Wynter are a rising force from Florida’s underground, built by musicians who came together with a clear vision for heavy metal shaped by imagination, atmosphere and intent. Their early tracks have already marked out a band with character and conviction, and their growing live presence hints at a world they are only beginning to reveal. This conversation looks at how that world began and where Wynter plan to take it next.
Interview
TheNwothm: To start us off, could you tell us who Wynter are and introduce the members?
W: Wynter is Ari Dan – Vocals, Neil Sackman – Guitar, Erik Grieser – Bass, Zach Lukers – Drums
TheNwothm: You’ve each spent years playing in different projects, so what was the moment when Wynter stopped being an idea and became the band you knew you wanted to build together?
W: I (Erik) had been playing with another band, Palafoxx (80’s Hair), for years and had some decent success before other members lost interest and the band separated. So I was without a band for a few years around COVID, which was a tough time for all bands. I met Neil at some of our shows. I was like, ” This dude is sick! Looked like he was from 1986, straight from a time machine! Neil was playing in a punk metal crossover band at the time, Rezolve. They were pretty raw and nasty in a good way. They had some issues too and went their separate ways.
Neil had been trying to get me to start something for almost a whole year, but I was going through some shit. Finally, at a vinyl record store day, we ran into each other, and Neil told some people we were in a band together. So I was like, yeah f*ck it, guess we are. We jammed for about 6 months, just Neil and me, until we found a drummer and vocalist. We later had to replace both. When Ari joined, that was the moment we knew “Hell yeah, let’s f*cking do this.” The final piece was Zach on drums. He solidified the group, and we couldn’t have asked for a better lineup! Only took 2 years.
TheNwothm: Your name carries a certain atmosphere before anyone even hears a note. What drew you to the name Wynter, and what did you want it to signal about the world you were creating?
W: (Neil) The name is a funny story. A friend of mine’s daughter’s middle name is Wynter with a “Y”. I don’t remember what it was exactly, but I saw it in a text and realized it looked very heavy with almost all the letters being straight lines, especially the W and the Y next to each other. Then we go and make the logo all curves ( go figure lol ). There’s also an irony in a Florida band calling themselves Wynter. We’d like to give a shoutout to ThrashWolf for creating our logo. He’s very talented and a solid friend.
TheNwothm: Pensacola isn’t the first place people think of when they picture dark, theatrical heavy metal. How has your city or local scene shaped your attitude, your work ethic or even the stories you choose to tell?
W: (Ari) I actually feel that my community has oppositely impacted my writing than one would think. I grew up in a small conservative town in Ohio. I never felt a real sense of belonging, and I’ve always been drawn towards writing where I can create my own reality. Themes of magic and fantasy have always been an escape for me.
(Erik) Pensacola, to me, has had scenes come and go. We are a beach town with a navy base. So many types of music are melding together. Mostly white-boy reggae and hardcore bands. I personally always wished more bands were doing traditional rock and heavy metal that weren’t someone’s dad in a cover band on the beach. I wanted original shit. I grew up with Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and Judas Priest. I was like, if there are no bands like that here, I’m gonna create my own. Finding the people was hard, but we have the right people now, and more kids around here are getting into traditional heavy metal, which is sick.
(Neil) We’re definitely filling a void. There have been a few theatrical groups, but none playing proper heavy metal, really. Erik and I have been playing in bands for over a decade, and we have gone through our fair share of trials and tribulations trying to find the right group of people here compared to some cities where heavy metal is more in vogue, but I think it pushes us to be a better band and take what we do more seriously.
TheNwothm: Each of you brings a different musical background to the table. What’s one influence from your past that people might not expect to find woven into Wynter’s sound?
W: (Erik) I have played many different genres of music, from hardcore to pop, metalcore to weird shit. My grandfather was a jazz musician who played the saxophone in the USMC band and introduced me to Bossa Nova. I think bands like Sabbath, particularly Geezer, had a lot of jazz influence when writing bass lines. You can hear a sprinkle of that from time to time on the bass for Wynter.
(Neil) I love NWOBHM as much as anyone, but a major influence for me is early glitter rock like Slade, Sweet, Quo, Skyhooks, obviously KISS, and Alice. The hooks they created and the way they structured chord progressions were simple but extremely powerful, and some of the greatest riffs and choruses ever created. Early progressive rock for its creativity, and of course, The Who and Hendrix. Metal has come such a long way in its extremity that the influence of someone like Jimi Hendrix or The Kinks gets forgotten, and I think that’s a shame.
You draw from the giants of classic metal, but there’s a whole wave of new bands pushing heavy music forward. Are there any younger acts you’ve been excited about recently?
W: (Ari) As far as new bands go, Zach completely put me onto Crown Lands. I love their commitment to storytelling and ethereal rock sound. Their newest album has only three songs out now, and I’ve had them on repeat.
(Erik) I will have to agree on the Crown Lands band too! They f*cking sick. I would like to add a few others that I really like that are newer. I have been jamming the f*ck out of some Midnight Vice from Tampa. They kill it with the riffs, high vocals, and fellow Floridians. Time Rift from Portland, and Sabire from Norway, with a W.A.S.P. vibe.
(Neil) Antagonizor for sure, they are the band flying the flag for true heavy metal in the south, along with Chariots Overdrive from Atlanta. Internationally, I love Ice War and Living Evil from Canada. Phantom and Black Mask from Mexico, and I especially love Visteria’s brutal 2025 demo from Poland.
TheNwothm: Your first two tracks, “Black Widow” and “Silver Star”, arrived in March. When you look back at releasing those songs into the world, what stands out to you about what you wanted to share at that moment?
W: So originally, the plan to record the songs started as a hunt for a drummer. We had a drummer playing with us who agreed to help us along and record with us to help find missing members for the band, as he was moving away and couldn’t play with us full-time. We found a drummer because of him. Now we have Zach, who is f*cking awesome. Looking back, it was great to be back in the studio again this time with Wynter. It was essential to get those tracks out so people could put a sound with the name and help us get more shows. We wanted to let people know that this part of Florida has some solid heavy metal, and we are here to stay! We have something good here; it felt like we could take on the world, doing something different and fresh in a beach town filled with cover bands and tourist traps.
TheNwothm: What can you tell us about each of the songs both musically and lyrically?
W: Black Widow (Erik) Neil came to me with this song he had written forever ago, I believe. I really dug it and already started hearing vocal melodies and lyrics right away. We had these songs before our singer Ari joined us, so I was working on them. Our songs reflect stories mostly, and for this one, I had a post-apocalyptic space wasteland vibe. On some almost space version of Mad Max-style society planet, there was a Han Solo-type character in trouble with the local crime lords. To collect what was owed, they sent out this almost mystical demon/mystical woman that was ruthless and seductive. Known as Black Widow. Basically, when you hear Black Widow was after you, you knew you were screwed. She doesn’t take money; she collects your soul!
(Neil) The main riff in the track is something that I’ve had for years. It just sort of comes organically when I pick up a guitar and play. It’s a good way to practice alternating between strings. The rhythm of the verses and the ending solo were actually directly inspired by Big Fat Mama by Status Quo. Lyically its very loosely inspired by the anime Wicked City, specifically the spider woman, and the middle section I wanted something dark and eerie juxtaposed to how “fun and bouncy” the rest of the song is, coming from really dark subject matter. It’s one of those instances where everything fell into place naturally.
Silver Star (Erik), I had this Coheed and Cambria-style (great bass player, btw) bass riff forever that I wanted to use in something, and I couldn’t figure it out for almost 6 months. Eventually, I was listening to some Dio, driving home late one night from a family function, and had some vocal melodies in my head that reminded me of Dio off the Sacred Heart album, which, oddly, wasn’t the Dio I was listening to in the car. Anyway, then I had some lyrics coming to me. This is one of our only songs not about some fantasy story, but rather for a very close friend of mine, basically a brother who had passed away years ago.
The lyrics speak of loss and remembrance, but in a cosmic way, tying him to a star shooting across the galaxy, off past the known realms of space, on to his next adventure beyond. The stuff my friend who passed was into. With lyrics and melodies figured out, I wrote the song around it, with the bass part. I didn’t know what to do with fitting in nicely. The bridge part was inspired by fuzzy 70s bands with a kiss of Iron Maiden. Neil ripped a f*cking nasty solo/lead line during the end of the song that he actually wrote too hard for anyone to play without a giant hand on the fretboard. It’s a killer song that has that catchy feel. When Ari came on board, she took the melodies I had and took them to new heights, delivering a powerful song to last the ages!
TheNwothm: How did you approach recording the songs and who was the team behind them?
W: Recording the songs was a small challenge at first. Pensacola isn’t exactly known for having a lot of studios willing to work with bands like us that don’t charge way too much money. We were broke as f*ck and looking to do something with good quality and a decent budget, and later do something better down the road with someone who would actually enjoy recording our style.
Randomly, I remembered a friend of mine who used to work with me at a bar who posted something about finishing a music production degree and just got back from her internship in Austin. What’s crazy is I never even knew she was into music when working with her. So I hit her up about it. She was working out of a local studio that was mostly used for podcasts. They had a few country people and mostly rappers, but nothing like us. We figured we’d give it a go. She was very passionate about it and was super easy to work with.
We wanted to track with real amps and do things as analog as we could. So we brought in a Marshall cab with Vintage 30’s and a JCM 800. All the effects were pedals we played on live. We wanted people to hear the real amps, not just some digital plug-in void of any warmth and character. We used an Orange Rockerverb 50-watt on some of the bridge leads. Bass was an Ampeg SVT with a bit of chorus.
For the space wizard parts, I had a phaser and fuzz pedal. The drums were an older kit that had seen better days, but came out sounding decent. This was the fill-in drummer I spoke of earlier, before Zach joined the band. His kit is some sick 70s Ludwig kit you will hear on our full-length. Vocally, Ari f*cking crushed it! She recorded her first take and sounded great, but she was feeling under the weather and didn’t sound quite how she wanted it to sound.
We waited until she felt better and came back to re-track her vocals and backing vocals. She was able to get the vocals down how she wanted them on the second go. She’s no slouch; there’s no autotune used. It’s called singing, and she can f*ckin wail. The EP was recorded with Holly Whittemore with Creatures Baricades out of Fresco Studios here in Pensacola, Florida. She’s f*cking great!
TheNwothm: Your live show is full scale spectacle. What part of that stage world feels the most personal to you, the thing that makes you think yes, this is who we are?
W: So, as of now, we have been fortunate enough to have good friends doing the lights at the shows, including a friend doing some projection during our set. These things are not permanent, so we have to work on building our own setup. That is currently underway. Our goal is to have more lights and maybe even a laser. Lights aside, having swords and dressing up as a werewolf have been super fun. We want more, though, and will continue to add to our stage show once we have some more funds to make more props and other fun stuff.
TheNwothm: Your live show seems like a world of its own. What’s the most memorable reaction you’ve had from an audience so far?
W: The werewolf costume we bust out sometimes always has people super pumped. We even have the claws and feet. We’d love to add more. There are talks of an executioner with an axe in the future. We’d like to add some mystic fog and some sort of legal explosions. That would be super rad.
TheNwothm: Are there plans to take Wynter further afield, whether across the States or overseas? Any dream cities or festivals you’d love to bring the swords and fire to?
W: Yes, most definitely! You know bands have to start at the beginning at some point in time. Although we are a new band, this isn’t our first time around. We definitely are trying to do some heavy touring in the future, at least what we can afford in today’s world. Start with some weekend runs monthly and a few week regional tours a few times a year. We are 100% trying to get overseas, hopefully by next summer if it’s possible. We’d love to play Keep It True, Up the Hammers, Master of Rock, and Headbangers Open Air, to name a few, which would be incredible. Here in the States, it would be a dream to play Hell’s Heroes! So many of our friends have already played! Let’s f*cking go! If we ever get to Japan, we will lose our shit!
TheNwothm: What shows do you have coming up for 2026?
W: Well, we are currently working on buying a van, an old church bus, or an RV of some type so we can hit the road a lot easier than renting. Neil and Ari’s husband is a wiz with any kind of vehicle, so maintaining them would be a lot easier. Also, the f*cking gas prices are making things really irritating. Show-wise, we try to stay busy with at least two shows a month, more once we get the van. We have a date with Haunt and Show n Tell coming up in June, as well as a show possible with Pentagram, which would be epic.
In July, we are doing a weekend run. Hitting up Gainesville with Antagonizor and Stunner, then on to Orlando and the Tampa area, we also have New Orleans, Lafayette, and something in Mobile. There are talks of a full East Coast tour in the fall. Also, hitting the studio for a full-length at some point in time in the latter part of the year. Gearing up for a busy 2027, hopefully with a full-length out and a U.S. tour, possibly even Europe if the cards align.
Then: Now you have two new tracks out, what is next musically?
W: As stated briefly in the previous question, the EP was just a taste, but we have some killer songs you can only hear live at the moment that will be going on our first full-length. Really just trying to hammer those down and see what we want to put on the record. Hopefully, we can get picked up by some sort of label to help with that release. Our work ethic is insane, though. If we have to do it ourselves, we will, but our stuff is great, and we believe in it with our metal hearts.
A lyric I have always loved from Ronnie James Dio, “ Whenever we dream, that’s when we fly,” has always been an important aspect; we even have it on our EPK. Just stay at it and press forward, and rest will fall into place. Being in a band isn’t easy these days, but we have music that people need to hear, and we think people will enjoy and relate to it! Heavy Metal is Forever!
When you think about Wynter a few years from now, what do you hope people will say about the world you’ve created?
W: We would love Wynter to be a common name amongst metal heads and rock n rollers everywhere. Hopefully, be on a few of the fests regularly and touring quite often. We just hope people will be digging our music and live shows. Live shows i’d love to be more of a spectacle by then, to where you’re not just watching a band, you’re part of the show in the crowd and feel fully encompassed and almost entranced by some wild fantasy tale where, for a moment in time, you can forget about the bullshit and state of the world and just feel the power of music and storytelling.
I feel that True Heavy Metal and Rock and Roll can make a comeback here in the States, the younger generation seems to be about it, and that’s something we look forward to. We also want to show that women belong in heavy metal, too! There are a lot of badass female front groups out there, and we are all about it!
TheNwothm: How can our readers buy your music, merch and follow you online?
W: We have our music literally out everywhere on everything. You can find our Link Tree links at the top of our Instagram, which will direct you to anything and all things Wynter. This will also be where the merch store will be by the middle of summer, most likely. You can also purchase our “ Black Widow” EP on our Bandcamp, which is also accessible through our Link Tree. You can follow us on Instagram at wynter_officialmusic. Wynter
TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?
W: If you are a musician, a kid, an old man, or even an old lady, if you have a dream, then follow it and never stop believing in yourself. It’s never too late to achieve greatness in your life. Pick up a guitar, bass, drums, mic, ukulele, or even a kazoo and make music! It’s honestly the only thing that helps us make it through to the next day. Turn that amp up to 11, piss off the neighbours, live the way you want, and never look back, and just like the Man on the Silver Mountain says, “Whenever We Dream, That’s When We Fly”!
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