitement of crashing headfirst into new romance. Inspired by the Romantics movement, ’90s rom-coms, and French New Wave, the record encapsulates Winter’s philosophy: that love will always be worth it, no matter how it ends.

Brimming with wistful vocals and endless guitar distortion and collaborations with fellow tastemakers Tanukichan and Horse Jumper of Love, the new project showcases the light and dark of romance. The FADER recently sat down with Winter to talk about the philosophy behind Adult Romantix, life after love, and the delights and horrors that come with having a crush.

The FADER: You talk a lot about death in this album and how it relates to this constant search for life and love. How did that come about?

Winter: It crept up on me. It’s a more of a philosophical rambling type of conversation about death. It’s hanging out with your friend at a coffee shop, and pondering and being a little existentialist. There’s a Mary Shelley, French New Wave type of doom. It’s easier for me to express the darkness through my music than actually talk about it. It all comes from my subconscious, and daydreaming is a big part of my creative process.

Were you in love when you were writing these songs?

I realized I was out of love when I started writing. I was in denial about it and I ended up escaping through my fantasies of love. Love is a big theme; loves from the past and present, and daydreaming about future loves.

I tend to idealize and romanticize, and I was doing it a lot during this album. Some of the songs are purely about memories, but I think all of it comes from a “grain of salt” questioning. It’s wearing rose-colored glasses and escaping through the beauty and inspiration of fantasy, but then reality kicks in and you’re like, “Well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” I don’t know if I would necessarily want things to be the way my fantasies are.

Is that something that you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?

Yes, and a lot of this was toying with fantasies with crushes and how far you can go with a crush.

Crushes are so fun.

Yes. Until they’re not!

Everything changes once they become real, but I think that’s a part of life. I think I’d rather experience everything than nothing at all.

That’s exactly the sentiment. I was swimming with these ideas and allowing myself to go far with dreams and crushes and fantasies. I was picking up on the Romantics movement. Mary Shelley. Rom-coms. Éric Rohmer is this French New Wave director who did this series called Tale. Each film is a tale of a different season, so there’s a Tale of Winter, a Tale of Summer. I allowed myself to swim in these ideas of a crush until I felt the thorns. They poke you and you start bleeding that red blood. I think a lot of the Romantic movement was vouching for feeling. It’s a great thing for intuition, and for imagination, and so I definitely dove into that exaggerated teenage headspace of like, “I will do anything for love.”

I’m out of that phase now. But something I’ve heard David Lynch talk about, and I started doing, is noticing the things that are happening around you while you’re making art. I was living through those things as I was writing those songs. And I learned a lot of lessons.

What did you observe happening around you while making Adult Romantix?

I don’t wanna jinx it, but as this album has been taking shape, it’s been cool to see it bring love into the lives of the people around me. The kissing couple on the cover is Avsha Weinberg from Lowertown and Mina Walker from Daisy the Great, they were just so perfect for this; totally “Adult Romantix.” My producer fell in love when we did the [album cover] photo shoot. During the “Just Like a Flower” video shoot, one of the girls we filmed got engaged right after. I hope this album is going to bring a lot of love to people, or at least help people come to terms with old loves.

“Adult Romantix” has a specific meaning. To me, the actual term “Adult Romantix” is an early love that you had that caused an imprint in your life and your identity. Maybe it’s someone that showed you some of your favorite bands. Your “Adult Romantix” is that person that you are always going to be a little nostalgic about, that you’re always still gonna love in some way, because of how they transformed your life.

What are your feelings about love now?

I will always be a romantic at heart. Growing up in Brazil, I feel the ethics of love so much. Conversations about love in the culture are more prevalent. I was definitely raised to be very excited about falling in love. And maybe this album is that mix of when the sun hits a tree and there’s that beautiful, glowing mistiness in the air from the sunlight rays. But there’s also a shadow. I think in every love there’s always gonna be shadow, and there’s gonna be light. Surrendering to love always is my motto.

Winter fall tour dates. Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 22nd at 10am local time.

09/27 – Boston, MA @ Warehouse *
09/28 – Troy, NY @ No Fun *
09/30 – Toronto, ON @ Garrison *
10/01 – Detroit, MI @ Lager House *
10/03 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas *
10/04 – Milwaukee, WI @ X Ray *
10/05 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry *
10/07 – Denver, CO @ Lost Lake +
10/09 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court +
10/11 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza +
10/12 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi +
10/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord +
10/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo +
10/17 – San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room +
10/18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar +
10/24 – Atlanta, GA @ Altar Masquerade
10/25 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
10/26 – Washington, DC @ DC9 +
10/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse on Watts +
10/30 – New York, NY @ Zone One +
11/08 – London, UK @ Pitchfork Music Festival

* A Country Western
+ Hooky