{"id":58734,"date":"2015-10-12T16:50:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T16:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=58734"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:28:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:28:37","slug":"best-next-shamir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/10\/12\/best-next-shamir\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Next: Shamir"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A young pop auteur breaking all the rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Taken from the 10th Birthday Issue of Wonderland.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jumper and bomber both by SAINT LAURENT BY HEDI SLIMANE<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Shamir Bailey \u2013 Shamir, for short \u2013 won\u2019t\u00a0be celebrating his forthcoming 21st with a debauched night out in downtown Las Vegas. The opening track on his debut album Ratchet bears his hometown\u2019s name, and it does a pretty good job of making Vegas\u2019s expensive sleaze sound inviting, as its symphonies \u201cka- ching ka-ching\u201d endlessly. But Bailey\u2019s not\u00a0the sort who\u2019ll pop champagne in a bar at the Bellagio or blow his birthday money on a round of blackjack at the MGM Grand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Strip or downtown area is such a small part of Vegas \u2013 only five or six miles,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople who visit often never make it out of those limits. Once you leave downtown, you realise, \u2018Oh there\u2019s nothing out here but dirt and cacti. It\u2019s the desert!\u2019\u201d His affinity for this landscape helps him resist the gravitational pulls of LA or New York usually exerted upon other musicians. Raised in the city\u2019s Northtown suburb, Shamir Bailey is one of the few pop stars you\u2019ll hear discussing the merits of hanging out in a cave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually 20-30 degrees cooler in there than it is outside. We do a little bonfire, and just
\nchill, listen to music and drink. They call it the Rave Cave.\u201d Bailey won\u2019t even be spending his birthday in the Rave Cave. Instead, he\u2019s playing at a festival in Austin, Texas, just one of the dozens of shows he\u2019s booked around the world since becoming one of pop\u2019s most original new voices. Ratchet<\/em> is the cohesive work of a self- confessed \u201cscatter-brained\u201d talent. Cowbell- punctuated jams rub up against tender country ballads. At Bailey\u2019s fizziest, on thrilling breakout single \u201cOn The Regular\u201d, he can sound like Tom Tom Club locked in a lightsaber battle with TLC.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, Bailey had graduated from high school and was working in Topshop. He\u2019d been playing in bands since he was a teenager, but decided to contact Brooklyn indie label Godmode with some solo demos. Its founder, Nick Sylvester, who would eventually become Bailey\u2019s manager and producer, was instantly struck by his voice. Within two months, the 18-year-old had boarded a plane (his second ever flight) to New York (his first time\u00a0in the city) to record his EP \u201cNorthtown\u201d. He\u2019d hoped to release it on a cassette, limited to a few hundred copies. It was after Bailey\u2019s return to Vegas, though, that things really sped up. Back in his mum\u2019s house, he woke to discover Pitchfork had declared \u201cIf It Wasn\u2019t True\u201d, one\u00a0of the songs he\u2019d recorded in New York, a Best New Track. The reaction it sparked was only the beginning of what Bailey calls \u201cthis weird freak thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Within hours, he was inundated with label interest, before eventually signing with XL.\u00a0\u201cIt was really scary, especially as it wasn\u2019t something I was striving for, or at least not that early on. I thought I had to drop a few releases and pay a few dues before I got to sign with the best record label in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Bailey\u2019s rapid success might sometimes\u00a0give him a sense of imposter syndrome, when you experience his charisma, it\u2019s clear that he could never have remained under the radar as a Topshop assistant for long. For as long as he can remember, he\u2019s exerted his individuality. The high school corridors were his runway. \u201cI\u2019d come in wearing a long dashiki or put a twig in my nose. I was almost fearless. Of course, at first people were like \u2018Bailey, why the hell are you wearing hammer pants?\u2019 But they got used to it and then it was like, \u2018Ohhh Shamir\u2019s not weird, he\u2019s just… different\u2019.\u201d Unsurprisingly, he made it into the yearbook as best dressed.<\/p>\n

Interest in Bailey as an androgynous artist can often threaten to overshadow his excellent music. He refuses to let any aspects of his\u00a0life be categorised – whether it\u2019s his gender, sexuality or music. On the day we speak, a poll published in the UK revealed that one in two of British 18-24-year-olds say they are not 100% heterosexual. In rejecting these tags, does Bailey think we\u2019re feeling a stronger sense of fluidity than ever before?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been told and forced to put ourselves\u00a0in boxes and now that\u2019s luckily starting to be looked more down upon,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople\u00a0like me, Miley Cyrus, Grimes and Angel Haze \u2013 people are being who they are. And I think it\u2019s been like that since beginning of time. I\u2019m glad that\u2019s happening, that I get to be around to see it and to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photography<\/strong>; Daisy Walker<\/p>\n

Fashion<\/strong>: Jeanie Annan-Lewin<\/p>\n

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Grooming<\/strong>: Ruth Coutinho using M.A.C Cosmetics<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Words<\/strong>: Paul Smith<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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