NIR by SM

A year ago, I released my first EP, ASOR, as a one-man band under the name SM.

Now, SM - NIR - EP 2025 continues what I started with ASOR. It’s a reflection of my journey as a human being—just like my visual art, but expressed through music.

What sets NIR apart from ASOR is how I approached the technical side of things. This time, I allowed myself to be more flexible and collaborative. I see compromise not as a weakness, but as a way to smooth out the ego—a good thing, in my view. I was lucky to have two of my close friends, @jerry_todo and @galeng_, help bring this project to life.

Some of the songs in this EP have actually been around since my first release, but I felt they needed more time to mature before being shared.

In ASOR, I was exploring a sort of "inner birth"—a realization that, no matter how much I know, there's always so much more I don’t. NIR picks up where ASOR left off—it's about becoming empty, and maybe even a little wiser, as we navigate this broken world.

What’s the point of becoming empty or nir? I’d love to explain, but the truth is—I’m not sure I fully understand it myself, and maybe I’m not even supposed to. But I do feel like we’ve all drifted far from that initial point of awareness. Becoming empty, in a way, gives us space to receive and to remember. To remember what we’ve forgotten, what we’ve lived through. And of course, everyone has their own way of experiencing that.

I hope these dark, melancholic melodies can be meaningful to those who hear them.

As for musical references, it’s hard for me to name any. I’ve listened to so much that I’ve kind of lost track. These riffs came out of me after stewing in my mind for a long time—so while they may sound new, they’re deeply rooted in what came before. In The One That Came Before, the Eternal, the Uncreated.

One-man project