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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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00:00The on?
00:02Caught me off guard with that one.
00:04You know, not many people talk about that lyric.
00:12The 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.
00:32This song is about, it can mean many things, but I think it's generally about how some people are
00:38able to just walk past you on the street or look at you after you guys experienced, you know,
00:45really intimate things together. I'm an emotional person and I can't just like be friends with you
00:49after doing intimate things with you. You know, it's like that or we can't really be friends.
00:56It's not easy, you know. There have been people I've heard from that maybe have suspected it's
01:01about them, but I can't confirm or deny. You'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. This 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, and both of those songs are like
01:29alternative rock songs. And then one night I had writer's block and I was like, you know,
01:33let me just lay down a disco beat as a joke, you know, with the four on the floor. I
01:37was really
01:38just like being this cocky guy in the verses just as a joke. So like, okay, this is never going
01:43to
01:43come out. And then I got to the chorus and that in a room full of people, I look for
01:47you, lyric and
01:47melody came to me. And then I listened back to that. I was like, okay, this is serious.
01:51I 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. It just came straight off the tongue.
02:03Like I wasn't thinking about it. It was just natural.
02:09You want to shove me in the corner because you know you're my Madonna. This is from the song
02:13Crushing.
02:17It's hard for me to talk about because this lyric is actually very like personal, but there's a girl
02:22who's like, who was my Madonna. I felt like she was shoving me into a corner because she like knew
02:27that she had this grip on me. So it's like, you want to shove me in the corner because you
02:31know
02:31you're my Madonna. Like, you know the power you hold. So it's kind of about that. Like this goddess
02:36woman knows the power she holds so she can fucking treat me like shit. I think sequencing is super
02:41important. You know, it's about telling a story. When I first wrote this song, I was like, this has to
02:46go first because, you know, it's generally a breakup album. And this song is basically reminiscing on like,
02:51I miss the days when we were crushing on each other. Now you're just crushing my soul. That's the lyric
02:55of the chorus in it. It feels like an introduction to this world and like me reflecting on everything
03:01that is to follow an album.
03:06I don't want to be how you formulate opinions on astrology. This 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. So if, let's say I, you know,
03:29things don't end on good terms with someone, I wouldn't want to be the reason you hate Cancers.
03:34So that was what that lyric was about. I know nothing about astrology, but I know that matters to some
03:39pretty ladies. But at the end of the day, I think it's bullshit. Thank you.
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. You know,
04:06I never expected for anyone to know my name, but I wrote some breakup songs and,
04:13you know, I'm doing a Variety cover right now. So 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. You 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. This is from Undressed.
04:45It's basically about how I don't want
04:49another man to have
04:51babies with the girl that I am in love with.
04:54You know, because then those babies will have her eyes, but it'll be there'll be another father,
04:59and I want to be the father. This one was just flowing out. I'd 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 mumbled.
05:14And then it just, it just pieced together.
05:18I want you, but the mirror won't let me. My 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
05:33ready to show myself to this person, because I think they're way hotter than me,
05:38or they're going to judge me. That's what that lyric's about.
05:40I've heard from a lot of people saying like, wow, this is my exact situation. I'm so glad
05:46that there's a song, you know, talking about these struggles, because I haven't heard a song that talks,
05:52but maybe there is, but especially from a man. And I just think it's important for people,
05:56everyone to just be being real about struggles, because with social media and, you know, everything
06:02online, it's so easy to think like the norm is to like look perfect and feel perfect all the time.
06:07I think more people are struggling than you'd think with all sorts of issues. And I think this
06:15is an important one to talk about. I'm right here. I'm struggling. Some people think I'm attractive,
06:19but I, I still have these struggles, you know? I don't care what happens with the song. Like
06:24commercially, all I want is for it to help people and, you know, the message to get across.
06:34All I see is red. Crash the car to threads. That makes no fucking sense. That's from nothing left to
06:41say.
06:47I was, I think, either a sophomore or junior in high school. And I just remember like I was still
06:55learning how to write songs. And I wasn't really focusing at that time on like writing a full song
07:02that made sense or was good. I was just trying to get songs finished, you know, put in my 10
07:05,000 hours
07:06and get stuff off me. And I made this one and I thought it sounded cool, but the whole song
07:10makes
07:10no sense. And, you know, I didn't know that Sombra would get to where it is. So, so I was
07:15just putting
07:15stuff up in high school. Now this is being quoted in an interview and I really have nothing to say
07:19about this because, because, you know, I was like, what, 15? I don't even know. Maybe younger. I don't,
07:24I don't remember, but good on you guys for pulling this. That's awesome. There's something about the
07:29music you make when you're like fully innocent and like you don't know a lot about music. I still
07:35don't know anything, but I really didn't know anything here. So it's just cool to see the innocence.
07:42The things you say just make me cry. This is from Caroline.
07:51This one is kind of the song that initially got me discovered by this first pool of people
07:58and record labels. I basically was in high school. I wrote this and produced this in my bedroom in
08:03New York all by myself, you know, with a thousand dollars total worth of equipment between my laptop
08:08and my shitty microphone and my shitty MIDI keyboard and acoustic guitar. I listened back and I thought
08:15it was the best song I'd ever made. I believe this song doesn't fully make sense, but I posted it
08:20on
08:20the internet, not on an early TikTok. There was a time in like 2022 when TikTok was considered cringe.
08:27Like now everyone uses TikTok. It's like the thing. So I was so nervous because I went to like high
08:32school in New York, you know, where everyone was so cool and people aren't posting TikTok.
08:36And I was so scared that my friends would see it the next day, but I posted it. I was
08:40like,
08:41I'm just going to post this song. I went to bed and I woke up the next morning. It had
08:45200,000 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
08:51already moved on from school. I was like, finally, I'm over it. I was like, I'm not going to be
08:56here
08:56tomorrow. I kind of was just like cocky and was like, yeah, I'm doing music now. And then I
09:01remember like when I got home from school checking my email and there was this first record label in
09:07my email. I don't, I don't, it was like Columbia records or something. And I was like, huh? Is this
09:12a scam? I call my dad and he, and I was like, dad, this label is trying to talk to
09:16me. He's like,
09:17don't answer it. Like that's a scam, but it wasn't a scam. They saw my TikTok with 200,000 likes.
09:22And then all these research departments at the label saw the TikTok and started reaching out
09:27to me. And then one label flew me to LA. It was Warner records. I remember thinking it was so
09:31cool
09:32that labels were taking me to dinner. I got taken to dinner by a few labels and I was like,
09:37wow,
09:38they're like taking me to dinner for free. Like they want to wine and dine me. But then I realized,
09:42I'm like, wait, you guys also want to own my music. So I deserve a lot more than dinner. And
09:47then
09:47from there I was like, okay, I got my foundation. You know, I'd just gotten signed,
09:52dropped out of school working for the next three years. And I'm basically just kind of on a,
10:00and then we got back to friends and that's, that's how, I don't know why I said we,
10:06I got back to friends. I wrote that shit myself, but yeah.
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