Shalom drops final single 'Lighter' from forthcoming Saddle Creek debut LP Sublimation.
Shalom has released “Lighter,” the final single from her forthcoming debut LP Sublimation out March 10th via Saddle Creek.
Animated by Rory Alene, the video features an animated Shalom walking around her college town, New Brunswick, NJ, wishing she was someone else. She explains:
“This song is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. I wrote it in 45 minutes and sent it to Ryan (Hemsworth), he sent it back with the guitars, and I fell in love with myself by making a song about wanting to be someone else”.
The song follows other singles, “Happenstance” and “Soccer Mommy,”
The 13 tracks on Sublimation reflect the many sides of the Brooklyn-based, South African-raised artist with stories of heartbreak, feeling like an outsider, self-medicating and partying, and ultimately choosing love over fear. While she paints the edges of indie rock, Shalom, along with her collaborator and the album's producer Ryan Hemsworth (Quarter-Life Crisis), team up for challenging and vivid arrangements that are danceable, driving, and also delicate.
Born in Maryland, raised in South Africa, and now residing in Brooklyn, Shalom's musical journey has been an unconventional one. After experimenting in bands within the New Brunswick DIY scene (where she attended university), Shalom continued to push the boundaries of her songwriting, pulling from her experience as a first-generation woman of color and a college student in a predominately white space.
In December 2020 She quietly released "Concrete" and a couple of other early home-recorded demos on a self-released EP titled the first snowstorm of the year, which eventually caught the ear of producer Ryan Hemsworth. Impressed by her already-fully formed perspective and tight melodic sensibility, Hemsworth asked Shalom to work on his project Quarter-Life Crisis and she later signed with the seminal label Saddle Creek.
The pair hit it off and began a year-long virtual collaboration, making music together and ultimately creating an extensive body of work that became Sublimation.