Shamir’s new album Heterosexuality is an intensely personal record.

While in the past Shamir has sung about his identity as a queer, non-binary person, he says this is the first time he’s really tackled his relationship as a queer person with the binary, heterosexual world. (I should point out that I spoke with Shamir about which pronouns he’s comfortable with me using, and he replied that he/his/him is fine.)

Heterosexuality is Shamir’s eighth full-length record, but the path to this point has been anything but linear. After signing to British indie label XL at the age of 19 and releasing acclaimed debut album Ratchet in 2015, Shamir then split with the label due to creative differences and released his second album, Hope, on SoundCloud for free.

After recovering from a psychotic episode Shamir immersed himself in the Philadelphia indie scene and released five DIY albums in less than three and a half years, following his creative muse wherever it took him.

We talk about that journey in this interview, as well as Shamir’s upbringing in the Nation of Islam, the label he founded, Accidental Popstar Records, his new LP Heterosexuality, and more.