Winter Severity Index

Winter Severity Index is a cold wave/post punk project headed by Simona Ferrucci, singer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist (voice, guitar, bass guitar, synths and drum machine programming). The project was born in 2009 as a traditional band with drums, bass, synths and voice/guitar.

After the decision of two members of the band to leave the project (Diana Salzo on bass and Valeria Tirabassi on drums), WSI continued as a duo with Simona on voice and guitars and Valentina Fanigliulo (a.k.a. Mushy/Phantom Love) on synths. Then in 2012 Simona started a long and fruitful collaboration with Alessandra Romeo on synths, which ended in July 2024.

In November 2025 Simona joined again the first line up (Diana Salzo on bass, Valeria Tirabassi on drums and Valentina Fanigliulo on synths) for some reunion gigs to celebrate fifteen years of live activity, reissuing the first EP in vinyl version.

The music of Winter Severity Index is marked out by an original mixture of different influences, from cold wave/post punk of the Eighties to the guitar shoegaze sound of the Nineties, plus some hint of trip hop and electronics. During the years the sound evolved and enriched their features, preserving however a strong dark mood and the presence of the fascinating and expressive contralto voice of Simona Ferrucci.

From 2011 the project played in more than one hundred venues all over Europe and USA, taking part to important festival such as the Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig and Substance Festival in Los Angeles, and performed in important locations for contemporary art, such as MAXXI Museum in Rome and Studio Hrdinů in Prague, in the Národní Galerie.

Winter Severity Index participated also to important radio shows for RAI in Italy and Radio 3 in Spain. The project shared the stage with great artists of the international cold wave scene such as The Chameleons UK, Lene Lovich, Tropic of Cancer, Lebanon Hanover and many more, receiving agreements from the international press and web magazines.