Kingston-based singer/songwriter Ginger Winn opens up about loss, healing, and finding her voice on her intimate and achingly raw sophomore album, ‘Freeze Frame.’

This interview was originally published in a special physical edition of Nourish in collaboration with Atwood Magazine on June 13, 2025. Dive into the physical edition of that zine and learn more about Nourish at howdoyounourish.com!

Stream: ‘Freeze Frame’ – Ginger Winn

There’s a powerful ache rippling through Ginger Winn’s sophomore album – one that lingers long after the final notes fade.

Released June 13^th via Keep Good Company Records, Freeze Frame is intimate and enchanting, heavy and wondrous: A soul-stirring collection that wears its heart on its sleeve, tender and trembling and unafraid to feel it all. Grief lives here; so does healing, and so does love. Where her 2024 debut Stop-Motion leaned into bright, sun-kissed synths, this record dives headfirst into the rawness of loss. Winn captures life in delicate moments – the kind we wish we could hold onto forever – and sets them to music that shimmers and sighs like a snowfall at midnight.

Written partially in the aftermath of her father’s sudden passing and recorded in the heart of a Cincinnati snowstorm, Freeze Frame reckons with impermanence through unflinching honesty and raw vulnerability. With the help of producer and engineer AJ Yorio and a circle of close collaborators, Winn brings her inner world to life in fourteen fragile, fervent songs. The result is a deeply human record that embraces stillness and change, presence and movement – an emotional exhale from an artist finding strength through surrender.

“Freeze Frame is the most emotional project I’ve ever made. It holds my new grief, my longing, and all the tiny moments that pulled me through,” Winn shares. “This album feels more like me, like the version of me that grew up in Charleston, surrounded by ghost stories and shadows. People always used to say I had a haunting voice, and this record leans into that… It feels like coming home.”

Now based in Kingston, NY, Winn threads a sense of place and purpose throughout her work.

Her music is as much a reflection of the landscapes she inhabits as the feelings she carries – timeless, ghostly, and grounded in truth. Freeze Frame doesn’t just showcase a songwriter in bloom; it reveals an artist willing to freeze time long enough to show us what it means to feel, to lose, and to carry on with our stories, our emotions, and our memories.

“We were just creating something real,” Winn adds. “It’s a document of everything I was feeling and going through, and it’s grounded in the people around me and the moments I wanted to hold on to.”

Read our interview with Ginger Winn below, and listen to Freeze Frame, out now!

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:: stream/purchase Freeze Frame here ::

:: connect with Ginger Winn here ::

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Watch: “Socrates” – Ginger Winn

A CONVERSATION WITH GINGER WINN

Ginger Winn: I’m a Southern girl from Charleston, South Carolina, so Charleston’s always where the story starts. Both my parents were musicians, artists, and entrepreneurs, so I guess I was bound to be all of those things too. My dad taught me ukulele when I was a baby, and my mom started teaching me guitar when I was around nine. I began writing songs at 14 or 15, dropped out of school at 16, and started doing music full time. Almost ten years later, here I am releasing album number two. It’s been a wild ride.

Winn: Stop-Motion really captured where I was at the time. I had just moved back from Cape Town and was experimenting with pop, inspired by artists like Taylor Swift who I’ve always looked up to. David Baron produced the album and has this incredible collection of vintage synths, so the sound naturally leaned pop. Looking back, those songs still mean a lot to me. They were the first I wrote with my co-writer Matthew, and they’ll always hold a special place in my set and in my heart.

Winn: I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Kingston… the landscape, the people, the community. It reminds me a bit of the South with all the trees and open space, but it’s got its own vibe too. I’ve made real friends here for the first time in a long time, and that’s impacted my happiness more than I expected. While I haven’t written a lot since moving here (because Freeze Frame was mostly written in 2022–2024), I can feel that the next batch of songs will reflect this sense of community, stability, and joy.

Winn: Most of Freeze Frame was written while I was living in Cape Town. A lot of it was co-written with Matthew, and initially it was about emotional growth and processing subtle forms of loss. But then I lost my dad, and the whole meaning of the album shifted. When we recorded in January, it had only been two months since he passed, so all that emotion ended up getting poured into the recordings. We also wrote two new songs during that time, “Freezing” and “Blizzard,” which became important anchors for the project.

Winn: Yes, completely. At first, the vision was rooted in reflection, but after my dad passed, it became much more about grief and memory. I don’t think the record would be what it is without that experience. And strangely, I think my dad would’ve loved it even more because he always gravitated toward darker music. It feels like he’s in the album.

Winn: David brought all those synth textures to Stop-Motion, which gave it that playful, pop-forward sound. For Freeze Frame, AJ, who’s more indie and mostly plays electric guitar, helped shape the more raw, intimate feel. We kept a lot of the original ideas from the demos for this album, and the process felt like two kids throwing paint at a canvas and seeing what sticks. It was very collaborative, free, and fun.

Winn: We actually came up with Freeze Frame at the same time we came up with Stop-Motion. They were always meant to be sister records. To me, Freeze Frame is about trying to hold onto moments, whether that’s through photographs, memories, or songs. But it’s also about realizing you can’t truly freeze time. You have to live in the moment and appreciate what you have while it’s still here.

Winn: This album feels more like me, like the version of me that grew up in Charleston, surrounded by ghost stories and shadows. People always used to say I had a haunting voice, and this record leans into that. Stop-Motion was me experimenting with pop. Freeze Frame is more rooted in where I come from, but it still carries some of that playful influence from the first record. It feels like coming home.

Winn: Absolutely. One of the first things I did after my dad passed was write a song. It’s how I make sense of what I’m feeling. My brother (also a writer and musician) and I wrote one together just for ourselves, and it was incredibly healing. Putting something into words and melody makes it real but also easier to hold. It’s no longer just inside you. Music has always been my way of processing life.

Winn: Those three songs are deeply tied to the themes of loss and reflection. At my shows, I always remind people to cherish the people in their lives because things can change in a heartbeat. Those songs carry that message.

Winn: “Cold Plunge” is one that stands out. It’s told from the perspective of a woman in a toxic relationship realizing she’s lost herself and that she needs to get out. It’s powerful, and the production is just really insane. AJ made some chord changes that at first I was hesitant about, but in the end, they made the song even better. It’s very collaborative and raw. My dad heard the demo and said it was the best thing I’d ever done. He would’ve loved the final version even more.

Winn: One of my favorites is from “Pants on Fire”: “I need new pants because mine are on fire / I grew up to be a really good liar.”

That one came from a place of guilt… realizing I had changed my mind in a relationship and felt like a liar because of it. Writing that line helped me process that it’s okay to change your mind. It was freeing.

I also really love “Train.” I wrote that one right after a breakup, and it’s just so raw. It’s about the realization that in a relationship, you either commit or move on. There’s no third option.

Winn: Lingering. Reflective. Raw. We weren’t trying to make a “perfect” album. We were just creating something real. It’s a document of everything I was feeling and going through, and it’s grounded in the people around me and the moments I wanted to hold on to.

Winn: I hope it reminds them to appreciate the people in their lives and the time they have together. That’s really the core of it.

Winn: That collaboration makes everything better. I’ve learned to let go of being overly precious with my ideas. This record came together because I opened myself up to other people’s input, and it turned out so much more beautiful than I could’ve made alone. It’s a reflection of the relationships that have shaped me and it’s taught me that life really is about the people you share it with.

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:: stream/purchase Freeze Frame here ::

:: connect with Ginger Winn here ::

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Watch: “Socrates” – Ginger Winn

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Freeze Frame

an album by Ginger Winn