Introducing: Errunhrd

Meet Errunhrd—the alias of Canadian artist Shirin Ghoujalou—whose music sounds like the emotional aftershock of a dream you can’t quite shake. With eerie ambient textures, haunting vocals, and genre-defying production, Errunhrd crafts sonic landscapes that explore the shadowy corners of the human experience. What began as a solo project in 2016 has evolved into a deeply personal vessel for expressing the “unheard” emotions—fear, longing, melancholy, and hope—that often slip through the cracks of everyday conversation. Drawing from a rich palette of ambient, electronic, classical, and alternative influences, Shirin doesn’t just write songs—she channels raw feeling into cinematic soundscapes. With her debut album You Can Be You, I Can Be Me already turning heads on BBC Introducing and a second album, Everything I’ve Ever Known, on the horizon, Errunhrd is carving out space for quiet intensity in a loud world.

1. You’ve described Everything I’ve Ever Known as a way to process anger, fear, and self-loathing — but also as a journey toward softness. Was there a specific moment or track during the making of the album where that emotional shift really crystallized for you?

I think it was when writing To The Surface that I noticed a big emotional shift start to happen. I had written a lot of the album from a place of fear and anger, and of helplessness, and when I started messing around with the synths and drums for To The Surface, something more upbeat came out of it, but I almost stopped working on the track because it felt like such a different tone compared to where the rest of the album was going. I'm really glad I decided to finish it because it helped me grow out of that helplessness mindset, and create something more powerful that still sounds vulnerable. 

2. The production on this album feels incredibly immersive — you mention using granular synthesis, vocoders, and syncopated melodies. How do you balance the technical experimentation with emotional vulnerability in your songwriting?

That's a great question - one I'm still not quite sure of what the whole cognitive process is. But I guess I can say that I usually start off writing the instrumental part first, and look at things more as an experimental/learning session, not even thinking about vocals or completing the song yet. And if I feel connected to what I've just made - if the synths feel like they have good melody, the drums hit just right, and I can sort of hear the vocal melody already in my head, then I'll go and sit down and write some lyrics that I feel reflect the tone of the song well. It's a pretty abstract process but still feels formulaic in a way too. 

3. “DON’T DRINK CHEMICALS” feels like a standout track, both sonically and thematically. Can you talk about what inspired it, and why you chose it as the lead single?

DON'T DRINK CHEMICALS was definitely one of my favourites to put together. I originally had the synth demo/melody created years ago. At the time, I was really obsessed with the Resident Evil films, and those really inspired me to want to create something as dark/eerie as that but in terms of music. I was also listening to a lot of Crim3s and Crystal Castles at the time, so from those influences this weird electronic track came out. It didn't have any lyrics, but I knew I wanted something that went a bit harder for the vocals. I don't have as cool a vocal style as Alice, but I figured I'd try something out.

I ended up finding a neat vocoder in Reason and using that to change my vocals, and it sounded phenomenal with the instrumental. And the interesting thing was, I wasn't in the same headspace as I was when I made the instrumentals years ago, but once I added the vocals/vocoder effects, I knew this song was going to be about helplessness and feeling stuck in a tumultuous relationship. It felt super cathartic when I finally finished it. It just felt natural to choose it as the lead single from the album to show a different side/era of Errunhrd was coming. 

4. A lot of your music wrestles with identity, imposter syndrome, and the pressure of external validation. How do those themes reflect your experience as a self-taught, genre-blending artist navigating the industry?

I think coming from this place of talking openly and honestly about the pressure of external validation/anxiety and feeling like an imposter sometimes doing a career that's difficult for anyone to break into really got me to connect to people who appreciate vulnerability and who want to work with or represent someone real. By just being myself it's helped me a lot when networking and just finding genuine people to work with. I think being self-taught has been really great too, and I noticed a lot of people reaching out to me wanting to help mentor me in production to take my skills further which is amazing, and sometimes overwhelming at times too (in a good way!). I have a lot of great people in my corner looking out for me and I'm very very grateful for that. It's also really cool to see that being a more niche artist, a lot of folks appreciate my music - even if they can't relate to every song, they appreciate that I'm staying true to myself. 

5. If your debut introduced us to Errunhrd, what do you think Everything I’ve Ever Known reveals about who you are now — both as an artist and as Shirin?

Everything I've Ever Known is meant to be a continuation of my debut album - I'm still processing and still learning how to show up for myself and my loved ones. It's meant to be an eye opener when listening to some patterns I know I struggle with (i.e. self-loathing, being a martyr, looking externally all the time for answers) and reflecting that back to me, and asking 'okay, what do I want to do about this now?'. I noticed that I have a lot of friends and family who struggle with these things too, and that's why I wanted to share Everything I've Ever Known to mirror these things back to others too, and be like, 'alright, you're not alone in experiencing these things, I do too." It's an album meant to be cathartic, but also make you think about patterns that might be holding you back from being happy. I guess that's where I'm at in life right now too - reflecting on what I'm doing that sometimes holds me back from being happy.