Shamir on Amerie, America's Next Top Model, and the song that inspired him to make music

Soundtrack of My Life is a recurring column in which musicians recall their favorite songs, artists, and albums.

Though it's been only two years since Shamir put out his bold self-titled LP, the Vegas-born indie-pop polymath hasn't slowed down. In 2021, Shamir shared But I'm a Painter, a chapbook of essays about paintings, and popped up on the single "Punk Rock Boyfriend," a collaboration with nightlife legend Macy Rodman through his imprint Accidental Popstar Records. Now, the singer-songwriter has revealed his most personal and ambitious work yet: Heterosexuality.

On his eighth studio album, the 27-year-old Philadelphia-based artist is unabashedly vulnerable, singing explicitly about his family, his queerness, and his rejection of labels. With Heterosexuality, Shamir evokes the industrial-leaning melodies that defined the '90s, seamlessly blending distorted synths and sticky pop choruses with the help of producer Hollow Comet (a.k.a. Isaac Eiger), of the indie-rock outfit Stranger Ranger.

"I think there's always a level of catharsis in anything I've made, but I think with this one more so because I was working with a producer I really liked and trusted," Shamir says on the phone from Washington, D.C., where he's playing two shows at the 9:30 Club. "So there was not this extra anxiety about production during the writing process, and that allowed me, in turn, to dig even deeper."

On the heels of its release, Shamir reflects on the inspirations that shaped not only Heterosexuality, but him as an artist.

The first album I bought with my own money

"I think it was Amerie's debut album [All I Have] on CD. It wasn't my own money. I didn't make it — I was in kindergarten. I think it was birthday money. Amerie was poppin'. She was the 'It' girl. She was perfect.

The song that reminds me of my first crush

"For some reason, my earliest celebrity crush was Tyra Banks, so I guess I'll say the theme song to America's Next Top Model. 'You wanna be on top?' Considering all the really dark stuff that continues to come out about her in the show, I don't really want to wrap my brain around any specifics, other than the show was inescapable at a point in time in our lives. That's what makes it so much harder: You remember an earlier version of yourself who didn't fully understand that something was fucked up [about the way she treated contestants], because you're watching it on TV and no one's really saying anything [about it]."

The album I love that might surprise people

"My music taste is so all over the place. I very unironically love Philosophy of the World by the Shaggs. I think it's the most primitive version of music-making in modern times that has been captured on recording."

A song I wish I'd written

"The one I currently like is 'Midnight Sun' by Nilüfer Yanya. And she has a great voice."

The first song I danced to

"That's hard for me because I'm not a dancer, but I also come from a very Black American household, so dance is very much always around. I'd say probably Frankie Beverly and Maze. "Before I Let Go" is a quintessential song in a Black American household. Put it on, and nine times out of 10 everyone's going to start dancing."

The album that wrecks me

"I'm just gonna be honest: The stans might come for me, but I know how to separate art from the artist, so I'd say Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey. I do think Norman Fucking Rockwell is my favorite Lana record and her best, but there's something about Ultraviolence that is wrecking territory for me. I feel like it's her shoegaze album, and I love shoegaze. I think a lot of people think I'm joking when I say this, but I'm not sure I'd have the career I have now if she didn't slide through into my lexicon at the very last minute before I started recording. I don't know what I would sound like, or what my music would have become. Lana Del Rey is one of my biggest vocal influences, even though she's kind of universally known as not being the strongest vocalist. I don't think she is in a lot of technical ways, but I think she's incredible in a lot of other ways. When she sings in the second verse of 'Money Power Glory,' it literally sounds like she's crying. It's just incredible."

The music that calms me down

"Conatus by Zola Jesus is one of my favorite records of all time. I can always put it on and it will calm me. The industrial, shoegaze-y vibes of it obviously inspired my new record a lot, but I've listened to that record almost on a monthly basis for the last couple of years of my life."

"'My Generation' by the Who. I think after watching them during that famous performance of that song and fucking everything up, I was like, 'Okay, so I guess this is me.'"

Shamir's new album, Heterosexuality, is out now.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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