Kip Winger

Kip Winger

Kip Winger is a musician and songwriter from Denver, United States, best known as the frontman and bassist of Winger and as a solo artist. His work sits mainly in rock, with a melodic hard rock and melodic metal emphasis in his band career and a later solo direction that also includes acoustic material.

Winger

In the mid-1980s, Winger plays bass in Alice Cooper’s band before forming Winger with guitarist Reb Beach, keyboardist and guitarist Paul Taylor, and drummer Rod Morgenstein, who has previously played with Dixie Dregs. The band takes its name from him. Winger’s early sound draws on hard rock and melodic metal, with influences from bands such as Van Halen, AC/DC and Whitesnake.

The group’s self-titled debut album appears in 1988 and sells over a million copies, driven by singles including “Seventeen” and “Headed for a Heartbreak”. The follow-up, In the Heart of the Young from 1990, continues that success, also selling over a million copies and featuring “Miles Away”. The band’s third album, Pull, appears in 1993 and is described as critically acclaimed, but the group does not continue long after the backlash against pop-metal in the early 1990s.

Solo work and later projects

After Winger goes their separate ways, he pursues a solo career and begins writing in a different style from his earlier band work. His first solo album, Thisconversationseemslikeadream, appears in 1997 and reflects a more expansive approach to songwriting, with a sound closer to Peter Gabriel than to 1980s hard rock. He follows it with the acoustic album Down Incognito in 1999 and then Songs from the Ocean Floor in 2000, which receives strong critical praise.

He also works on film music, sings for Alan Parsons, and takes part in a Winger reunion in 2006 that leads to the album IV and a world tour. His later solo album From the Moon to the Sun includes a broad mix of rock, pop and acoustic tracks, and features contributions from Rod Morgenstein and Ken Mary on drums, Andy Timmons and Rob Eberhard Young on guitar, Alan Pasqua on piano, and Cenk Eroglu on songwriting, keyboards and guitars.

Associated acts

His other associated act is Blackwood Creek.