A few days before Shane Michael Boose—the 20-year-old musician known as Sombr—stole the show at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, performing his hits “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” for his biggest—and most staggeringly starry—audience yet, he found himself in a stately room on the second floor of New York’s Nine Orchard hotel.
Enjoying some rare downtime between rehearsals, he was dressed in a navy blazer, a black T-shirt, and ripped jeans. Despite his high-pressure weekend, he’s in a cheery mood. “You’re getting happy Sombr today,” he tells me, pleasantly.
And why might that be? For one thing, he’s just met one of his rock idols at the hotel, which sits just around the corner from where Boose grew up, on New York’s Lower East Side. “It’s someone I get compared to a lot, and he said my name first,” Boose says, mimicking an English accent. “That’s one hint, but that’s all you get. I called my sister and she was like, ‘What?!’ And now I’m going to be happy all day.”
Such surreal moments have seemed to come one right after the other. Not so long ago, Boose was a LaGuardia dropout with a dream; now, in an era where guitar-driven acts are a dime a dozen, he’s managed to lodge three songs from I Barely Know Her, his recently released debut album, in the Hot 100. To celebrate the launch, he shut down the corner of Canal Street and Orchard for a free surprise show.
So, what’s it like when you suddenly get everything you want? Before Boose went back on the road for his Late Nights Young Romance Tour, Vogue sat down with him to find out.
Vogue: You’ve had an incredible year so far. How have you been navigating it all?
Sombr: I remember a year and a half ago, I was feeling really low about the point I was at in my career. And even then, I was still so privileged—just being able to do it full-time and play shows. But at the time I made a video where I was just talking to myself and manifesting where I wanted to go. And watching that video back now, it’s so crazy, because the version of me in that video, if he found out I was anywhere near where I am today, he would fucking lose his mind. One thing I don’t understand is that artists will get to a certain point and all they’ll do is complain about how hard it is to be famous. It’s like, you are so privileged. Fucking be grateful. Obviously, every job has its hardships. Oh my God, someone recognizes you on the street—how brutal! So I try to remain super-grateful, you know?
Have your peers in the industry given any advice on how to handle everything?
I mean, the artist community has been so sweet. There have been so many welcoming people who I’ve met up with and become friends with that have given me great advice, or were there to just be able to talk to about both of our situations. It’s an amazing thing and I’m so grateful to be surrounded by so many supportive artists. Something I keep in mind whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, because all of this just naturally gets so overwhelming, is that a year ago I would’ve killed to be in the position I’m in today. And I think of all the artists that would still kill to be in the position I’m in today.
It feels to some people like you came out of nowhere, but can you take me back to your fledging era, when you were still on the come-up? What was that like?
I was signed to my label for a little while before I became, quote-unquote, commercially successful. Not that that matters to me, but it matters in the sense that I didn’t want to move back in with my parents and be a failure and have to go back to school, which I dropped out of. So there was always that pressure. I had gotten signed but it hadn’t quite worked. So many artists get signed and get dropped. That could have been me, and before “Back to Friends” I was getting there. I wasn’t making them their money back. I had just parted ways with my management. My agents almost dropped me. It was a weird point. I was in the wrong crowds; there were a lot of nights out with people I didn’t care about, or that didn’t care about me, or who I had nothing in common with. It was like that until “Back to Friends.” In a way, it’s the song that saved me. That’s your quote right there! But in terms of growth and growing, my biggest goal is to be great. To make an album where every track is great.
That reminds me of Timothée Chalamet saying at the SAG Awards that his goal is to be one of the greats. While he’s older, I know that you both attended New York’s LaGuardia High School. Were you inspired by the Timmy lore when you were a student?
When you go to that school, everyone wants to be like him, so he was one of the people who definitely drove me. When he would come back to the school, everyone would freak out. And that’s the effect that I want to have when I come back to the school. I haven’t had that moment yet, but I just did my New York pop-up when my album came out, and we shut down Canal Street. There were like 10 LaGuardia signs: “LaGuardia High School loves you!” Seeing that is a crazy feeling because, not long ago at all, I was one of the students. It was the best day of my life. I always say that if I died after that show, I would’ve died happy. I would’ve died fulfilled. That was the show where I was like, this is why I do it. I lost so much money on that show, too. I paid for it, but I do it all for experiences and to connect with people. That’s the only show where I ever choked up! My fucking childhood apartment was literally in my eyeline the whole time. Those are the streets that I used to skateboard and walk on every day. It’s a different kind of feeling.
In “Undressed,” you describe seeing a girl with another guy across the train tracks. Did that actually happen? Having said that, should we assume your lyrics are totally autobiographical?
Everything is loosely based on something. Like, I took the train every day going to school, so I would see people I knew across the tracks.
For the New Yorkers out there, what trains are we talking about?
I took the F train to the C or E, to the 1. Fucking two transfers. Fucking brutal, first thing in the morning. And then I had to walk 15 minutes. So wack, dude.
I’m sure there were more convenient schools near you. What made that journey worth it?
Art school was the only option for me. It’s all that made sense.
Let’s give people a peek into your creative process. How many demos went into the 10 tracks of I Barely Know Her?
Probably like 40 or 50. When I have an idea, I’ll either make just a chorus and never touch it again, or I’ll leak it online and if it has a good response, I’ll finish it. Or if I start something and I instantly don’t like it, I’ll stop. So when I say 40 or 50 over two years, I wasn’t writing an album. I was just making songs; I would finish one and put it out. First was “Back to Friends.” Then the song I made right after that was “Undressed,” and the song I made right after that was “We Never Dated.” So when I made the album, it was just all these choruses I had saved up that were good, but I didn’t know what to do with them, and then I just filled them out.
Do you ever start with a guitar riff and go from there?
I have, I think for “Under the Mat,” the last song on the album. But it’ll generally be a drum loop. I’ll lay down a drum loop and then I’ll write over it.
Now, when you say you’re writing over it, are you improvising lyrics over that?
No, I’ll start with a drum groove and then I’ll either move on to keys or guitar, and then it’ll be a vocal melody, and then lyrics.
Where is this laboratory where you’re concocting everything?
It’s at my house in LA—I’ll do about 50 to 70% of the production there. And then I’ll bring it into Sound City Studios with my collaborator Tony Berg, and we will finish it there—getting real live players on it. And I feel like that combination is what creates magic.
People have noticed how clearly you enunciate when you sing—especially your R’s. Was that a conscious decision, or something that came naturally?
It’s something that I haven’t really thought about. It’s so subconscious, but so many people have picked up on it. And I don’t know—when I sing live, it just happens. I feel like I see a lot of shows where the artist will skip lines or not enunciate well or like to rely heavily on tracks.
Your latest single is “12 to 12” and Addison Rae memorably appears as your love interest in the video. How did that come about, and what was that day like on set?
Well, I thought it was the best song I’d ever made. I still think that, because it gives me that feeling that Daft Punk gave. But we were set to shoot the music video on a Saturday and it’s a Wednesday and we didn’t have a love interest. Someone suggested Addison, because she had followed me on Instagram a few weeks prior. But she follows a lot of people, so when I pitched the idea, I was like, “She’s gonna say no! Why would she need to do this?” But we clicked; we just had this energy. By the end of it, she said she was down and I lost my fucking mind. So we get to set and when I first meet her, she’s just fucking breathtaking. We had choreographers ready and she was like, “No, I’ll improvise.” She started doing her thing and everyone’s jaw just dropped. I can’t exaggerate. Everyone was like, “This woman knows who she is.” It’s one of my favorite pieces of artwork I’ve ever been a part of and feels like one of those things I’ve done that felt bigger than myself.
Moving from your sonic style to your appearance, who are your style icons?
I love Jim Morrison, Prince, A$AP Rocky, Bob Dylan, Oasis, and Richard Ashcroft.
“Undressed” marks the first new song to reach No. 1 on the Alternative Charts in over a year. Some have gone so far to say that you’re saving alternative music, or rock in general. What do you say to that?
Well, it means a lot. But someone vandalized a poster of mine promoting my album recently in the Lower East Side that said, “My name is Sombr and I killed rock and roll” and “Poser” above that. My response to that is, if you’re such a lover of rock, how can you be mad about a kid like me? But also, I would never claim to save anything, and I would also never claim to be a part of a genre. I just make the music I want to make. It doesn’t come from a factory. I’m the only fucker who writes this shit. I solo-produced “Back to Friends” and I co-produce other things, so how the fuck can I be trying to be someone else? This is who I am.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.