Sombr

A sensitive troubadour for the age of social media, Sombr places equal emphasis on sound and soul-baring lyrics. "Caroline," the viral hit that helped the singer/songwriter escalate from indie status to a major label while he was still in his teens, relies on cinematic vistas and rolling harmonies as much as his dramatic vocals. By the time he released the EP In Another Life in 2023, Sombr was collaborating with Tony Berg -- a producer known for his work with Phoebe Bridgers and Michael Penn -- and opening up his music in ways he continued to explore on the 2024 single "In Your Arms" and his 2025 Top 40 hit "Undressed." After landing another Top 40 hit with "Back to Friends," he made his full-length debut in 2025 with the breakup-themed I Barely Know Her, cracking the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. Marking his first ever Coachella Festival performance, he released the 2026 single "Potential."

Sombr is the indie pop project of Shane Boose, a New York City native raised on the Lower East Side. Developing a love of music at an early age, Boose initially gravitated toward classical. Attending LaGuardia High as a vocal major, he assembled a home studio in his bedroom when he was 14 years old, then set about writing and recording music under the name Sombr.

It didn't take long for Sombr to garner attention. "Caroline" went viral on social media in 2020, leading them to release a series of singles in 2021 and 2022 including "Caroline," "Nothing Left to Say," "Fine," "Through it All," and "Willow." Those early tunes attracted the interest of Warner, who signed him to a contract in January 2023. "Weak" appeared after the ink was dry, followed swiftly by "Alibi," "Never Find U," "Silhouette," and "My House Is Warm." Many of these also appeared on In Another Life, the September 2023 EP he recorded in Los Angeles with Tony Berg, a producer who had recently collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers and her supergroup Boygenius.

Sombr capitalized on the momentum of In Another Life by releasing "Would've Been You" and "I Don't Know You Anymore" by the end of 2023; he continued through 2024 with "In Your Arms" and "Back to Friends." He garnered yet wider attention with his 2025 Tony Berg-co-produced single "Undressed," which went viral on TikTok. Both "Undressed" and "Back to Friends" entered the Top 40 of the Billboard charts. In August that year, he issued his breakup-themed debut album, I Barely Know Her, on Warner and his own SMB imprint. It topped the Rock & Alternative Albums chart and reached the Top Ten on both the Billboard 200 and U.K. Albums charts. Another standalone Berg collaboration, "Potential," arrived in April 2026 on the heels of the singer's first-ever peformance at the Coachella Festival. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine