Next Wave: Shae Navigates Identity Beyond Virality
Finding Catharsis Through Music
Before “Anybody” connected with millions of listeners across the globe, shae was writing music casually between university deadlines and late-night homework. Music was less of a career plan and more of an emotional release, something she turned to while trying to navigate uncertainty in both life and identity.
“A big part of why I started music was because it was a good way for me to cathartically express myself from all those responsibilities in my life,” she says.
At the time, she was attending the University of Toronto while simultaneously immersing herself in online music communities and early collaborations. That chaotic period eventually became foundational to the way she approached creativity. Ironically, one of the defining moments of her career came directly out of procrastination.
“I had calculus homework to do, and I didn’t want to do it,” she recalls. “So I grabbed my guitar and wrote ‘Anybody.’”
Written at roughly 2 a.m., “Anybody” was never made with the intention to become a breakout hit. Neither shae nor collaborators who worked on the track anticipated the scale the song would eventually reach. Looking back now, she sees those stressful years as creatively formative rather than restrictive.
“I think struggle really helps you express yourself creatively,” she says. “Some people need that outlet.”
Long before streaming numbers or audience expectations entered the picture, her earliest songwriting carried a level of personal depth that came from having nobody to impress. Releasing music independently through SoundCloud allowed her to write instinctively, often pulling directly from personal experiences and unresolved emotions.
One unreleased song titled “Johnny,” written after a falling out with a close friend, still stands out to her as an example of how personal her songwriting once felt.
“When I didn’t have any eyes on me, I could just write whatever I wanted,” she explains. “Now there's just much more at stake now if I don't make a song that doesn't involve the people who are going to listen to it.”
Internet Music Culture and HEARTLANE
Like many artists who emerged online during the early 2020s, shae’s creative identity was heavily shaped by internet music culture. Through Reddit communities and online connections, she joined HEARTLANE, an internet-based collective that blended indie, pop, hip-hop, and experimental sounds. For shae, the experience became her first real introduction not only to collaborative music-making, but to the realities of the industry itself.
Before joining the collective, she says she knew little about recording workflows, mixing, sending vocals remotely or navigating creative dynamics between artists. HEARTLANE exposed her to entirely new genres and approaches to songwriting while simultaneously teaching her the logistical side of making music online.
“It was my first time being exposed to the process of songwriting and collaboration,” she says. “And also the creative politics that can happen when people work together.”
The group’s debut and only mixtape, See You in Forever, has since disappeared from major streaming platforms, but it remains an important part of her artistic foundation. Through those online relationships, she discovered artists and sounds far outside the music she originally grew up listening to, something that continues influencing her work now.
That period also shaped the way she viewed artistic identity. Early on, she admits she often measured success through imitation, specifically recalling how much she idolized beabadoobee during her early SoundCloud era.
“I thought I had to conform my identity to something else,” she says. “But artists like beabadoobee can’t be replicated because their branding comes naturally from who they are.”
Now, she approaches artistry differently. Rather than trying to recreate another artist’s image, she seems more focused on slowly figuring out what feels authentic to her personally.
The Aftermath of “Anybody”
Released as only her second song on Spotify, “Anybody” changed the trajectory of her career almost immediately. After posting the track on TikTok, shae woke up the next morning to find the song spreading rapidly online. While the attention felt validating, it also introduced pressure before she had fully established an artistic identity for herself.
“People already attached this image of ‘Anybody’ to me,” she says. “I started thinking, ‘If I don’t release more music like this, maybe nobody will care.’”
What followed became emotionally complicated. Internal issues within her label delayed follow-up releases while expectations surrounding streams, monthly listeners, and engagement slowly reshaped her relationship with her music. At one point, she says she began feeling reduced to metrics.
“Everything started feeling like a number,” she explains. “I became really insecure about streams and listeners.”
She also describes feeling unsupported behind the scenes during that period, eventually leaving the label entirely and returning to independence. Even now, she views the success surrounding “Anybody” as both career-defining and emotionally difficult.
Whenever people introduce her as an artist, the song is usually the first thing mentioned. While she remains grateful for the opportunities it created, there is still lingering pressure surrounding the idea of being reduced to one defining moment.
“There’s pressure not wanting to become a one-hit wonder,” she says. “But I also never want to take for granted how rare that opportunity was.”
Reinvention Through Vulnerability
If “Anybody” represented visibility, songs like “Comforter” suggest where shae wants to head emotionally and sonically moving forward. Written around the confusion of a toxic situationship, “Comforter” approaches vulnerability less directly but more implicitly.
“I wanted to feel that person sonically,” she says.
The song also reflects a broader shift in her songwriting. Earlier releases often centered around imagined relationships or idealized romance, while newer material feels more grounded in lived experience.
“I was never really in a relationship before,” she admits. “There just wasn’t a lot to write about.”
Recently, she has also started thinking more visually about music itself. During songwriting sessions, she now imagines how songs could exist beyond audio alone but also through stage performance, movement, and music videos.
“How do I perform this? What would the music video look like?” she says. “I think visuals are a really important part of making music now.”
That mindset became even stronger during her recent break from releasing music. Rather than viewing the pause as lost momentum, she describes it as a period of creative reconstruction. Films, journaling, drawing, philosophy, and introspection all became part of her creative process while reevaluating the direction she wanted her music to take.
“I didn’t realize how constructive a break could actually be,” she says.
Independence has become central to that evolution as well. Without label structures shaping her decisions, she says she has been trying to reconnect with the original reason she started making music in the first place: catharsis.
Growing in Public
Much of shae’s songwriting revolves around reflection because, according to her, those are the emotions she struggles with most consistently. Rather than writing directly from immediate experiences, she often writes from feelings that linger afterward.
“I can't really talk about things or write about things that are happening then and there. I think I like to write about my identity and certain themes because they’re thoughts that I've been lingering on for a while. I journal, and I look back on that for lyrical inspiration.”
The next phase of her music appears shaped by that. Sonically, she hints toward more experimental production and a more mature vocal direction, while lyrically moving away from idealized depictions of love toward something more self-aware.
At the same time, she does not present herself as someone who has fully figured everything out yet. Throughout the conversation, shae repeatedly returns to the idea of still being in the middle of understanding herself creatively and personally. Rather than presenting a fully polished version of who she thinks she should be, shae seems more interested in documenting the process of becoming someone at all. In an industry that often pressures artists to define themselves immediately, that willingness to remain unfinished may ultimately be what makes her artistry feel human.
Q&A
What are you reading right now?
Shae: “I’m reading “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism’ by Timothy Keller. I grew up Christian, but lately I’ve been trying to develop my own relationship with faith and religion rather than just inheriting it.”
If your life had a theme song at this exact moment, what would it be and why?
Shae: “Probably ‘Reason' by Odeal. It’s basically about believing there’s a reason for everything.”
What does being featured in The Ambony mean to you?
Shae: “It means that people still care, even though I'm in a very puzzled state right now with my music career. But whenever I get people reaching out and saying they want to hear more about my music and who I am as an artist makes me feel like I'm still on the right path and people are still listening to me. Also, in a very selfish way, it feels like I am still doing something that matters to people.”