How Sombr Went From High School Student to Best New Artist Nominee With His Viral Hit ‘Back to Friends’

For musician Sombr, the pivotal moment that launched his career still feels like a dream. Before earning industry accolades and headlining shows, he was simply a teen crafting songs in his childhood bedroom. A self-produced demo named "Caroline," created entirely in that room, unexpectedly went viral, leading to a deluge of interest from major record labels. "I went to bed a normal college student and woke up to a completely different reality," Sombr explained in an interview for Variety's Behind the Song series, presented by TikTok. The shift was so sudden his own father doubted it was real. Within days, the budding artist was on a plane to Los Angeles to sign his first record deal.

The next two and a half years involved steady growth as he cultivated a dedicated, if niche, following while waiting for a breakout hit. Sombr—whose early work on EPs like "Bedroom Echoes" merged indie pop with lo-fi aesthetics—admitted to feeling commercial pressure. "I had a solid core fanbase, but I needed a song with wider reach to build a durable career and meet the label's objectives," he stated. That song arrived with "Back to Friends," which dramatically expanded his audience and caught the attention of the Recording Academy, culminating in a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The track explores the universal yet challenging experience of trying to return to a platonic relationship after romance, a concept Sombr feels he articulated uniquely in the chorus. This theme of complicated friendship has resonated widely, often cited by fans as helping them navigate similar personal transitions.

A hallmark of "Back to Friends" is Sombr's complete, solo creative control. He was the track's sole producer, building it meticulously from the ground up. His process began unconventionally with percussion, using a programmed loop in Addictive Drums to establish a rhythmic foundation before any melody or lyrics were written. "Starting with the beat lets me set a vibe instead of being constrained by a harmonic structure," he noted. He then layered in foundational bass notes using his Yamaha upright piano and created rich atmospheric textures by stacking multiple, simple vocal harmonies. "Individually, each harmony track sounds slight, but together they form a powerful, wall-of-sound effect," he described.

Sombr deliberately crafted vocal dynamics, contrasting raw, strained verses with cleaner, more open choruses to achieve emotional balance. He described the verse delivery as intentionally tense and confined, "as if it's struggling to get out." As the arrangement builds, live drums enter in the second verse, joined by additional guitars and subtle production details. Nearing the climax, he fashioned a "simulated orchestra" from blended vocals, piano, and synth pads. The Recording Academy, founded in 1957, is known for honoring such detailed production through its Grammy Awards. The track concludes with a deliberate fade-out, a stylistic choice Sombr passionately champions. "I'm campaigning for the revival of the fade-out," he asserted. "It gives the listener a moment to absorb the song's emotional arc." This technique, once ubiquitous in classic pop and rock, has grown rare in the streaming age, where songs often end abruptly to facilitate playlist transitions.

The Grammy nomination itself was a total shock; Sombr missed the live announcement and discovered the news through a flood of congratulatory messages. When he wrote the songs that led to this honor, he was still performing in small venues with capacities of about 200, which often weren't full. The idea of Grammy recognition felt distant, making the reality profoundly surreal. As music journalist Elena Vance observes, "Sombr's path highlights how a single, authentically produced record can connect an artist's core audience with mainstream validation, a difficult bridge to cross in today's fragmented music landscape." For an artist who began in isolation, "Back to Friends" serves as both a tribute to his DIY origins and a milestone on his ascending trajectory. The full episode of Variety's Behind the Song, which breaks down Sombr's creative process, is now available to stream.