Winefred RT

As sunlight pushed weakly through low February clouds on a Chicago afternoon, an empty bag scraped along the concrete, landing at the feet of songwriter Winefred RT. RT, who had just moved to Chicago, described that winter as the “loneliest time of [her] life”. “I felt like I was that bag,” she says, “surrounded by all these people in the city, unable to touch them.” It was in this time that RT wrote much of Anything Better To Do, her first full-length album, a collection of 10 songs that wrestle with the question of responsibility amidst pain.  RT’s previous releases, including 2024’s sprawling single Cheri, God, Online, brought growing attention to the Chicago-based songwriter, striking a chord with fans online and earning further praise from local press, with City Cast Chicago likening her to “early Jason Molina…[or] a Gen Z Lisa Loeb”. While early work — including 2024’s live EP Live at Rat Future — shares a bedroom-recorded “intimate, homespun folk storytelling” ethos, RT’s new album features “distorted guitars and a fuller, more deliberately constructed sound” [The Deli]. In her debut album, RT turns her wry, humanist lens to the mirror. “If it’s easy,” RT sings drily in the fuzz-drenched mid-record earworm That’s My Baby, “then why don’t I have it?” Anything Better To Do releases via Wet Newspaper on October 21, 2026. Written by Marcia DeClemente Photos by Omar Canizales @/just.omar.jpg