Winter Sect have discovered one of goth’s better-kept secrets: graveyards can be funny places. Not funny in the sitcom sense, unless your sitcom happens to involve velvet sleeves, low fog, marble angels, and a bass player turning cemetery dirt into a dance floor, but funny in the grand old rock-and-roll sense that the concept of memento mori has always looked a little less terrifying once somebody places a wreath of backbeat on the coffin.
Made up of Sister Ex alumna Claudia Neuman on bass and vocals, guitarist Anthony Piazza, keyboardist and vocalist Heather Wayward, and drummer Darryl J. Dardenne, the DC/Baltimore group have previously favored the colder end of Gothic psychedelia and glam rock. Graveyard Girl, however, loosens the corset. Funk, garage rock, indie pop and even bossa nova slip into the bloodstream, bringing a loose, easy groove beneath the song’s ’60s pop whimsy while the band keeps one boot planted firmly in post-punk soil.
Neuman’s bass is responsible for the initial crime, strutting around with the casual confidence of someone who has found the liquor cabinet during a wake. Wayward’s keyboards add splashes of color around Piazza’s guitar, while Dardenne keeps the song moving with a lightness that gives its cemetery imagery room to grin. The melody has the cheeky charm of a vintage pop single, its tuneful bounce making the invitation to wander among the graves sound suspiciously like a proposition for a Sunday afternoon date. Siouxsie and the Banshees, March Violets, Strange Boutique and more hover somewhere in the family tree, although Winter Sect sound especially amused by the possibilities of their own material here.
According to Wayward, that playful turn happened almost accidentally during rehearsal: “The song pretty much started with Claudia grooving out on a bass line,” she says. “It was catchy and I thought let’s do something completely different and not so serious and macabre. First the hook was discovered and we built from there. So with that funk of a groove my mind started walking. Where? Through the graveyard of course. It came together in a cool way and a little twist at the end just makes it fun.”
That sense of fun carries into the video, which sends the band wandering through the necropolis in slow motion among candles, veils and fog. Somebody communes with the departed, everybody looks appropriately dressed for the occasion, and the solemn machinery of Gothic imagery gains a sly little wink. You half expect one of the headstones to start keeping time.
Watch the video for Graveyard Girl below:
Winter Sect began in late 2023 when California native Neuman and Piazza formed the project around feedback-heavy goth, New Wave, industrial and psychedelic influences. Mystic Twin and Haunted House followed in 2024, with Say Goodbye appearing in 2026.
Graveyard Girl, taken from the forthcoming EP Offering, suggests Winter Sect have figured out that darkness becomes far more interesting when somebody remembers to leave room for mischief and a tune you can hum on the way home.
Listen to Graveyard Girl below and order the single here.
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