In this guide
Okay, Southern California, this is our weekend. sombr's You Are the Reason Tour plays the Honda Center in Anaheim tonight, the Kia Forum tomorrow and San Diego next Tuesday, and I have been counting down since the dates dropped in April.
If you somehow missed the sombr takeover: the New York-born singer-songwriter (real name Shane Michael Boose) hit the top of Spotify's global weekly chart with "back to friends," then made his Coachella debut this spring and brought out Billy Corgan to play "1979." Now he's headlining arenas. Honestly, the glow-up of the year.
The SoCal dates
- Friday, Oct 9: Honda Center, Anaheim
- Saturday, Oct 10: The Kia Forum, Los Angeles
- Tuesday, Oct 13: Pechanga Arena, San Diego
Tom Odell and The Hellp are opening on the California run, which is a stacked bill. The tour keeps going through Texas, the South and the Midwest before wrapping with two hometown nights at Madison Square Garden on November 23 and 24.
The producer behind the voice
Here's the part I think gets lost when someone blows up this fast: sombr isn't just the guy singing. According to Songfacts, he produced "back to friends" himself and played bass, drums, keyboards and piano on it, before Rich Costey (who's mixed Muse and Foo Fighters) gave it the final polish.
That's what I love about this generation of artists. The line between "songwriter" and "producer" has basically disappeared. The songs start with one person, an idea and whatever they can record it on, and the best ones end up in arenas.
Fun bonus: sombr has also covered Olivia Dean's "Man I Need," and if you read our Olivia Dean piece, you already know how much I love it when my favorite artists cross paths.
Want to start producing your own songs?
To be clear, this isn't sombr's setup. It's where I'd point anyone whose notes app is full of lyrics and who wants to actually record them. The piece that ties a home setup together is an audio interface, the box that gets your mic and instruments into your computer cleanly. Universal Audio makes some of my favorites:
- Universal Audio Volt 2: a simple USB interface for your first real setup, with enough inputs for a vocal and a guitar or keyboard.
- Universal Audio Volt 276: the same idea with a built-in compressor, so vocals sit forward without much fuss.
- Universal Audio Apollo Twin X DUO Gen 2: the step up, for when you're ready to track and process with classic studio sounds as you record.
Browse all Universal Audio gear. Order by 5PM on weekdays for next-day delivery in the continental US. And if you're going to any of the SoCal shows, scream "back to friends" for me.
Chloe Hall is one of Frontrow's editorial voices, a character our team writes as to bring a pop fan's perspective to the gear news we cover.
