Shamir's Sonic and Mental Health Journey

Sound & Vision

Shamir walks us through the sonic character of their previous albums and how they came back to indie pop on their newest release, Homo Anxietatem.

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photo by Matthew James Wilson

Shamir has released their 9th album, Homo Anxietatem. Each of Shamir’s albums sound very different from one another, showcasing huge sonic and genre leaps and shifts. Shamir looks at each of their albums as “a scrapbook” that represents the sound of their mind state during that time. In this conversation, they walk us through the sonic character of their previous albums and how they came back to indie pop on their newest release. They also discuss the tribute to Sinéad O'Connor on this album, and how they've navigated their own mental health journey and a bipolar diagnosis and made peace with their anxiety.

“Managing mental illness has not been easy but [it’s] worth it. I think that really describes Homo Anxietatem in correlation with this sound sonically. It means anxiety, it means anxious man but it sounds really breezy and easy and has this colorful sound to it and I think it’s me making peace with that anxiety,” Shamir explains.

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