Shallou

Shallou makes music for summer sunsets, winter wonderlands and other contexts where sharpened senses meet heightened emotions in the glow of a profound, often wistful calm. Born Joe Boston in Washington D.C., Shallou grew up in Rockville, Maryland, studied in New Orleans, and moved to Chicago to focus on music before eventually resettling in Los Angeles. But despite his nomadic ways, Shallou’s music has remained remarkably focused on his chosen style since the moment he first emerged in the mid-2010s. Following the lush, melodic bass music of his 2015 EP, After, he proceeded to strip things down—and slow them down, too—with 2016 singles like “Heights” and “Doubt (Summer Edit)”, sending his cool falsetto wafting over warm, tropical-house beats. He released his debut album, Souls, in 2018, further softening his approach with lullaby-grade chimes and breathy falsetto melodies. Despite the occasionally devastating lyric—like the repeated “Oh you left me,” from “Skin”—the overall mood is a delicate flavour of bittersweet, in which even the deepest melancholy gives delectable pleasure. His follow-up album, Magical Thinking, from 2020, found Shallou sharpening his songwriting as he teamed up with singers like Zachary Knowles (“Mutual Love”) and Daya (“Older”) and stretching his sound into wide-screen pop on “Silhouettes”, featuring Vancouver Sleep Clinic. The same year, he teamed up with Petit Biscuit for the collaborative mix album, I Leave Again, proving that even the most solitary feelings are best enjoyed in good company.