\n\tAs strobe lights douse the audience, the singer\u2019s voice is drowned out by the gasping screams from the pit of this Brooklyn club. His rangy six-and-a-half-foot frame is xeroxed on the screens of a hundred cellphones. He\u2019s cloaked in a black suit over a sparkling tank top and \u2014 as if he needs a lift \u2014 cheetah-print heels. His eyes are smeared black. \u201cSome people on TikTok didn\u2019t like it,\u201d he says sheepishly of the skeleton-esque makeup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Roemer for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen he gets a breath, he looks out and laments, \u201cI haven\u2019t been this close to you guys in a while.\u201d Indeed, the gap between Sombr and his fans has widened over the past 18 months after his yearny breakup smash \u201cBack to Friends\u201d catapulted him to the upper echelon of pop music. Now, his 2025 debut album, \u201cI Barely Know Her,\u201d has 4 billion streams and counting, and ahead of his next record, he\u2019s floating on the full-throated endorsement of Taylor Swift. The next time he headlines a show in New York, it will be at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the band starts playing another song, the newly minted superstar hops down to the barricade and is absorbed by a zombified crowd of teens, their grasping hands invisibly Sharpied with Xs. This is a pop cult, and a 21-year-old boy from New York named Shane Boose is its leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThis underplay at Music Hall of Williamsburg was announced only hours before Boose took the stage; an RSVP link was sent via text to the artist\u2019s most ardent New York fans. \u201cWe weren\u2019t even allowed to formally announce it,\u201d Boose tells me on the way to the show. Because of his popularity, \u201cthe police are concerned about a riot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWe\u2019re in a black Suburban, one of those tinted-window celebrity movers, and his eyes are hidden behind Wayfarer-style sunglasses. He\u2019s wearing a tight-fitting vintage tee, fringed jeans and boots. His pitch-black curls frame his face, his jawline a chiseled trapezoid under hollowed cheeks. (If he ever gets a biopic, Dominic Sessa and Finn Wolfhard could jockey for the role.) Squeezed in the third row are his publicist, an assistant of sorts and his dad, who\u2019s dressed like a retired Malibu skateboarder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is my first time being interviewed from a car,\u201d Boose says, sipping an iced coffee as yellow cabs whiz past on 33rd Street. \u201cBeing in New York for work is a blessing, but sometimes I wish I had more time to go explore and do what I used to do growing up,\u201d he says. He used to take the subway. Now he has a driver. \u201cThere are just trade-offs with this career.\u201d (Blessing is a word Boose says three times in the first four minutes of our conversation. Grateful is uttered 12 times. Three honoreds. One lucky.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose lives in Los Angeles now, disclosing his neighborhood \u201coff the record\u201d because, well, \u201cI don\u2019t want stalkers.\u201d He\u2019s grateful that he can make a living doing what he loves, and it\u2019s a blessing that his work touches so many fans. \u201cBut I can\u2019t walk anywhere without being recognized and asked for photos,\u201d he says, quickly adding, \u201cwhich is totally not a problem for me. I don\u2019t mind it.\u201d In fact, he basically enjoys the polite harassment of fans asking for selfies \u2014 it has forced him to \u201calways look camera-ready.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose\u2019s ascent to pop stardom began at LaGuardia, the Manhattan performing arts high school whose yearbooks boast the faces of Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston and Nicki Minaj. As a teen, he began writing and producing songs in his bedroom, releasing them under the name \u201cSombr\u201d \u2014 a pseudonym that incorporated his initials, \u201cSMB,\u201d and also characterized the vibe of his moody breakup tunes. He describes his early efforts as \u201claughable\u201d \u2014 \u201cshitty music with 30 listens on SoundCloud.\u201d He was more concerned about what his peers would say in group chats than about making it big.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI went to an art school where everyone was too cool for school. And I was one of those too-cool-for-school kids, but I was putting myself out there,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in high school, you\u2019re scared to be judged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose had sworn off TikTok, he explains, because posting on the app was considered \u201ccringe\u201d during the pandemic. But one night he decided to upload a video anyway, showcasing a dreamy acoustic ballad called \u201cCaroline.\u201d \u201cI was so scared that my friends would see it the next day,\u201d he says. When he woke up, the video had 200,000 likes; his cringephobia was cured. \u201cI had already moved on from school,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI was so cocky, like, \u201cFuck all of you, I\u2019m doing TikTok music!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tValidating his adolescent ego trip was an email from Columbia Records sitting in his inbox when he got home from school. Boose\u2019s dad warned him not to reply. \u201cThat\u2019s a scam,\u201d he said.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Roemer for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t a scam,\u201d Boose says, still in disbelief. The emails from record companies continued to roll in, with Warner Records flying the 16-year-old to Los Angeles for a meeting. Boose couldn\u2019t believe the labels wanted to \u201cwine and dine\u201d him. \u201cBut then I realized, \u2018Wait, you guys also want to own my music. So I deserve a lot more than dinner.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAt 17, Boose signed with Warner and dropped out of high school, a decision that required some convincing in the mom department. \u201cThis is what I\u2019m going to school for anyway,\u201d he reasoned. \u201cEither I\u2019ll be a high school dropout and also be dropped by my label, or I\u2019ll be a high school-dropout success story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe moved to L.A. as soon as he turned 18, and his label hooked him up with veteran producer Tony Berg, who helped launch Phoebe Bridgers\u2019 career. Boose, who describes himself as cocky (the word comes up 12 times in our interview), credits Berg with keeping him \u201cin check\u201d and teaching him to have higher standards for his writing. \u201cI thought I knew everything,\u201d Boose says, \u201cand he basically showed me that I knew nothing, and that I had a lot of work to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile \u201cCaroline\u201d was a modest hit \u2014 the type of splashy breakout that could get him some industry support \u2014 Boose\u2019s career failed to launch after his record deal. He released a string of forgettable, downtempo bedroom pop songs, and after three years he worried the label might drop him. Then, a couple days after Christmas in 2024, Boose released \u201cBack to Friends,\u201d a shimmering breakup song that works equally well in AirPods and arenas. It wasn\u2019t an immediate hit, but it bought him some time. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 in April 2025 and peaked in January 2026, more than a year after its release. It now boasts more than 2 billion streams on Spotify.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe song unlocked something in Boose: His music, suddenly, felt big. There\u2019s a palpable confidence in \u201cI Barely Knew Her,\u201d which honors the lo-fi aesthetic of his early work but scraps the sadboi shtick for some swagger. Listen to the bullhorn vocals on \u201cCrushing,\u201d the effortless beach-rock hooks of \u201cUndressed\u201d or the incandescent disco bomb that is \u201c12 to 12,\u201d which, for my money, is one of the best pop songs of last year. (You get the sense he knows it too: He ends the Brooklyn show by playing it two and a half times.) As his music matured, so did Boose. Bedroom bard no more; there he was, gallivanting across the VMA stage, his bare chest tongued by a backup dancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSpeaking of bare chests, as we pull up to the concert hall in Brooklyn, Boose is distracted by a young man walking on the sidewalk with his shirt fully unbuttoned. \u201cLook at that guy walking with his chest out,\u201d he says. \u201cOh my God, bro. He needs to know that he\u2019s not impressing girls. He\u2019s icking them out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWe load into the venue, and it\u2019s apparent that Boose doesn\u2019t perform in spaces this intimate anymore. Last spring, as \u201cBack to Friends\u201d rode up the charts before the release of his debut album, Boose was frantically upgrading the venues on his tour to meet demand. One show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, for example, became three nights at the Shrine, turning 700 tickets into 15,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTouring is Boose\u2019s continuing education. \u201cI\u2019m a kid who dropped out of high school who now has a crew of 30 people on tour with me,\u201d he says, \u201cand they\u2019re looking to me to lead the charge.\u201d When I ask how he survives his nonstop schedule, he shrugs me off. \u201cTouring is the biggest high you can get as an artist,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s more about how I can survive not being on tour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWe navigate racks of clothing crowding the hallway to his green room, where Boose slumps on a couch shorter than him. His band is sound checking downstairs, and electric guitar-punched karaoke tracks of his songs bleed through the floor, scoring the remainder of our conversation. Meanwhile, it appears tonight\u2019s secret venue has finally been revealed. Outside, a hundred fans have started queueing up down the block, carrying signs, passing out \u201cSombr Summer\u201d pins and wearing T-shirts mimicking his outfit on the \u201cI Barely Knew Her\u201d cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Roemer for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose\u2019s relationship to fame, like anyone\u2019s, is complicated. But he describes the connection between himself and his fans as almost spiritual. \u201cMy life is devoted to this music and serving you forever,\u201d he wrote to them in an Instagram post last fall. For someone whose adolescent years coincided with the social media boom, he hasn\u2019t yet found a reason to be mysterious. \u201cI\u2019m OK with people knowing everything about me,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut being a celebrity means Boose has had to deal with the \u201cweird\u201d side of the internet, where \u201ccreepy people say creepy things.\u201d He tries to avoid the toxicity, but as a 21-year-old who is highly involved in the social media marketing of his own music, he\u2019s often exposed to the radioactive-sludge-covered comment sections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere are rumors built in comment sections that have traveled so far,\u201d he says, vaguely gesturing at falsehoods about his dating history and family. \u201cWhen that first started happening, I was so down about it. Now, I\u2019ve just accepted it. Everyone can say whatever the fuck they want about me. I know who I am.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tMost insidious are the comments about Boose\u2019s body, which have ranged from faux concern to blatant bullying. Last October, a TikToker went viral with an impassioned takedown of his live show, knocking Boose for making immature jokes and calling him \u201cSlender Man,\u201d a reference to a nightmarish, thin-limbed internet character. Boose fired back with his own TikTok video, chiding her for starting a \u201cmassive body-shaming hate train\u201d against him. While the video showed that Boose was willing to confront online attacks, the hate train, so to speak, had already left the station.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThis flavor of online vitriol activated a deep-rooted insecurity in Boose. The night before we meet, he released \u201cMy Body Isn\u2019t Ready,\u201d a melancholic body-insecurity anthem. The song is about how it\u2019s impossible to love someone else when you\u2019re struggling to love yourself. \u201cI like you, but my body isn\u2019t ready,\u201d Boose sings on the chorus. \u201cI want you, but the mirror won\u2019t let me.\u201d It\u2019s his most vulnerable work to date, and a rare example of a male artist grappling with anxieties tied to appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI want people who look up to me that might not be happy about their body image to understand that I\u2019m not always happy about my body image,\u201d Boose says. The song has been out for less than a day, but he\u2019s already chuffed by the response. \u201cI saw a comment today that was like, \u2018I\u2019m so glad that my favorite artist goes through the same things that I go through,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThat made me want to cry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLast October, Boose had another one of those crazy wake-ups, his phone flooded with notifications. \u201cI had all these texts saying, \u2018What the fuck \u2014 Taylor Swift just shouted you out in a radio interview!\u2019\u201d he recalls. Indeed, in a rare interview, the biggest artist in the world listed Sombr as an \u201cincredible\u201d addition to her streaming diet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose expressed his gratitude in a note emailed to her representatives, and Swift mailed back a letter and a lucky-charm necklace. \u201cI freaked out and fangirled. And somehow I haven\u2019t fucked it up,\u201d he says of their friendship.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThen in June, when Swift was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, she asked Boose to come along and perform two of her songs. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI asked Taylor to pick the songs for me, because I wanted the night to be fully about her, but she wouldn\u2019t allow it,\u201d he says. \u201cShe was like, \u2018No, I want you to pick the songs.\u2019 It put me under a lot of pressure, but she was really happy with my choices.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose selected \u201cCardigan,\u201d putting a lounge-rock spin on the folky hit, and \u201cDear John,\u201d in part because Swift wrote it at 19, the age when everything changed for Boose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Roemer for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tSwift bobbed back and forth during Boose\u2019s performance, mouthing the words with a big smile and throwing up her arms in delight. To keep his cool, Boose tried to avoid eye contact with the pop supernova. \u201cIf I looked at her for three seconds during the performance, my mind would have completely blanked because that\u2019s Taylor Swift,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a goddess. I remember looking at her for a split second while performing and almost losing it, but then I looked away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTaking the stage next, Swift thanked Boose for a \u201cperfect\u201d performance, said his writing is \u201cso exceptional\u201d that it makes her \u201cactually envious\u201d and declared that \u201cSombr is the future.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tFunnily enough, what struck Boose the most was hearing her say his first name. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing for people to say Sombr, but when I heard Taylor Swift \u2014 someone I was never supposed to know \u2014 say the name \u2018Shane,\u2019 referencing me, that made me tear up,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI ask what their relationship is like \u2014 do they text? Do they hang out? \u2014 and Boose walks a verbal tightrope. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I want to get too into it. I don\u2019t want to talk about her without her permission,\u201d he says. He will, however, offer his blessing for her new hubby. \u201cI fucking love Travis Kelce,\u201d he says. \u201cThat guy is the nicest guy ever.\u201d In an NDA-shattering delusion, I try to get details about the wedding. \u201cWho said I\u2019m going?\u201d he says, icing me out with a puckish smile.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s almost time for Boose to join the sound\u00a0check, so a staffer knocks on the door to drop off dinner. Boose tears open a plastic bag filled with unlabeled delivery Tupperware. One has chicken tenders; one has dumplings; another has pasta. Envious of the multicultural feast, I ask, \u201cWhere\u2019s that from?\u201d and he says, \u201cI don\u2019t even know. They just order me stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI have issues with eating,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes I do not like eating, and it makes me want to throw up to eat. I can never choose what to eat. I never crave anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe plucks a chicken tender from the basket and wags it in the air. \u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing I have,\u201d he goes on. \u201cMost of the time before shows I\u2019m literally eating against my will, so I have enough energy to get through the show.\u201d He says these things with a tone that reads more fascinated than, say, somber. \u201cIt\u2019s been my lifelong struggle. I only eat to survive; I don\u2019t eat for pleasure most of the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd then he laughs, drawing a connection between his dietary habits and his latest single. \u201cThat\u2019s \u2018My Body Isn\u2019t Ready,\u2019 you know? That\u2019s why my body is like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBoose is now a superstar, and the life experiences that inspire his lyrics have transformed entirely. In fact, the act of falling in and out of love, the very hallmark of Boose\u2019s oeuvre, will never be the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cDoes she just like me for the things I do?\u201d he sings suspiciously of a love interest on \u201cMy Body Isn\u2019t Ready.\u201d (\u201cThat\u2019s a lyric I couldn\u2019t have written a year ago,\u201d Boose notes.)<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSince my recent success, I haven\u2019t really been able to get out there and get on the market,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m more hesitant, because in my age group most people know me. It\u2019s definitely weird, and I\u2019m figuring it out. I don\u2019t want to date someone who wants to date me for the wrong reasons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the young bachelor in front of me wants to make something clear: \u201cIt\u2019s not like my dating life has stopped. I just have to take a different approach. I\u2019m still\u201d \u2014 he pauses, looking at the ceiling, grasping, perhaps, for the right way to say \u201con the prowl\u201d \u2014 \u201cgetting that inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tStyling by Lucy Gaston; Prop Styling by Jacob Burstein\/MHS Artists; Groomer:\u00a0Melissa Dezarate\/Forward Artists: Look 1 (cover): Boots:The Society Archive; Look 2 (red shirt): Shirt and tie:\u00a0Coach; Belt:\u00a0Mr. P from Mr. Porter;\u00a0Pants:\u00a0Valentino; Look 2 (green shirt): Shirt and pants: Valentino; Look 3 (blue suit):
Suit: Tom Ford; Shoes: Manolo Blahnik\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDo we like the eyeliner or no?\u201d Sombr is strutting across the stage, dragging the microphone stand by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[18,117,19,17,337,261171,262783,30767],"class_list":["post-622036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-power-of-young-hollywood","tag-poyh-cover-video-sombr","tag-sombr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117043739963732034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}