New York, NY · alt-pop · bedroom pop

Sombr

8 festivals played ↓

Moody, reverb-soaked alt-pop from a Manhattan teenager who went from bedroom demos to festival bills — heartbreak at streaming scale.

sombr is the recording name of Shane Michael Boose, born 5 July 2005 and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the son of an event-planning executive and a publicist. He attended LaGuardia High School as a vocal major before dropping out in his junior year, shortly after releasing the single 'Caroline' in 2022, having taught himself production first on GarageBand, then Logic Pro.

His songs combine bedroom-pop production with alternative rock guitar, built around reverb-heavy arrangements, restrained drums and vocals that shift between a near-whisper and a full-throated chorus. The subject matter is mostly romantic: infatuation, endings and the aftermath, written in plain first-person language.

He released his debut single, 'Nothing Left to Say', in 2021 and signed to Warner Records after 'Caroline' went viral in 2023, putting out the EP In Another Life the same year. 'Back to Friends' and 'Undressed' spread through TikTok in early 2025, both reaching the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200, and both appeared on his debut album, I Barely Know Her.

'Undressed' topped the Irish singles chart and reached the top five in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while 'Back to Friends' won Best Alternative Video at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, where he was also nominated for Best New Artist alongside a Grammy nomination in the same category. He followed the album with the singles 'We Never Dated', '12 to 12' and, in 2026, 'Homewrecker'.

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alt-popbedroom pop