“In my mind I’m more country and he’s more punk rock, and we put that together in our originals,” said Danielle Reid. The Union City resident plays banjo and sings in the duo Red Winter, while her partner, Itai Winter, plays guitar and sings.
Together they have been playing locally for about a year, building up a devoted following and releasing a couple of songs and a video. They refer to their deeply affecting music as modern folk.
“Once you have a banjo everybody is going to label you bluegrass or folk and we’re clearly not bluegrass,” said Reid. “We’re using the traditional instruments, banjo and guitar, and a lot of harmonies.”
Live, the band plays both originals and covers of songs by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, and Iggy Azalea, giving the tunes a drastic makeover to fit their instrumentation. Their stripped-down, visceral sound displays a host of influences and precedents, from Woody Guthrie to The Clash to Mumford and Sons, while sounding like nothing but Red Winter.
“I don’t know if I’m being southern here,” said Florida native Reid. “I’m a black woman playing the banjo and Itai is Israeli and we’re playing together and that attracts people to us. Music is for everybody and it’s a perfect place to go out of the boundaries, making R&B sound like reggae or more country.”
Slow, sad songs
At 27, Reid has been singing and playing guitar since she was a tyke. “I’ve always been writing. I remember having a family reunion when I was 10 and writing a song about love. They didn’t like it,” she said with a laugh. “I was too young for love then.”
A former resident of Queens, she haunted clubs there and in Manhattan playing open mic nights and singing contests. It was for a gig at a local restaurant last September that she sought out a backing guitarist on Craigslist so she wouldn’t have to accompany herself for a three-hour set.
Itai fit the bill, and the two hit it off, both personally and musically. “We really loved jamming together,” said Reid. “It just evolved into something. We would jam, and the jam would become an actual song.”
“When we write it’s from the subconscious.” –Danielle Reid
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Their song “Troubled Man” is about “adultery and lust,” according to Reid. Asked how the band’s lyrical content fits into the folk music tradition of politically conscious music and social protest, Reid demurred, saying, “We talked about the goal of our music and we just want to be honest to ourselves. When we write it’s from the subconscious.”
Friends who heard their living room jams encouraged the duo to develop their act, and Red Winter was born, combining their last names. They recorded a few songs with producer Craig Levy in Brooklyn, using sparse live and looped percussion. For now, there are no plans to add a drummer.
“We like the dynamic,” said Reid. “Introducing a new person would just be more work than necessary.”
Punk influence
Itai, 25, played in a punk band in Israel. “He’s traveled around Southeast Asia,” said Reid. “He’s very comfortable with singing on the streets and everywhere. Itai’s a really good rock singer. In the recordings we didn’t get to highlight that. I don’t mean aggressive; I mean a certain timbre in vocals that you find in punk when they’re singing. It’s more a talking voice. When someone sings country there’s a twang. That’s different from how they sing punk rock.”
The punk influence comes out more in their radically reimagined covers, according to Reid, but they’ll be sticking to originals in the studio for the foreseeable future.
“If money wasn’t an option I’d love to do our covers,” she said. “But recording costs money and we’d rather use our money on originals.”
Soon they’ll be recording an additional four songs. It’s been a whirlwind year for the duo, both musically and personally. Reid, who first picked up the banjo in November of 2013, got married in January and moved to Union City about six months ago.
Itai plans to study music production. “Either at Berklee or some school in the boondocks of Florida,” said Reid. “I’m hoping Berklee.”
For now, they continue to play frequently in New York, spreading a remarkably confident and cohesive vision, given their dramatically different upbringings.
“With the Internet I feel that a lot of youth no matter where they are have similar experiences,” said Reid. “Sometimes when you meet people from different cultures you don’t know if they’re going to get your pop references, but I grew up listening to punk rock and so did he.”
Red Winter can be heard at https://www.facebook.com/redwinterband and on YouTube, Instagram, and ReverbNation.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.