Winter Aid releases sophomore album 'Pull The Sky Inside'

Winter Aid (aka Shane Culloty) has just released his sophomore album Pull the Sky Inside.  The album finds Culloty stretching the extremities as to what is sonically expected from a collection of Winter Aid songs, working with producers Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, The Decemberists) and Chuck Johnson (Daniel Bachman, Claire Rousay) to weave in electronic sonic strands and new percussive elements.

Pull The Sky Inside captures that sense of displacement: feeling a bit unmoored and out of place, but constantly trying to explore new scenery. It's a record with one foot in Culloty’s homeland back in Ireland, while very much a reflection of his new surroundings and making sense of everything going on around him.

Shane re-emerged with Winter Aid, but was never really out of mind, with the continued success of his very first single, “The Wisp Sings,” which has garnered well over 300 million streams across all platforms, and 3 billion posts on TikTok. 

Winter Aid new single 'Silk' released & album announcement

Shane Culloty, aka Winter Aid, has shared the first single ‘Silk’ from the upcoming album Pull the Sky Inside which we be released May 17th. An accompanying video for ‘Silk’ by Dermot Lynskey was also released.

Discussing “Silk”, Culloty offers, “This song is musically one of the happiest I've ever written, but lyrically it's bitter. It was written in response to the feeling of having made it through 2020 - which is fading in memory now, but was fresh and raw at the time - and having seen the tumult and hope and passion, and brief flames of political optimism give way to a reassertion of the status quo.

Living in the Bay Area it seemed like it was all being invented in front of me, from political rallies in Richmond to canvassing in the Mission, giving way to the summer's marches against police violence and eventually, the election. I didn't set out to write a song about that feeling, but it made its way into the album nonetheless.”  You can listen now to ‘Silk’ on all streaming platforms.

Winter Aid releases new EP 'Inner Sunset'

San Francisco-based, Irish songwriter Shane Culloty, aka Winter Aid, returns with his first new record in five years, Inner Sunset EP.   The EP follows The Wisp Sings: 10th Anniversary Edition  EP/Vinyl which included a re-release of his gorgeous song 'The Wisp Sings', which has, since its initial release, generated over 300 million streams across all platforms.

Inner Sunset is a largely instrumental affair, with the streets, sounds, and scenery of Culloty’s adopted new home inspiring the four tracks, and filtering into the recordings themselves. Two songs, ”Interlude for Shankill” and “Dusk", date back to life back home in Ireland. Throughout the EP’s six laidback tracks, these landscapes dictate the feel of material, providing both a sense of closure and a new beginning. A new Winter Aid album will be released later this year.

Google's 'Look to Speak' ad campaign features 'The Wisp Sings' by Winter Aid

Google debuted a powerful new commercial for their ‘Look to Speak’ app during the 2022 Oscars. Look to Speak, a free Android app, was built to help people use their eyes to select pre-written phrases and have them spoken aloud on a mobile device. The ad features ‘The Wisp Sings’ by Winter Aid.

Winter Aid featured in the new HBO Max series 'Genera+ion'

‘The Wisp Sings’ by Winter Aid features in the new HBO Max series ‘Genera+ion’. The series centres on high school students exploring modern sexuality, testing deeply entrenched beliefs about life, love and the nature of family in their conservative community. ‘The Wisp Sings’ features in episode 8 of the series.