Shamir doesn’t really shake hands, he prefers to get straight to the hug. It’s a small detail, but it says a lot about how the 21-year-old Las Vegas native approaches things. Since his 2014 EP Northtown EP started setting speakers and parties alight, his fun and occasionally very funny tracks have made him a lot of people’s fantasy friend. After all, who wouldn’t want to join Shamir in his hyper coloured world?
Of course, no one knows this better than Oscar Key Sung: fellow musician, occasional tour partner, friend and fellow nice guy. With Shamir in town touring his new album Rachet we thought we’d facilitate some hang-time between the two, and asked Oscar to interview him. Their resulting conversation did nothing to douse our best-friend-fantasies.
Oscar: Hello Shamir, so the other night we were talking about how you used to work in retail—
Shamir: And about how much I loved it!
Musicians usually talk about hating their old jobs.
My first retail job was horrible. It was barely retail. It was a retail store where they just sell everything. It was too much for me. That’s what really pushed me to start focusing on my music. It was around that time when I started working on the early demos for my EP, the ones I sent in to my producer Nick Sylvester. I put in my two weeks notice and decided to go to New York.
So retail indirectly got you started.
I came back from New York two or three weeks later and got a job at Topshop. I loved that, but about a month later I got Best New Music on Pitchfork. When I finally got comfortable with a job my music started to do something!
But you’re probably happier doing tunes than Topshop, right?
Totally! But sometimes being a full-time musician is hard. You live on the road and when you go back to normal life it’s like: what do people do? I was never a person who didn’t like working. I didn’t mind being a musician who does it as a hobby and still works a normal job.
I can see why famous people hang out together. People don’t always understand what happens behind the scenes, it can be a bit lonely.
I agree but I don’t have famous friends, and I don’t hang out with other musicians because usually other musicians are assholes. It is kind of problematic for me though. I feel like I’m racing to keep up with my friends. I worry they feel like I’m leaving them. But everyone understands it’s my job. Also my travelling crew is very small, so that’s good for my mental stability.
People always speak about the sound of an era, or the look of an era—things that are really iconic of the time. When you’re making music are you thinking about trying to capture the place we’re in? No, I want to try and do something a little more timeless. A lot of people have compared Ratchet to the dance, punk-pop type stuff that came out 10 years ago—The Bravery and LCD Soundsystem—but these bands still feel relevant to me. I’m sure certain sounds do sum up the current generation, but at the end of the day good music is good music.
Off topic, but I’ve noticed you’re really good at lip-syncing to songs on Snapchat.
Do not make me look like Kylie Jenner because I can count on my hands how many times I’ve done lip-syncing Snapchats.
I’m not saying you do it often, but when you do it’s great. I mention it because in your clips, and even live, you have great facial commitment to your lyrics.
I think I do ugly faces!
No they’re great. Would you ever do acting?
It’s definitely something I’ve wanted to do. But I just want it to happen in a very natural sense. Pretty much I want to be a Lena Dunham. If I do act, I want it to be in something I write. I’m not trying to be Leonardo diCaprio.
They’re not screenplays, but I write concepts for sci-fi films. I have quite a hefty folder of ideas.
I absolutely hate sci-fi. Not to burst your bubble or anything.
I’ll send you my ideas, some are pretty good. Also, what’s wrong with sci-fi?
I like to watch things that are realistic. I like to feel I’m in someone else’s world. When I watch sci-fi I’m like, this will never happen, so how can I get into it?
But a lot of sci-fi is about the future and coming to terms with things we may eventually face. I like that it makes you think about the ramifications of the way people are living now.
I do like stuff in that realm. Like, Twilight Zone type shit. I can definitely get down with that.
I’m glad we went there.
I’m glad you’ve cleared that up for me because every time I say stuff about sci-fi people get so mad.
Shamir is currently touring Australia, get your tickets here.
‘Ratchet’ is out now via XL Recordings / Remote Control Records.
Credits
Photography Ben Thomson