Geese have garnered attention as “Gen Z’s first great American rock band,” a label easily understood upon experiencing their sound.
This Brooklyn-based quartet, consisting of childhood friends Cameron Winter (vocals, keyboards), Emily Green (guitar), and Max Bassin (drums), alongside Dominic DiGesu (bass), initially formed during their high school years, with plans to disband before college.
However, their demo recordings unexpectedly ignited a competitive bidding war among record labels.
“I probably had the best April 2020 of anyone on Earth,” Winter remarked to GQ, referring to the numerous video calls he participated in during the initial Covid-19 lockdown.
Since 2021, the band has released three albums, but it was their latest offering, 2025’s “Getting Killed,” that truly captured widespread attention, resonating with audiences from BBC Radio 1 listeners to 6 Music enthusiasts.
“Getting Killed,” a raw and unpredictable record, emerged from a series of experimental jam sessions, meticulously recorded over a mere ten days in Los Angeles with producer Kenneth “Kenny Beats” Blume.
In this album, Geese’s sound echoes their influences—The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Suicide, The Strokes, and Radiohead—while simultaneously forging a distinctly original and innovative sonic identity.
Their songs, characterized by boundless inventiveness and musical restlessness, are anchored by Winter’s incisive and unfiltered lyrics, which dissect superficial relationships, state propaganda, and societal divisions.
Winter’s vocal delivery deftly navigates between incisiveness and irreverence, wisdom and whimsicality, providing a focal point amidst the rhythmic complexity.
“If you want me to pay my taxes / You’d better come over with a crucifix,” he defiantly chants on the lead single “Taxes.”
The music video for the track depicts the band performing amidst an ecstatic crowd of devoted fans.
Drawing inspiration from the angular sounds of fellow New Yorkers Television and Talking Heads, Geese has evolved from a School of Rock-esque after-school project to securing fourth place in Radio 1’s Sound of 2026, solidifying their status as one of the year’s most promising breakthrough acts.
Speaking with BBC News, bassist DiGesu recounts the origin of the band’s memorable, ornithologically inspired name.
“We played our first gig as a band in early 2017 with a different, very cringey name,” he explains. “After the show, we all had dinner with our families and brainstormed a bunch of random names.”
“The name Geese came from Emily’s high school nickname, Goose, and then we pluralized it to include the rest of us. It just stuck the best.”
DiGesu was the last member to join (“I joined the band before Emily even finished asking,” he recalls), and he says the first song they played together in Bassin’s basement was Tame Impala’s “Mind Mischief.”
Between 2018 and 2019, they self-released an album and two EPs, all of which have since been removed from the internet.
“We were only 15,” DiGesu says. “It’s cool to look back on, for sure, but definitely not a good representation of where and who the band is now.”
Still, the songs showed enough potential to attract the attention of several record labels.
“It was obvious how fast they were going to evolve artistically,” said Tim Putnam, who signed the band to Partisan Records in 2020, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“However, I didn’t yet understand how prolific a songwriter Cameron was, who consistently writes so far ahead of the curve.”
The band’s first “official” album, “Projector,” arrived in October 2021, establishing their raw, basement rock sound. They followed it up with the vibrant, offbeat “3D Country” in early 2023.
“Getting Killed” was recorded around this time last year, just weeks after Winter released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, “Heavy Metal.”
Released in September, “Getting Killed” propelled their career to new heights, appearing on numerous best of 2025 lists, which DiGesu, 23, describes as “pretty weird and new for us.”
He continues, “We used to be aware of basically every press [article and] post about us before it got published, and now stuff just comes out without our knowledge, and my mom sends me articles I haven’t heard of.”
Their music is rife with dread, misdirection, and dark absurdity. Winter’s metaphorical, often stream-of-consciousness lyrics capture something tangible about a world where comfort, terror, and societal decay coexist.
“I’m getting killed by a pretty good life,” he sings as the title track concludes.
Does DiGesu believe that people have embraced the music because it reflects the current state of the world?
“Yes, I think sometimes Cameron’s lyrics are so broad yet meaningful and can be applied to a lot of real-world situations and interactions you may have.”
The album may have taken less than two weeks to record, but from other interviews, you get the impression that the process wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.
“I remember it took us a little bit to get the wheels turning full speed,” DiGesu admits.
“With it being the first time we worked with [producer] Kenny, we were still figuring out how to best work with each other and where to give space and when to be more hands-on.”
Not that they didn’t have fun—in true Gen Z style—blowing off steam with frenzied Mario Party and Mario Kart tournaments on the Nintendo Switch.
“Cameron usually goes Donkey Kong,” he reveals. “Max usually goes Monty Mole. Emily will mix it up, but I know she’s a fan of Shy Guy, and in Mario Kart, she’s a huge Conkdor fan.
“I really [play] with Luigi.”
Mario aside, though, there is, he says, “rarely a time when we’re not in the middle of writing or working on something, regardless of whether it’ll see the light of day.”
His band are “still processing” what happened to them in 2025, which included an appearance in Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
“Geese is always grinding, so this [last] tour was our moment to look up and see all the new fans and old fans who are just as excited and more proud.”
“None of us are changing as people, though. We all have the same mindset and are just super excited that other people like what we like.”
They’ll be touring the world from February, arriving for a series of sold-out UK gigs in March.
“Trinidad has become a powerful live song every show,” DiGesu notes of their last album’s wild opener. “People are really excited to go crazy for it.”
“So we’ll play with that anticipation sometimes and really drag it out.”
“Cobra,” a more melodic recent single, “was hard to capture live,” he admits. “I think we’re still working [on] making it perfect.”
“It’s hard to make a beautiful song with a lot of little parts sound the same with just us five [including touring member, Sam Revaz] playing our usual instruments.”
We suggest that the lyrics to another track, “Husband,” could be interpreted as meaning that they don’t owe critics or fans any explanation for their lyrical or musical choices.
The band, who seemingly enjoy toying with journalists, playfully decline to comment.
But if we were to get one Geese lyric tattooed on us, what should it be?
“I’m trying to think of lyrics with the best imagery,” DiGesu replies. “Maybe a really small sailor on a big green boat [a reference to the track ‘Au Pays Du Cocaine’].”
“Or a goose driving a car that may or may not have a bomb in it [as heard on ‘Trinidad’].”
The Chinese zodiac may designate 2026 as the year of the horse, but we’re calling it the year of the Geese.
Additional reporting by Mark Savage.
The top five:
One act from the top five of the BBC’s Sound of 2026 will be announced on Radio 1 and BBC News each day this week, with the winner revealed on Friday.
Read more on Radio 1’s Sound Of 2026 website.