SAM HABER’S BROKEN HEARTS CLUB Recently, I got the chance to sit down with a young label executive and golden-fro’d man-about-town, Sam Haber, at Knight Moves Café. Over a London fog tea latte, we chatted about his many roles at Heartbreak Records (a record label he co-founded and co-runs). Unfortunately, the audio recording for that conversation was corrupted to all hell, so we had to reconvene over Zoom to get his story on the record. Our (lightly edited) conversation follows:
MASSACHUSETTS MINUTE $ean Wire Continues To Walk Towards Greatness
Over the years, the music scene in Massachusetts has gone through phases. Led by different artists at different times, talents seemingly come and go, and new artists arise from the cracks to make an imprint on the sonic acclaim of the area. Though this may lead to discontinuity as it relates to an overarching artistic reputation, it gives way to a landscape of creativity that is constantly evolving. Despite this though, there are a few artists who have managed to maintain relevance and withstand the test of time, constantly pushing their catalogs to different heights and becoming staples within the local circuit of music. One such artist is Boston’s $ean Wire. With more than half a decade worth of music under his belt, $ean is continuing to surpass boundaries, and create groundbreaking art. Though his music has roots in R&B and Hip-Hop, the music that $ean Wire creates exists in a world of its own. His ability to write and create music is unparalleled, as he somehow surpasses his prior releases with each new drop. Though he started to grow a buzz early on in his career after his initial singles were well-received by audiences, the moment things really began clicking was after his feature on Boston rapper Cousin Stizz’s album Trying To Find My Next Thrill. Impressing the masses with his delectable vocals, emotionally-charged verses, and unabashed creativity, $ean assumed position as one of the next greats from the Bay State. All of this was heightened even more following the release of his debut album Internal Dialect, which is regarded as one of the most polished projects to be released by an artist from Massachusetts within the last decade. Despite these past wins, $ean is hungry for more, and following his recent entry into fatherhood,
he’s taking on the world of music with more determination than ever before. After an unrelenting stream of singles, an accomplished album titled HIM$, and multiple cinematic music videos, $ean is now prioritizing 2023. Hoping to followup on the success that he’s exhibited in years passed, he’s well on his way towards doing so, as the Boston artist has already unearthed two prominent singles this year. “Get It & Go” debuted back towards the end of April and marked arguably the most Hip-Hop/Rap-centric offering that he’s released thus far in his career. Sitting just shy of the two-minute mark, this single offers a moment where $ean gets some weight off his chest. Checking some of his rivals, not being satisfied, and possessing an implacable desire to win are the major thematic elements of this release, with $ean proving to be more insistent on seeing his dreams through than ever before. “Ride Or Die” is his second single that he’s released this year, and takes on a vastly different temperament than “Get It & Go.” Tapping into his more emotive side, this single is rooted in feelings of love, loyalty, and inexorable desire. “Ride Or Die” shows the side of $ean that fans have always known and love, but takes things up a notch. Though he’s always been a true talent and his older songs are just as good now as they were then, $ean is continuing to develop into an impeccably-sound artist. With all that we’ve seen in years past, the stage is set for $ean to make more noise than he has ever made before. If his new sounds are indicative of anything, it’s that he’s still marching down the path towards greatness, and with every step of the way he’s getting closer and closer to his truest potential.
------------------------------------------------ SHAMUS HILL
AH: Your birthday was recently, yeah? SH: Yeah, 10 days ago. AH: Happy belated birthday! Blessings, my guy. I wanted to start by asking you how you would describe yourself as a person. SH: I’d describe myself as driven. Also particular, because I’m always trying to find the most efficient way to do things. I hate wasting my own time. I have so much to do on a daily basis, wasting time is not an option. AH: Where would you say that your drive comes from? SH: I want to leave a mark on the world. I don’t wanna die and have not done anything; I want to leave the world a better place than when I was born, you know? AH: I hear that. That’s a heavy statement for a young person, but it’s an important way to move through the world. Why did you decide to start your own company? SH: Me and [co-founder + co-CEO] Mocha were both making music in the sixth grade together. And we were looking at our inspirations and trying to figure out how we were gonna get bigger; what we discovered is that there’s nobody really from Boston that Boston artists can look up to who has really done that, who has really gotten super big and then continued to rep Boston. So if we’re gonna elevate ourselves and elevate people like us, we have to elevate the entire scene. We formed Heartbreak Records to bring Boston up as a community. AH: What do you do at Heartbreak Records? SH: I don’t have one particular job; I help with all the different branches. I’m in the studio a lot with artists. I do a lot of distribution. Anything that needs to be done, I’m helping with. AH: What are the different branches? SH: I like to think of the company as an octopus. The main head of Heartbreak Records is the recording label; we bring artists into the studio, we help them make their music, and we distribute it. We have the Heartbreak News, which is a monthly printed publication that we deliver all over Boston and we feature news about the Boston hip-hop scene. We have a podcast called “From the Heart,” where we review new local artists every week, and it airs on New England Mic Check Radio and Spotify. And we have Hindsight Productions, which
is the film branch, and they do in-house filming for Heartbreak Records—music videos, short films, all that. AH: How do you manage the different legs that come out of the octopus’ head? SH: Currently, I’m trying to get one official manager for each branch; right now we have a few people in each branch who have been around since their founding and are able to run them. So I just help out with the technical stuff and I manage all the finances. AH: Have you had any mentors along the way as you’ve started to build Heartbreak with Mocha? SH: Yeah. Wes Kaplan, he used to run the music studio at the Brookline Teen Center where we do a lot of our recording. He works at Brookline Interactive Group now where we get a lot of equipment for Hindsight Productions. He’s been around for a long time; he helped us book our shows and introduced us to the studio. He’s sort of been a guiding force to me, helping us stay true to ourselves and our mission. AH: What music are you looking to support? SH: We’re a hip hop record label. We welcome all different kinds… we tend to be a bit more biased towards more experimental stuff, people willing to take risks in their music. We like lyrical content; non-lyrical is welcome too, but that’s just my preference. AH: Who are some artists on Heartbreak right now? SH: We have Will Abad, Kay Wattz. We have a producer named Rhythm. And I’m an artist on the label myself. AH: What are you looking to build or accomplish in the next year, and in the next five years? SH: We want to start signing more artists. We want to do bigger, more frequent shows, get Heartbreak News in more places, get more people listening to the podcast, and do as much as we can to get people to know about and appreciate the Boston hip-hop scene. And then within the next five years, hopefully we’ll be a big enough and strong enough presence in Boston that we can start to expand out of the city. We should hopefully get our own studio, and then start working networking with other labels in other cities. AH: I hope those plans come to fruition. Do you feel like Heartbreak will be a lifelong project for you? SH: I always think I’ll be part of Heartbreak Records. But a goal I’ve had for a long time is like, ‘what if I just didn’t do this?’ Would Heartbreak Records be able to run without me? Currently I don’t think that’s true, but that’s the goal: if something happened to me, the label would be able to continue its mission.
--------------------------------------- ALULA HUNSEN