An Interview With the The Synth-Pop Artist, SHEARE On His Forthcoming EP ‘Music For Photo Booths’ and More!

Photo Credit- Devin Brewster

Meet the synth-pop artist, SHEARE!

His new EP “Music For Photo Booths” will be out this FRIDAY, February 23rd!

Over the last year, SHEARE has released a series of singles and his debut EP TURBULENCE, which have garnered over 800K cumulative streams, support from Apple Music/Beats 1, BBC and many fans in the press from PopCrush, PopDust, Baeble, The Huffington Post, Ones to Watch, Ladygunn, DuJour and many more. The music is, at its core, glistening synth-pop with danceable melodies and raw, honest lyrics. Beneath the layers of bright sounds, SHEARE details many of his own personal experiences when it comes to love and navigating the world in your young 20s. He also writes, records and produces all of his music from his studio apartment in Brooklyn, and has a cohesive artistic vision with a specific set of images for each song/project that he creates himself, stop-motion music videos and more.

Follow SHEARE:

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud | YouTube

Praise for SHEARE:

“Over a lush soundbed of glitching beats, vocal chirps and atmospheric electronics, SHEARE emotes in his signature, soaring falsetto…It’s a heart-wrenching, all-too-relatable sentiment.” – PopCrush

“Looking for a new musician to obsess over? Look no further, because the chance of New York City-based musician SHEARE’s indie-pop mix stealing your heart is pretty high.”- Teen Vogue

“Capri-Sun Pop, neatly packaged in a shimmering, glossy wrapper before bursting with flavor.” – PopDust

“SHEARE’s got some heartbreaking issues on his glistening, bittersweet nostalgic synth-pop tune [‘Magazine’], and we can relate.” – Ladygunn

“There’s something to be said for an artist who can convey feelings of heartbreak and emptiness in songs that uncannily exude positivity and cheerfulness.” – Ones to Watch

“The [‘R E V O L U T I O N’] video looks exactly how the infectious Coldplay-tinged song sounds, glimmering lights and all” – Baeble

“[‘you + i’ is] a dazzling new pop gem.” – Variance

Learn more about SHEARE in the following All Access interview:

Happy New Year! Thanks for your time today! Where does this interview find you? 

Of Course! I’m actually about to be on a mental four day video shoot for my favorite song off my forthcoming EP called “Tidal Wave”. It’s mainly shot in a really dope motel in south jersey. Motel, dope, south jersey, seems like a contradiction but I can assure you, it’s pretty rad.

Overall, how do you think 2017 was for you and your music career? What are you most excited about for this year? Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Care to share them with us? 

I think I stopped measuring things in years and more in tiny victories as I’ve progressed in my career. I feel like if I start saying, well 2016 was better than 2017 or vice versa it would start to feel like I talking about a small muffin company I’ve started out of my apartment rather than about my art, which there is no real timeline for ha! That being said, it was really good. I felt I grew a lot as an artist/person. My resolution this year was to not make resolutions and just enjoy where I’m at, rather than wishing I were somewhere else.

Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Can you recall your earliest musical memory? Was there a time where you thought of doing something completely different? 

Growing up I had an infatuation with the Chicago Bulls and thought Michael Jordan was just the G.O.A.T (still is). There was a minute before I realized I’d never be 6’4 nor am I athletically inclined that I wanted to be Michael Jordan. It’s ironic because now, sports to me are the thing with the cleats and the Kardashians attendees and that’s the extent of my knowledge and or interest. I think once I realized I was musically inclined I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. There’s really never been a plan B.

Photo Credit- Devin Brewster

How did you come up with your artist name? What is the significance of this name? Why not just go by your own real name? 

It’s an interesting story. My first kind of cool industry acknowledgment that my music wasn’t utter shit was from a producer/mixer called Spike Stent who’s worked with everyone from Bjork and Massive Attack to Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles. I had cold emailed his wife-ager and they both really took a liking to what I was doing and wound up helping develop me in my early days of my project before I even really had a project. Over coffee one day she mentioned that she thought I should go by a stage name because I’ve never really made singer songwriter-y acoustic music. She kind of just blurted out, “what about last name”? Around this time I became really obsessed with how things looked aesthetically from just staring at New Order’s album art and thought the actual spelling of my last name (Sheer) was awkward. Spelling it SHEARE was really more about the aesthetic of it rather than the sound. Still don’t love how it sounds ha!

I always like to ask artists about where they came from and how that city or town has influenced them as an artist now. So how do you think your home has affected you and your music today? 

I think the weird thing about music today is geography is starting to matter less in terms of having a signature sound based on the part of the world you’re in. It feels like modern music is starting to take on a similar shape. That being said I take so much inspiration from living in New York. I’m perpetually enamored by this city and the pulse it has. I don’t think I could write the songs I’ve written if I lived anywhere else.

Let’s talk about your new EP, “Music For Photo Booths.” (I love this name by the way!) What was the inspiration for the songs found on this collection? How long did it take to put it all together? How excited are you to be finally releasing this year on February 23^r? 

I think any time I’ve ever sat down to write a body of music it has some thematic element to it. I like for songs to encapsulate a period of time or in most cases the conclusion of a relationship. The title “Music for Photo Booths” was originally a Spotify playlist I made for a girl I briefly dated. I met her at a show I played this time last year and later in the night we crossed paths at the photo booth that was in the basement of the venue. It was this really cinematically cliché moment. That relationship kept me in this perpetual cycle of anxiety but I wrote the EP more about an amalgamation of a few different relationships rather than about one specific person….except a song called “The Middle”….that song is about her. 

How would you say “Music For Photo Booths” is different or similar to other music that you have released? How do you think you have grown as a musician since your debut EP “Turbulence” was put out? 

I think when I first started making music, I was very influence by Brit Pop and guitar driven pop and kind of shied away from that style and became more electronically driven production wise. I feel like I’ve taken the honesty of “Turbulence” and infused it with the music I grew up what I’ve always wanted to do musically.

I would love to know what your home studio looks like in your studio apartment in Brooklyn? What is it like writing, recording and producing all of you music there? Can you imagine doing it anywhere else?

I’m really lucky to have concrete walls at my apartment so I can work at all hours of the night without any real noise complaints. It’s been pretty special to write and produce everything you’ve ever made in one place whilst wearing what I call my “Thanksgiving outfit” (sweatpants and a strained white tee shirt) haha. It’s a pretty minimal set up, just a keyboard, pre-amp, mic, guitar and a computer. I think the bare bones nature of the set up allows me to focus on making sure I’m conveying the emotional context of every song in the way I’ve intended to when writing it. I’m really more of a producer by default as I’ve never really wanted to have to rely on anyone to be able to create an idea from start to finish. Making music has always been a rather cathartic experience for me.

What do you think of social media today and the importance of it for artists now? 

Do you find that it’s hard to keep up with it all? I think it’s super important as an artist to have a visual aesthetic that people can associate back to your artistry. I feel like because social media is such a visual outlet it’s become an integral part of conveying my vision artistically. The artwork for this EP has essentially been me with a camera and my long time creative collaborator Marko Anstice with a pen his actual chicken scratch handwriting creating the visual aesthetic that mirrors the universe I wanted to convey. Instagram houses those visual elements, twitter is a portal to my brain, and Facebook is a central hub for all aspects of my project…but yes, the upkeep can feel like a full time job. 

We are living in a crazy and at times rough world right now so I am curious how you think being a musician gives you the most joy in life today? How do you think that new music being created today is going to reflect these difficult times?

I think music, as cliché as this sounds, is a universal language. I think there’s a reason we’ve had the same 10 artists who artist who have been selling out arenas for the last decade +. There’s an element of escapism that they’ve managed to achieve with people. Music at it’s best can take you out of the drab reality that we’re currently in.

Photo Credit- Devin Brewster

Who are some of your favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? What musicians would you absolutely still love to work with in the future?

I love M83, Prince, Radiohead, New Order, Joy Division, Beck, The Rolling Stones. I’m not sure how reflective their music is directly in what I do, but they’re music continues to enthrall me.

What do you hope your fans take away from your music? Do you find that a lot of your music has a greater meaning behind it? 

I honestly just am still amazed anytime I get a message on Instagram, or an email from a fan because I’ve always just written music as a way to not lose my mind. The fact that I’ve managed to connect with anyone on an emotional level is really the whole reason I started writing music. My musical heroes always made me feel less alone, less rejected, less like an outsider

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about yourself or your music?

Music For Photo Booths – EP is out February 23. I wrote 5 sad songs in my bedroom about love, sex, sadness, nostalgia, and heartbreak. I hope you enjoy them.