Earlier this year, we named Shalom an Artist To Watch in the lead-up to the release of her debut album Sublimation, which came out in March via Saddle Creek Records. But Shalom has since split from the label, a situation that she has written about in the newsletter she’s been keeping up since the spring.

“I am officially an independent artist,” she wrote in an October edition of the newsletter. “As I mentioned earlier, my experience with record labels hasn’t been good. Having never done music before, I was signed with promises of support to help me grow as an artist. I am grateful that the album got put out and pressed. I am grateful that I learned a lot. I will never be grateful that they fired the person who signed me, never replaced her, and then treated me like shit the rest of my time there.”

She continued:

All that to say, I gave an ultimatum: I asked for an apology. And if I couldn’t get an apology, I told them I don’t think we should work together because our value systems don’t align. Well, dear reader, I am no longer a signed artist. A week ago, after my texts and emails went ignored for weeks if not months, I asked my lawyer what was up. Lo and behold, they moved to terminate my contract because they would not apologize. And to that I say: good riddance.

I just need to get this out because I would never, ever have thought that this is how my experience would go. For a label that prides itself on being artist-friendly, the optics are horrendous. How are you going to have one dark-skinned black woman on your roster and then go out of your way to treat her like shit? How do you think that’s going to work out? In any case, I have been released from my deal with no strings attached. I have slithered out. I am on the hunt for a manager that they didn’t help me find, and a new home for the second album. And I won’t be taken advantage of again. Goodbye, record deal. Grief bake.

Shalom mentioned this news today, when she uploaded five new demos to her Bandcamp page. “here are the demos i released earlier this year that i had to take down because label,” she wrote in the Bandcamp description. “freedom! and free palestine. enjoy :-)”

In a different newsletter from earlier this year, Shalom wrote about where she’s at in the making of her second album. That’s still to come — for now, check out the demos below.