In 2016, a group of high schoolers formed a band. They had no intentions of stardome, just a love for the game. They were quirky, artistic kids from Brooklyn, attending progressive school and playing in their free time. Those kids are now known as the up and coming rock band Geese.
Geese was formed by its four main members, vocalist and keys player Cameron Winter, guitarist Emily Green, drummer Max Bassin and bassist Dominic Digesu. They originally went by a different name, Opolis, playing gigs and releasing two albums in 2018 and 2019 under this name. Those have since been scrubbed from the Internet, creating a blank slate for the band’s new image — one of despair, curiosity and brilliance. The name Geese was then born, playing off of Green’s high school nickname “Goose.”
The band signed with Partisan Records in 2020, capitalizing off of the time that Covid had given them to create more of their sound. Working with Producer Tim Putnam the band dropped their first album, entitled Projector, in 2021. They also added a second guitarist, Foster Hudson, who later left the band to pursue his academic goals.
Since then, they have released three albums and two EPs, with their last album “Getting Killed,” produced in just ten days with the aid of Kenny Blume, reaching top rankings on multiple 2025 best album lists. The New York Times named the album as the best album of 2025, with pop culture music critic Lindsay Zoladz describing the art as “stingingly wise lyricism,” “hypnotic grooves” and “emboldened rawness.” She goes on to say the album marks “an arrival of a great New York band.” The breakout was almost immediate, as the band has now appeared on magazine covers, performed their music on talk shows and hosted an episode of SNL.
It begs the question, why the sudden change?
Truthfully, bands and artists blow up all of the time, but Geese’s trajectory appears to be different. Their sound is similar to the small artists that someone will tell you about once, you’ll listen and enjoy their music, but you won’t remember their name. It’s indie, underground rock music made for no one but the artists themselves. So why did this one stick?
It is not exactly something that can be answered, but the age of rock is upon us, and is emerging again with a strong foothold. Basement bands have reemerged, bands like The All-American Rejects are gaining traction again and rock is back. Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham have made new music, and people crave headbanging tracks.
The sound that Geese creates gets your attention. It’s weird, and a little off putting, with a mixture of overlapping sounds that, if put in a less creative way, would simply sound like a bad elementary school band trying to perform in a concert. But the way they are able to combine sounds with Cameron Winter’s rasp creates the perfect storm of feeling and sentiment.
As Winter described in an interview with Sun 13, “it’s a song that sounds like it’s perpetually on the verge of collapse–and yet it always manages to keep itself together. There’s a bit of chaos in all of our songs, or a sense that they could explode at any moment.” Like “____song name___,” many of their pieces contain a level of effort visible to the audience.
This is part of what Winter wants you to hear. As he shared in an interview with GQ, “I like the feeling of hearing people struggling against their own limits, like trying to break through. They go to the very tippy-top of what they think they’re capable of, and that’s why it’s beautiful.” His voice is raw, he whines, and he wails in sounds that reveal deeper layers of authenticity in the music the band creates. His sound is similar to the vocals in many old rock bands, like Radiohead and Led Zeppelin, two bands he also named as inspirations to Sun 13.
Winter is a frontman that sets the tone well for the overall symbol that the band emulates. If you were hoping to learn more about them from public appearances, you might hit a dead end. The band, especially Winter, is known to joke around in interviews, often lying for the fun of hyperbolic storytelling. They have begun to appear in more planned live media appearances, but their general demeanor remains exactly what you would hope from a rock band: sarcastic and aloof.
Trends are turning over quicker than ever, but Geese, reminiscence of old 70s and 80s rock, holds a special weight of modern rock that is here to stay. To think that we watched four kids in Brooklyn, jamming after school, skyrocket to fame. Geese has risen, and they will continue to rise as long as they maintain their authentic sound.