- 1 minute ago
Sombr talks his most famous songs, blowing up on TikTok, and why he can't go back to being friends with exes.
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00:00You got me off guard with that one.
00:04You know, not many people talk about that lyric.
00:12You got me on?
00:14Okay.
00:16The devil in your eyes won't deny the lies.
00:20Hmm, I wonder what song this is from.
00:23Back to friends.
00:30I know your lies.
00:32This song is about, it can mean many things,
00:35but I think it's generally about how some people are able to just walk past you on the street
00:40or look at you after you guys experienced, you know, really intimate things together.
00:46I'm an emotional person and I can't just, like, be friends with you after doing intimate things with you.
00:52You know, it's like that or we can't really be friends.
00:56It's not easy, you know?
00:58There have been people I've heard from that maybe have suspected it's about them,
01:02but I can't confirm or deny.
01:04You're going to have to crack the code if it's about you.
01:07Otherwise, we'll never know.
01:11In a room full of people, I look for you.
01:14This is from my song 12 to 12.
01:20This was right off the back of me having back to friends and undress, basically back to back.
01:25I was having this crazy rise, which was totally unexpected.
01:28And both of those songs are, like, alternative rock songs.
01:31And then one night I had writer's block and I was like, you know, let me just lay down a
01:35disco beat as a joke,
01:36you know, with the four on the floor.
01:37I was really just, like, being this cocky guy in the verses just as a joke.
01:41So, like, okay, this is never going to come out.
01:43And then I got to the chorus and that in a room full of people, I look for you, lyric
01:47and melody, came to me.
01:49And then I listened back to that.
01:50I was like, okay, this is serious.
01:52I just kind of got those goosebumps and felt what it was going to be and did its thing.
01:58I just remember it, like, just flowed so easily.
02:01It just came straight off the tongue.
02:03Like, I wasn't thinking about it.
02:04It was just natural.
02:09You want to shove me in the corner because you know you're my Madonna.
02:12This is from the song Crushing.
02:17It's hard for me to talk about because this lyric is actually very, like, personal.
02:21But there's a girl who's, like, who was my Madonna.
02:24I felt like she was shoving me into a corner because she, like, knew that she had this grip on
02:28me.
02:29So it's like, you want to shove me in the corner because you know you're my Madonna.
02:32Like, you know the power you hold.
02:34So it's kind of about that.
02:35Like, this goddess woman knows the power she holds so she can fucking treat me like shit.
02:40I think sequencing is super important.
02:41You know, it's about telling a story.
02:43When I first wrote this song, I was like, this has to go first because, you know, it's generally a
02:47break of album.
02:49And this song is basically reminiscing on, like, I missed the days when we were crushing on each other.
02:53Now you're just crushing my soul.
02:55That's the lyric of the chorus.
02:56And it feels like an introduction to this world and, like, me reflecting on everything that is to follow in
03:03the album.
03:06I don't want to be how you formulate opinions on astrology.
03:10This is Homewrecker.
03:18I'm a cancer and maybe a girl I was with would, you know, not like cancers after being with me.
03:24Or maybe she would only look for cancers after being with me.
03:26So if, let's say I, you know, things don't end on good terms with someone, I wouldn't want to be
03:32the reason you hate cancers.
03:34So that was what that lyric was about.
03:36I know nothing about astrology, but I know that matters to some pretty ladies.
03:40But at the end of the day, I think it's bullshit.
03:49It was a difficult breakup, but I wrote some songs that got me famous.
03:56That's potential.
04:01It's kind of just, like, the impact of what my breakup songs did for my career.
04:06You know, I never expected for anyone to know my name, but I wrote some breakup songs and, you know,
04:13I'm doing a Variety cover right now.
04:16So that's basically what that lyric was about.
04:19I'm trying to not sound cocky right now, but you guys gave me this question, so it's Variety's fault.
04:27Caught me off guard with that one.
04:29You know, not many people talk about that lyric, but I like it.
04:33I don't want the children of another man to have the eyes of the girl I won't forget.
04:36Love this lyric.
04:38This is from Undressed.
04:45It's basically about how I don't want another man to have babies with the girl that I am in love
04:53with.
04:54You know, because then those babies will have her eyes, but there will be another father, and I want to
05:00be the father.
05:00This one was just flowing out.
05:02I had written the verse and the chorus.
05:04I was feeling a little cocky because we just had Back to Friends, and I just sat at the piano
05:09and just kind of mumble.
05:14And then it just, it just pieced together.
05:18I want you, but the mirror won't let me.
05:20My body isn't ready.
05:22This came out today as we're shooting this.
05:29When you're crushing on someone and you want to be with someone, but when I don't feel physically ready to
05:34show myself to this person because I think they're way hotter than me or they're going to judge me, that's
05:39what that lyric's about.
05:40I've heard from a lot of people saying like, wow, this is my exact situation.
05:45I'm so glad that there's a song, you know, talking about these struggles because I haven't heard a song that
05:51talks, maybe there is, but especially from a man.
05:54And I just think it's important for people, everyone to just be being real about struggles because with social media
06:01and, you know, everything online, it's so easy to think like the norm is to like look perfect and feel
06:06perfect all the time.
06:07I think more people are struggling than you'd think with all sorts of issues.
06:15And I think this is an important one to talk about.
06:16I'm right here.
06:17I'm struggling.
06:18Some people think I'm attractive, but I still have these struggles, you know?
06:22I don't care what happens with the song.
06:24Like commercially, all I want is for it to help people and, you know, the message to get across.
06:34All I see is red.
06:35It crashed the car to threads.
06:38That makes no fucking sense.
06:40That's from Nothing Left to Say.
06:47I was, I think, either a sophomore or junior in high school.
06:52And I just remember like I was still learning how to write songs.
06:56And I wasn't really focusing at that time on like writing a full song that made sense or was good.
07:03I was just trying to get songs finished, you know, put in my 10,000 hours and get stuff off
07:07me.
07:08And I made this one.
07:08I thought it sounded cool, but the whole song makes no sense.
07:11And, you know, I didn't know that Sombra would get to where it is.
07:14So, so I was just putting stuff up in high school.
07:16Now this is being quoted in an interview and I really have nothing to say about this because, you know,
07:21I was like, what, 15?
07:22I don't even know.
07:23Maybe younger.
07:24I don't, I don't remember.
07:25But good on you guys for pulling this.
07:28That's awesome.
07:28There's something about the music you make when you're like fully innocent and like you don't know a lot about
07:34music.
07:35I still don't know anything, but I really didn't know anything here.
07:38So it's just cool to see the innocence.
07:42The things you say just make me cry.
07:45This is from Caroline.
07:47The things you say just make me cry.
07:51This one is kind of the song that initially got me discovered by this first pool of people and record
07:59labels.
08:00I basically was in high school.
08:01I wrote this and produced this in my bedroom in New York all by myself, you know, with $1,000
08:06total worth of equipment between my laptop and my shitty microphone and my shitty MIDI keyboard and acoustic guitar.
08:14I listened back and I thought it was the best song I'd ever made.
08:16I believe this song doesn't fully make sense, but I posted it on the internet, not on an early TikTok.
08:22There was a time in like 2022 when TikTok was considered cringe.
08:27Like now everyone uses TikTok.
08:29It's like the thing.
08:29So I was so nervous because I went to like high school in New York, you know, where everyone was
08:34so cool and people aren't posting TikTok.
08:36And I was so scared that my friends would see it the next day.
08:39But I posted it.
08:40I was like, I'm just going to post this song.
08:42I went to bed and I woke up the next morning.
08:44It had 200,000 likes.
08:46It was crazy because I was like, I went to school and the video was doing what it was doing
08:50and I had already moved on from school.
08:52I was like, finally, I'm over it.
08:55I was like, I'm not going to be here tomorrow.
08:57I kind of was just like cocky and was like, yeah, I'm doing music now.
09:01And then I remember like when I got home from school checking my email and there was this first record
09:06label in my email.
09:08It was like Columbia Records or something.
09:10And I was like, huh, is this a scam?
09:13I called my dad and I was like, dad, this label is trying to talk to me.
09:16He's like, don't answer.
09:17Like, that's a scam.
09:18But it wasn't a scam.
09:20They saw my TikTok with 200,000 likes.
09:22And then all these research departments at the label saw the TikTok and started reaching out to me.
09:27And then one label flew me to L.A.
09:29It was Warner Records.
09:30I remember thinking it was so cool that labels were taking me to dinner.
09:34I got taken to dinner by a few labels and I was like, wow, they're like taking me to dinner
09:39for free.
09:40Like they want to wine and dine me.
09:41But then I realized I'm like, wait, you guys also want to own my music.
09:44So I deserve a lot more than dinner.
09:47And then from there, I was like, OK, I got my foundation.
09:50You know, I just got signed, dropped out of school working for the next three years.
09:55And I'm basically just kind of on a.
10:00And then we got back to friends.
10:02And that's that's how I don't know why I said we I got back to friends.
10:07I wrote that shit myself.
10:08But yeah.
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