Spotlight: Shalom Talks Signing to Saddle Creek Records, Upcoming Releases, and Inspirations

 

☆ BY CHARLOTTE ISIDORE ☆

 
 

GROWING UP CAN BE OVERWHELMING — especially when you’re signed to a highly-regarded record label at 24 years old, like newest Saddle Creek artist, Shalom. Within minutes of meeting Shalom, you understand why so many people support her: she oozes gratitude, is incredibly curious and thoughtful about others, and instantly makes you feel welcome. Her raw talent and charisma shine through her latest releases, a bassy single called “Bad to the Bone” and an emotional retelling of the Glass Animals song “Agnes.” Under the management of Saddle Creek, Shalom plans on releasing more music throughout the year, ultimately leading up to her debut album in early 2023. 

As a huge fan of Glass Animals herself, Shalom released her cover of “Agnes” not just as a nod to her Corona Covers series but also because of the universal story it tells. Oftentimes, singing “Agnes” allowed Shalom to fall into a deep contemplative state, in which she connected with the people in her life that reminded her of Agnes. Her goal with the song is to invite listeners to reminisce about the Agnes in their life. Further, Shalom does not aspire to a specific sound or fit into a specific genre — she simply wants to reach as many people as she can. Shalom believes her music is meant to connect her with the people around her, inviting them into her vulnerable state.

“When you're telling an honest story it just becomes multifaceted and more people are able to interact with it honestly on so many different levels just because you, the teller, were being honest about it,” Shalom says. “I feel like when you go into music with an open heart then your reach is wider.” It is this brave sense of honesty that makes “Bad To The Bone” such a hard-hitting single. 

To Shalom, making music is often a cathartic experience that takes little to no planning. “It just needed to come out, and it just did so easily, and whenever that happens I always feel so much better afterward,” Shalom describes, explaining a song she wrote a few days before our interview.

This purging effect creates organically-inspired music that feels incredibly relatable due to the sheer vulnerability of Shalom’s lyrics and the intensity of her vocals. “I've always been like a big feeler,” she explains. “So I’m always gonna take any opportunity I have to shed some weight.” Lucky for us, she does so by creating powerful music. 

Since this skill of emotional purging through music has always been instinctual for Shalom, she was hit hard by a painfully long spout of writer’s block. “I’ve experienced a lot of bad things — I've written songs about a lot of those things, but that writer's block was some of the most painful shit I ever experienced,” she says. “To try and make stuff and then nothing comes out.”

It wasn’t until finals came around that Shalom was able to push through her creative rut and make new music: order an interface, learn how to use GarageBand, and procrastinate through writing and producing new songs. Shalom could have never imagined that the EP she created to evade studying would later lead her to be signed to a record label. 

After this three-song EP, the first snowstorm of the year, caught the attention of Saddle Creek Records, Shalom connected with producer Ryan Hemsworth to work on his project, Quarter-Life Crisis. The two instantly clicked and have effortlessly produced songs together ever since. While Shalom is undoubtedly excited about her serendipitous success over the past years, she notes that it can all be a bit mind-boggling at times. “It is crazy because I literally didn't live on this continent five years ago,” she says. “And now my life is like this.” 

Born in Maryland but raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Shalom has lived in various environments. After attending college at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, Shalom moved to Brooklyn, where she is currently pursuing her music career. Growing and learning about herself in these unique places has garnered Shalom a collage of musical and cultural inspirations to pull from. 

A self-proclaimed “pop girly” at heart, Shalom grew up listening to the top 40. “Every Saturday, I would sit with my book and predict who was going to be first,” she describes. “It was very serious — me and my little pink radio.”

While this passion for pop has never left Shalom, her music taste began to expand around the 11th grade, when the South African indie scene took off. Immediately lured into the scene by the music and sense of community, Shalom spent her youth going to festivals like Boosh and tuning her ears to the musical differences between the regional genres popping up throughout South Africa. Shalom explains that “the Johannesburg music scene is very different from the Cape Town music scene, but at the end of the day it still falls under that broad umbrella of South African indie — somebody plays the ukulele, there's a cello player in this band, whatever. It's whatever.” This interest in music traveled with her to the US, when she moved to New Jersey to attend college.

While at Rutgers, Shalom lived in an alternative arts community dorm, tapping into the New Brunswick DIY scene. Being a part of the white and male-dominated New Brunswick DIY scene as a first-generation, Black, queer woman came with struggles, but it was within this space that Shalom transformed her passion for music into an obsession after she began to work as a booking manager for bands. Shalom showed great gratitude for her experiences at Rutgers, stating, “I definitely don't think any of this would have happened if I wasn't exposed to the basement scene. The fact that I could get live music every Friday and Saturday if I wanted it. That totally changed the game.” Almost instantly, Shalom went from booking a few shows for local bands to fully managing a band with her friend Bree and playing in a band as well. 

Shalom believes this experience gave her an advantage in the music industry. “[It’s] not because I'm gifted by God, but just because I've been doing it for a long time,” she says. “And I listened to a lot of music. And I have a good ear for what sounds good together. I definitely think it is an advantage because right now I'm booking all our shows, me and my band. I'm booking the shows and I'm keeping everything straight because I've done this before.”

Not only does this allow Shalom to continue to train her ear for good music, but it also allows for her to not be taken advantage of, an important lesson for young artists. She encourages people aspiring to make it in the music industry to work behind the scenes, to just be a fan, and to care about their community.

This attention to making community through being honest is evident not just through her lyrics but also through her actions. Much of her band is made up of close friends, and her audience is always filled with the people who love her most. “What I’ve realized is it just boils down to me just wanting to feel good doing a thing that I love,” she says. “And the way to do that is to have people I love around me do the thing with me.”

With her loved ones by her side, Luna is excited to see what music Shalom has in store for the future — we are sure it will be filled with love and care.  

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