South Carolina indie rock band Winyah wrestle with distance, family, ambition, and the restless ache of growing up on “Rat Race,” a roaring, road-worn anthem for anyone chasing a dream without wanting to lose sight of home.
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Stream: “Rat Race” – Winyah
“Don’t you get tired of keeping up with the Joneses? It’s okay to focus on your own shit.”
Winyah don’t waste a second getting to the point on “Rat Race.” The South Carolina five-piece’s latest single is a roaring, ragged indie rock anthem about growing up, burning out, chasing a dream, and trying to stay connected to the people you love while life keeps pulling you further from home. It’s restless and raw, full of fire and swagger – the sound of a band kicking up dust on the highway, staring down the pressure to keep moving, keep working, keep proving themselves, and still somehow keep their hearts intact.
Formed in 2023 and named after Winyah Bay – the coastal South Carolina landmark where four out of five members grew up – Winyah are Thomas Rowland, Stephen Russell, Robert Buffington Jr., Luke Gordon, and Jacob “Jake” Riley. Already one of Atwood Magazine‘s artists to watch, their music pulls straight from the source: humid nights, endless highways, small-town ache, southern grit, and the adrenaline of life on the road. Since releasing their debut album Lot to Learn last February, they’ve amassed over 25 million global streams, played major festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, sold out their first headline tour, and built a reputation for high-energy live shows that hit like release.
“We’re an indie/alternative rock band from South Carolina,” Winyah tell Atwood Magazine. “Our songs are gritty and real – full of friction, soul, and defiance – and we pride ourselves on our high-energy live shows. Winyah is more than a band name; it’s a hometown, a headspace, a heartbeat.”
Winyah is more than a band name; it’s a hometown, a headspace, a heartbeat.
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That heartbeat pounds through “Rat Race,” the first preview of Winyah’s upcoming sophomore album on Cloverdale Records.
Released in April, the track finds the band entering a heavier, more emotionally charged chapter – still fun, still fired-up, still unmistakably built for the stage, but sharpened by the ache of distance and responsibility. Where Lot to Learn captured five lives in motion, “Rat Race” feels like the moment that motion catches up with them: the dream getting bigger, the stakes getting higher, the people back home feeling farther away.
Don’t you get tired of keeping up with the Joneses
It’s okay to focus, on your own shit.
Don’t you get tired, of the picture perfect nonsense
Another destination of empty validations.
Mom’s home alone, changing up all the bedrooms.
Tellin herself she’s not confused
Makin amends with the issues
The kids are all gone, chasing after a paycheck
When they come home they talk way less,
Too much to get off their chest.
“I wrote this with my parents in mind, about my experience seeing them struggle from afar as I was in Nashville and out on the road, not able to be there with them,” lead singer Thomas Rowland shares. “It’s nostalgic – but stressed, coming from someone who’s trying their best to make it in a world of unknowns. Sonically, I wanted the tones to parallel those feelings of adrenaline, angst, stress, and worry, but with a tinge of hope and triumph. I think of this song almost like a juxtaposition between success and the struggle it requires, the sacrifices of not being able to be with the ones you love, and the viewpoint of it all from afar.”
That push-and-pull gives “Rat Race” its bite. Rowland sings about a mother home alone, changing bedrooms, making amends with old issues; a father on the phone, trying to keep a straight face; kids chasing paychecks and coming home with too much sitting unsaid in their chests. The details feel lived-in and painfully familiar, but Winyah don’t let the song sink under the weight of them. The guitars snarl, the rhythm drives, and the chorus opens wide with all the bruised, blazing urgency of a band trying to outrun guilt without losing sight of love: “It’s not that we don’t love you, we’re just dreaming, and we don’t have time to care / Running in the rat race, we’re in last place, but the love is always there.”
It’s not that we don’t love you,
we’re just dreaming,
and we don’t have time to care.
Running in the rat race,
we’re in last place,
but the love is always there.
“The chorus is… the climax or resolution to the pictures painted in the intro and verses,” the band explain. “While we’re out here grinding it out on the road, it’s hard to be there for those that we love back at home, just because we are so far away and always traveling. The second chorus kind of points towards our attempts to find the ability to be there for the ones we love, even when we’re out on the road. While we feel a responsibility to be there for our loved ones, we also feel a responsibility to keep working our tails off to provide for ourselves, the project, and ultimately our loved ones in the long run. It’s all about finding the balance, and I think the second chorus shows that we’re trying our best to figure that out!”
That’s the soul of “Rat Race”: Not escape, not abandonment, but the hard, messy attempt to hold multiple loves at once.
Love for home. Love for family. Love for the work. Love for the dream. Winyah understand that growing up often means living inside contradiction – wanting to be present while chasing something far away, wanting to build a future while missing the people who made you, wanting to slow down while the world keeps demanding speed. Their swagger doesn’t hide the vulnerability here; it amplifies it, turning anxiety into motion and guilt into a full-throttle indie rock eruption.
Dad’s on the phone, and
he’s tryna keep a straight face,
He’ll never say he’s not okay,
but it hasn’t been this bad since ’08.
Back when I was seven years old,
new xbox and a couple games,
were enough to keep me entertained,
I wish it could’ve stayed that way.
It’s not that we don’t love you,
we’re just dreaming,
but I’ll find the time to care.
Saying nothing is saying something,
I’m just hoping you know I’m well aware
If we’re running in the rat race,
we’re in last place,
but the love is always there.
“We hope that listeners hear this song and feel comfortable in their own shoes,” Winyah say. “No matter who you are, growing up is tough, especially when you’re doing new things in new places, far from those you love. We want the listeners to feel that they’re not alone in that. I think that’s what we’ve taken out of it. We’ve definitely learned a lot about the balance of home life and road life over the past few years, and I think the biggest thing we’ve taken from this song is that it is possible to be there for someone from afar, but that it takes patience, empathy, and love to figure it out! No one is perfect, and the best thing we can do for each other is to be honest and compassionate.”
“Rat Race” is Winyah in full charge – restless, radiant, road-worn, and alive with that ragged fury that makes them such a singular force in the indie rock landscape.
It’s a song about the cost of motion, but also the meaning inside it; about running hard and still remembering what you’re running for. Winyah may be in the race, but they’re not losing themselves to it. They’re carrying home with them – in the grit, in the fire, in the love that’s always there.
Atwood Magazine recently caught up with Winyah to talk about the hometown heartbeat behind their sound, the family ache at the center of “Rat Race,” and the balance they’re still learning between life on the road and love back home. Read our conversation below, and let this song be a reminder that running hard only matters when you remember what you’re running for.
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:: stream/purchase Rat Race here ::
:: connect with Winyah here ::
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Stream: “Rat Race” – Winyah
A CONVERSATION WITH WINYAH
Atwood Magazine: Winyah, for those who are just discovering you today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?
Winyah: Hi! We’re an indie/alternative rock band from South Carolina. Our songs are gritty and real – full of friction, soul, and defiance – and we pride ourselves on our high-energy live shows. Winyah is more than a band name; it’s a hometown, a headspace, a heartbeat. Formed in 2023 and named after Winyah Bay – the coastal South Carolina landmark where four out of five of us grew up – we pull our sound straight from the source: Humid nights, endless highways, and the push-and-pull of small-town life and life out on the road.
Who are some of your musical north stars at the moment, and what are you most excited about the music you're making today?
Winyah: Some musical north stars for us are: The Backseat Lovers, Wunderhorse, flipturn, Spacey Jane, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones. We’re most excited about our upcoming second album because it feels like the first project that we’ve really had a good bit of time to sit with and create as a unit. The sounds and themes are cohesive and much more mature than our first album, we think… lol. We also get so fired up to play live. We really love playing shows and seeing how our tunes connect with people in person. It’s very important to us to give the best show we can for the people who support us.
February marked the one-year anniversary of your debut album, Lot to Learn. What’s your relationship with that record and its songs, a year on from its release?
Winyah: It’s honestly crazy that it’s been a year and some change! It feels like it was yesterday, yet also 5 years ago. Time flies when you’re having fun! We absolutely love playing the first album live, especially since it has connected with more and more people around the world. It’s such a special feeling for us when we get to meet our fans where they are and have them sing and dance along, and the Lot To Learn era has been our first real taste of that!
We pull our sound straight from the source: Humid nights, endless highways, and the push-and-pull of small-town life and life out on the road.
* * *
“Don’t you get tired of keeping up with the Joneses? It’s ok to focus on your own shit,” we hear you sing at the top of “Rat Race.” What’s the story behind this song?
Winyah: Thomas here (lead singer)! I wrote this with my parents in mind, about my experience seeing them struggle from afar as I was in Nashville and out on the road, not able to be there with them. It’s nostalgic — but stressed, coming from someone who’s trying their best to make it in a world of unknowns. Sonically, I wanted the tones to parallel those feelings of adrenaline, angst, stress, and worry, but with a tinge of hope and triumph. I think of this song almost like a juxtaposition between success and the struggle it requires, the sacrifices of not being able to be with the ones you love, and the viewpoint of it all from afar.
I feel like we’re in this post-debut album period, where you’re steadily evolving beyond your first batch of songs and the next generation of Winyah is slowly revealing itself. How do you feel this track distinguishes itself from your past tracks?
Winyah: I think this track is a bit heavier emotionally and thematically than the rest of our music so far, which feels like a great transition into the rest of our next project. Fun, but serious at the same time! There’s a level of angst to it… just like there can be angst/anxiety towards growing up!
I really dig the chorus – there’s so much energy in these lines: “It’s not that we don’t love you, we’re just dreaming, and we don’t have time to care. Running in the rat race, we’re in last place, but the love is always there.” Can you share a bit about this climax?
Winyah: Absolutely! The chorus is exactly that, the climax or resolution to the pictures painted in the intro and verses. While we’re out here grinding it out on the road, it’s hard to be there for those that we love back at home, just because we are so far away and always traveling. The second chorus kind of points towards our attempts to find the ability to be there for the ones we love, even when we’re out on the road. While we feel a responsibility to be there for our loved ones, we also feel a responsibility to keep working our tails off to provide for ourselves, the project, and ultimately our loved ones in the long run. It’s all about finding the balance, and I think the second chorus shows that we’re trying our best to figure that out!
What do you hope listeners take away from this single, and what have you taken away from creating it and now putting it out?
Winyah: We hope that listeners hear this song and feel comfortable in their own shoes. No matter who you are, growing up is tough, especially when you’re doing new things in new places, far from those you love. We want the listeners to feel that they’re not alone in that. I think that’s what we’ve taken out of it. We’ve definitely learned a lot about the balance of home life and road life over the past few years, and I think the biggest thing we’ve taken from this song is that it is possible to be there for someone from afar, but that it takes patience, empathy, and love to figure it out! No one is perfect, and the best thing we can do for each other is to be honest and compassionate.
In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you would recommend to our readers?
Winyah: Ooooh, love this! There is definitely a ton of sick music out there that we’ve been listening to. Check out the band, Channel Bluff! They’re some of our buddies from South Carolina who make awesome tunes and deserve more listeners. Also, we’ve been touring with Edgehill, The Dirty Turkeys, and Cardinal Bloom recently, so we’d recommend checking them out on streaming or at a live show if they play near you anytime soon! These guys freaking rip, and are great people!
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:: stream/purchase Rat Race here ::
:: connect with Winyah here ::
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Stream: “Rat Race” – Winyah
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© Harrison Hargrave
© Harrison Hargrave
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