sombr

Alt-pop and glam rock merge seamlessly in the sound and look of sombr, aka Shane Michael Boose. The New York City singer-songwriter became an overnight sensation in 2025 with a hat-trick of hit singles—“we never dated”, “undressed” and “12 to 12”—each paying sonic homage to earlier eras while lyrically capturing the experience of navigating modern dating in the 2020s. Worldwide fame arrived fast for the social media-savvy star, with a top 10 debut album, an MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Act and a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, plus tours across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand and even a co-sign from Taylor Swift. Yet despite seemingluy coming out of nowhere, Boose had been working towards his breakthrough for years. He adopted the sombr moniker ahead of his 2021 debut single “nothing left to say”; it’s a name that reflected both a difficult period in his life and his initials, SMB. One of the rare modern pop artists to hold sole writing credits on his songs, sombr started writing while in his mid teens and was self-recording and releasing tracks from his bedroom while specialising in vocals at LaGuardia High School, the New York performing arts institute that counts Timothée Chalamet among its former pupils. After his Bon Iver-inspired 2022 ballad “Caroline” went viral, record labels came calling, prompting him to drop out and move to LA to pursue stardom. Warner Records, who he signed with in 2023, put him in the studio with veteran music producer Tony Berg, who had previously worked with one of sombr’s idols, Phoebe Bridgers. The tunes they worked on together formed his critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut album I Barely Know Her. Sombr cites Radiohead and Daft Punk among his favourite artists and has said he plans to put in years of hard work to replicate their greatness. “I am not the type to see success and just sit with that and party and celebrate it,” he told Vanity Fair in November 2025. “I got into this world because my passion is for writing and performing. Now that I’ve received success, that doesn’t change.”