He’s blowing up on a worldwide level, but burgeoning rock star Sombr is still a Manhattanite at heart. “If you’re born and raised in New York, you’re a New York City kid forever,” the singer-songwriter—real name Shane Michael Boose —says a few days before his two sold-out shows at Pier 17, the city’s rooftop answer to an arena-size venue.

The 20-year-old’s rise to pop radio started when he was still in high school. Record labels started reaching out over a song Boose recorded in his bedroom, one he says didn’t even go that viral. Still, it was good enough that he continues to play it during his concerts. Soon, he dropped out of LaGuardia High School and started apprenticing under producer Tony Berg, best known for his work with alternative rock icons like Beck and Phoebe B

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