okayshalom

Fairfax, VA, USA

Shalom makes strikingly direct music with such emotional openness and clarity that each track on her debut album Sublimation, out via Saddle Creek, feels like a quiet revelation. The East Coast-based, South Africa-raised artist writes fearlessly personal songs, and her honesty is so blunt it’s inviting. Featured in FADER, Stereogum & Paste among others, she clears whatever tension there is to make room for catharsis. A lifelong writer, Shalom started playing bass in 2019 in a DIY band, and when the band broke up in early 2020 she experienced unrelenting writer's block -- one of the most painful experiences in her life. In August 2020, Shalom managed to write Concrete and quietly released a set of demos later that December, which caught the ear of Saddle Creek. The indie label took note of her distinct songwriting and put her in contact with her creative counterpart, Ryan Hemsworth. Together, the two created Sublimation entirely virtually. Now independent, Shalom's heartbeat bass lin