Nomi. is on her very first visit to London when she jumps on a video call with NME, and the screen that separates us can barely contain her effervescent energy. Her gracefully calm demeanour is lit up with hand gestures and broad smiles as she reflects on the life-changing year gone by.
It’s not hard to understand why the North Carolinian singer, songwriter and DJ is so animated – right now, she’s experiencing a season that she can only describe as “a miracle”. Since her 2025 debut, the rising R&B star’s ethereal voice has piqued the attention of SZA, Tyler, The Creator, Pharrell and Kaytranada, while racking up millions of streams. Nestled within a star-studded line-up, she’s gearing up to perform at Camp Flog Gnaw later this year, continuing to carve her place alongside some of today’s musical heavyweights in such early chapters of her own career.
Fittingly, Nomi. describes this period as “the come up” – part accurate portrayal of her ascent, part homage to fellow North Carolinian J. Cole and his 2007 debut mixtape. “Only God can do this kinda stuff,” she says, slowing down and catching her breath as she looks back on it all. “I feel so blessed. I honestly just don’t even have words.”
Luckily, Nomi.’s discography can do the talking. She first emerged on the scene in September 2025 with ‘09.30’, a hypnotically soothing collection of singles sewn together by lingering guitar chords and her honey-toned vocals. Then came the dream-soaked sonics of ‘Raindance’ shortly after, drawing in swathes of new listeners. Earlier this year, she ventured deep into the realms of soul for the timeless-sounding ‘Badman’, which then made way for the stormy, bass-driven ‘Sweet Talk’ in April – an intoxicating track that truly cemented her arrival.
Across each release, there’s an intimacy that pulls you into her wistful whirling soundpool; Nomi.’s delicate vocals are interwoven with production so raw that, if you close your eyes, it feels like you’re in the studio right next to her. She describes “the Nomi. sound” – earnestly hand-crafted with her close creative partner and executive producer, Teej – as “familiar but also futuristic… on the cutting edge of something. It’s nostalgic but also feels like it’s moving in a direction we haven’t been before.”
Nomi.’s journey may seem like a whirlwind, but the road that brought her here was far from linear. After leaving her hometown of Durham for college, she spent the following years roaming states in search of her calling. First there was Texas, where she earned a degree in Public Relations and also found her way to the decks. She learnt to DJ, spinning vinyl and mixing CDJs in an effort to quench her thirst to perform while also sidestepping her deep-rooted fear of singing publicly. “When I first started DJing, I think I did it from a place of subconsciously wanting to try to wake up that part of me, to be able to face that fear one day,” she shares.
But with the decks mastered, her creative desires expanded beyond what Texas could offer. She moved to New York in her early twenties before relocating to Los Angeles, where her music journey truly began. She didn’t enter quietly – a video she’d posted of herself singing Jhené Aiko’s ‘Frequency’ on Instagram had caught the attention of renowned songwriter and producer Raphael Saadiq, who reached out to her via DM.
“I was like, ‘If he thinks I can sing, I don’t have anything to worry about!’” she recalls. Soon, Nomi. was also invited to work with Tennessee rapper Isaiah Rashad, providing stacked vocals on the chorus of ‘Headshot (4r Da Locals)’, as fans online recently uncovered.
“Nomi. is the version of myself who’s carefree, fearless, confident, and wants to be a vessel for these songs”
Those early opportunities weren’t without their struggles – “I was trembling in that studio; I used to be so shy,” Nomi recalls of working with Rashad – and her creative insecurities allowed doubt to creep back in. “I kinda gave up on music for a while,” she says. “I just couldn’t see the end result. I could only see the fear.”
She meandered back south to Alabama and worked nonstop at a nine-to-five job that drained her, but ultimately led to an epiphany: “I had this existential moment of like, ‘What if I just did it?’ I’ve never been somebody who plays it safe, hence me moving around all over the place. But I just decided that I would take a leap of faith and try.”
Gradually, the revitalised vocalist – who prefers not to reveal her real name – conquered her crippling stage fright through the creation of her alter ego and artistic persona. To do this, she drew inspiration from the cult-classic 1995 film Showgirls, in which the main character Nomi travels to Vegas to follow her dreams of becoming a dancer.
“I thought it was just so cool that somebody would take a chance on themselves, you know?” she explains now. “And that’s the part of her that I see in me: this girl who has a dream and will really put herself in the fire to get there… Nomi. is the version of myself who’s carefree, fearless, confident, and wants to be a vessel for these songs.”
Now, Nomi. is preparing for the release of her first full-length project ‘This Wolf May Cry’ – a heartfelt body of work brought together under a title that came to her in a dream over five years ago. Filled with a shapeshifting collection of tracks that have been incubating since then, its final iteration is truly reflective of her story. The songs are inspired by love, loss, uncertainty and truth, told through an unlikely lens of well-known fable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
“The motif of a wolf presents this strong, resilient figure, but we don’t necessarily hear their side of the story,” she reasons. “I wanted to tell my story from my own perspective. I’ve had to be strong and push through things too, but I’m also somebody who’s very deeply emotional, and I want to share that side of me as well. I’m really just trying to show the duality of me. I think a lot of people will see themselves in these songs. It’s a really dynamic journey.”
And that journey is far from over. Nomi. knows just what she wants from the path ahead. When asked what she hopes for in the next chapters of her career, she is determined in her response and crystal clear in her vision. “I wanna get better with time. I want people to grow with me on my journey as I continue experimenting and making new art,” she declares before her animated smile returns. “And, you know, five years from now? It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple Grammys. Just saying.”
Nomi. plays Camp Flog Gnaw in November.
The post Spellbinding singer-songwriter Nomi. is finding her own frequency appeared first on NME.
