Geese frontman Cameron Winter has responded to the backlash surrounding the band’s Saturday Night Live performance, saying the reaction “depressed the shit out of [him]”.
The Brooklyn group made their SNL debut back in January in support of their acclaimed third album, ‘Getting Killed’ (NME‘s Number One record of 2025). They delivered live rendtions of ‘Au Pays du Cocaine’ and ‘Trinidad’ from the LP.
During a new interview with Rolling Stone, Winter addressed what the publication described as “confused and hostile comments from viewers unfamiliar with Geese’s game” after their appearance on the huge US variety show.
“It really fucked me up just how hard people took it,” he replied.
“Of course, there were plenty of music-nerd people who loved it, but I felt like the reason they loved it was almost because it was sticking it to these average people who just turn on SNL after work.”
Winter continued: “It depressed the shit out of me, because that’s not what I was trying to do. It’s not like I wanted to play a fucking song in a weird time signature that’s really loud and repetitive, and then just be like, ‘Ha, ha, you don’t get it like we do’.
“That’s stupid. But a lot of what we do gets seen as that. I don’t know how to fix that.”
The frontman said it’s “hard” to balance these concerns when making new music, expressing his desire to create something unique and also accessible.
“I used to write songs with interesting, difficult almost, chords in them, and now it’s like I-IV-V until the cows come home,” he shared. “It’s actually getting worse and worse. It’s like the fucking rut is getting deeper and deeper, because then I do a ii chord, and I’m just like, ‘Ew. What are you, fucking Keith Jarrett, you piece of shit?’”
At the time of Geese’s SNL performance, The Mirror US quoted one viewer who posted on X/Twitter: “Congrats to Geese on making SNL history as the undisputed worst musical guest of all time.” Someone else said they sounded like “a stoned cover band doing a soundcheck”.
On the flip side, some fans gave kudos to Saturday Night Live for platforming more unique acts, and hailed Geese as “one of the most interesting bands to be on the show in years”. Another wrote: “One of the most interesting bands to be on the show in years.” A third said that, despite being a fan, Geese had been let down by “atrocious” sound mixing on SNL.
Elsewhere in the new Rolling Stone interview, Geese responded to the “psyop” allegations they have faced of late. They said people should “just come to the show and fucking tell them how many bots you see”.
The former NME Cover stars recently made appearances at Reading & Leeds and Electric Picnic, and topped the bill at End Of The Road. They also played two headline shows in Glasgow last month (where they paid tribute to Dolly Parton), ahead of a two-night billing at London’s Troxy.
NME gave Geese’s set at Reading a four-star review, writing: “This isn’t quite as incendiary a show as Geese’s last UK date at the Eventim Apollo back in March, though it has its own punch-drunk charm, with the band sounding more settled into the material. After all, as the kids going nuts in the circle pit prove, they’re preaching to the converted.”
The band are touring across North America this autumn. See the full list of dates and find any remaining tickets here.
In other news, Cameron Winter is set to release his first live album and concert film – directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – capturing his solo gig at Carnegie Hall.
