Max Winter – Candlelight feat Asha Lorenz, Rael, Will Lister

Max Winter had a busy 2025 — debut solo EP Mourning Routine on Secret Friend, touring as guitarist in Nourished By Time’s live band, and releasing his first album with his band thredd. “Candlelight” kicks off 2026 as the first single from his forthcoming mixtape like the season!, and it’s a collaboration that came together in an unusually organic way.

The track started as a beat Winter and bandmate Will Lister were passing back and forth. From there, Winter brought in Sorry frontwoman Asha Lorenz and South-East London rapper Rael separately, spending a few days with each. “They both have very unique vocals and created very distinct sections for the tune which I’ve tried to weave together”, he explains. The result is less a conventional feature track and more a collage — Lorenz and Rael occupying distinct sonic spaces that Winter stitches together rather than blending into a single mood.

Winter is a composition graduate from Trinity Laban conservatoire, which probably explains the structural thinking behind a track that could easily have felt cluttered but doesn’t. Three very different voices, one coherent piece.