SHAMIR
When Shamir’s “On the Regular” was released in the fall of 2014, it seemed to announce the arrival of a new pop star. Full of earworm hooks, deliriously clever boasts, and Shamir’s otherworldly countertenor vocals, it was easy to dream about the 19-year-old becoming the sort of artist who would soon be collaborating with the hottest Los Angeles producers and setting up camp on the Top 40 pop charts. That, in fact, was more or less what XL Recordings, his label, had in mind for him. But Shamir had other plans. Shaking off the dance-pop template he had used on 2015’s Ratchet in favor of rawer, more DIY sounds, he soon found himself without a label and free to make whatever kind of music he wanted. Since then, he has done just that, releasing six more full-length albums in four years and two in 2020, Cataclysm and Shamir. His breakthrough hit remains an outlier, the unusual first chapter for an artist who decided to take control of the narrative.
Matt Fink (Under the Radar): I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your decision to leave XL.
Shamir: First of all, I was dropped. [] I want to make that clear. But I guess in a weird way it was kind of a decision, because I
