Meet Sabreen: The Tāmaki Makaurau Artist Blending Folk, Bengali Heritage and Personal Storytelling

Auckland singer-songwriter Sabreen is preparing to release her sophomore EP, Forget Me When I'm Gone, on Friday 25 September, alongside lead single "Nina," marking a significant next step for one of the city's emerging young voices in contemporary music.

At just 23, Sabreen has built her artistic identity around a distinctive mix of personal experience, historical memory, fiction and politics, telling stories she feels genuinely deserve to be remembered.

A Sound Built on Blended Traditions

What sets Sabreen's music apart is the way she brings together different musical worlds within a single project. Forget Me When I'm Gone blends live folk instrumentation with musicians drawing from both South Asian and Western musical traditions, reflecting her own background as a young Bengali-New Zealand artist.

According to Roots Mag, which has followed her release journey closely, the EP explores "the growing pains, contradictions and emotional messiness of understanding yourself in real time," a theme that runs through much of her recent work.

Where the Sound Comes From

Sabreen has cited a range of influences that help explain her genre-blending approach, including Hozier, Paris Paloma and The Beths, artists known themselves for combining emotionally rich songwriting with distinctive instrumental textures.

That influence shows up clearly in her recent single "Land Mines," which Roots Mag described as a deeply introspective look at the emotional turbulence of navigating relationships, loneliness and self-discovery in your twenties, serving as an early preview of the themes explored more fully across the new EP.

A Track Record Building Toward This Moment

Forget Me When I'm Gone isn't Sabreen's first release. She has previously put out tracks including "Therapy" and "The End (Arabic Version)," the latter featuring collaborator Rana Hamida, songs that already hinted at her interest in weaving different cultural and linguistic threads through her music.

More Than Just Music

What makes Sabreen's work particularly distinctive is how directly she connects her songwriting to other parts of her life. According to those familiar with the project, the EP draws together her songwriting, academic studies, advocacy work and personal identity all at once, rather than treating music as separate from these other pursuits.

Central themes across the project include memory, community and catharsis, explored specifically through her own lived experience as a young Bengali-New Zealand woman navigating identity, culture and self-understanding.

A Deeply Personal Body of Work

Those who've had an early listen describe Forget Me When I'm Gone as a genuinely personal project, one where fiction, history and political awareness are woven directly into deeply individual storytelling, rather than kept at arm's length from her own experience.

Where to Find Her Music

Sabreen's upcoming EP will be available through the usual streaming platforms from its 25 September release date, alongside physical formats through outlets like elasticStage, which already lists the release ahead of launch.

Why This Release Matters

For a young artist still early in her career, Forget Me When I'm Gone represents a meaningful step forward, both in terms of musical ambition and the depth of personal and cultural material she's willing to draw from. In a New Zealand music scene increasingly shaped by artists exploring multicultural identity and heritage through genuinely original sound, Sabreen's blend of folk instrumentation with South Asian and Western musical traditions offers something distinct, a young Tāmaki Makaurau voice using music specifically to hold onto stories, memories and identities she feels are worth preserving.

This article draws on information from Roots Mag and details supplied by the artist's team ahead of the EP's release.