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Today, indie rock figurehead Shamir shared a new video for bold single “Diet” off his self-titled album Shamir. Released last year to sweeping critical acclaim, the record was included on best of 2020 lists from NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, VICE, Consequence of Sound, Billboard, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, The AV Club, BrooklynVegan, Gay Times and beyond. Following previous singles “Other Side,” “Running,” “I Wonder” and quarantine pop anthem “On My Own,” Shamir explains: “‘Diet’ is a song I never thought I’d make a video for – it wasn’t a single, nor was it planned to be one, but it’s a song that instantly resonated with everyone when the album came out. The origin of the song is pretty dark, taking inspiration from the film ‘My Friend Dahmer,’ but the deeper meaning of the song is less about the gore or even Jeffrey Dahmer and more about the battle we all have with our darker urges and/or neurosis that tend to appear during our adolescence/pubescent years and how that plays a part in developing our moral compass. The video was filmed in different locations around Lake Tahoe in my home state of Nevada.”
Watch “Diet”
Shamir will also perform for Die Jim Crow Records’ livestream event on January 17 raising funds for previously incarcerated artist SIMPLY, NAOMI. Shamir’s new album reimagines 90’s Pop & Rock for the modern world, in what he calls his most accessible album since 2015’s debut Ratchet. “I felt like it didn’t need a name, cuz it’s the record that’s most me,” Shamir says. It’s been a long road, over the last six years, to finally make the album that matched his vision – from becoming a globe-trotting touring act, taking a hard left turn stylistically, confronting his mental health issues and moving from his native Las Vegas to Philadelphia.
Coming together when Shamir met up with a songwriting hero, Lindi Ortega, this full-length (with some tracks produced by Kyle Pulley – Hop Along, Diet Cig, Adult Mom, Kississippi) is his most intimate, most crafted and a huge step forward in a transfiguration for the artist. Having adopted the iconography of the butterfly, the chrysalis has fallen away, and Shamir is floating. And he’s barely 26 years old.
