Nomi. is in London for the first time when she joins us by video call for NME, and the camera barely contains her warmth and restless energy. Beneath a composed, almost meditative calm, she lights up the screen with animated hand gestures and frequent smiles as she looks back on a year that has transformed her career.
It’s easy to see why the North Carolina-born singer, songwriter and DJ sounds so buoyant: the period has felt, in her words, “a miracle”. Since her 2025 debut, the emerging R&B artist has captured the attention of SZA, Tyler, the Creator, Pharrell and Kaytranada while gathering millions of streams. Having earned her place on a star-packed line-up, she is preparing to take the stage at Camp Flog Gnaw later this year, an impressive milestone for someone still at the beginning of her public career.
Nomi. calls this chapter “the come up”, a phrase that captures her rapid ascent and nods to fellow North Carolinian J. Cole’s 2007 debut mixtape. “Only God can do this kinda stuff,” she says, pausing to steady her breath as she takes in what has happened. “I feel so blessed. I honestly just don’t even have words.”
Her growing catalogue makes the momentum easy to hear. She debuted in September 2025 with ‘09.30’, a gently hypnotic sequence of singles bound together by lingering guitar lines and honeyed vocals. ‘Raindance’ followed soon after, delivering dream-drenched production and reaching a wider audience. Earlier this year, she pushed further into soul territory with the enduringly warm ‘Badman’, before April’s ‘Sweet Talk’ arrived with stormy, bass-heavy force. That commanding single marked her arrival with particular clarity.
Across these releases, Nomi. creates a close and wistful sonic world. Her delicate voice is woven through production that feels startlingly raw, giving the impression that you are sitting in the studio beside her. She describes “the Nomi. sound” as something built carefully with her close creative partner and executive producer, Teej: “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.”
Although her breakthrough now feels rapid, the route to this point has never been straightforward. After leaving Durham for college, Nomi. spent several years travelling across the US in search of her vocation. In Texas, she earned a degree in public relations and discovered DJing, learning to spin vinyl and work the CDJs. The discipline gave her a way to satisfy her desire to perform while allowing her to step around the fear of singing in public. “When I first started DJing, I think I did it from a place of subconsciously wanting to try to wake that part of me, to be able to face that fear one day,” she explains.
Once she had mastered the decks, she wanted more space to develop as a songwriter and performer. After moving to New York in her early twenties, she eventually settled in Los Angeles, where her recording career began to take shape. Even then, she made an immediate impression: a video of her singing Jhené Aiko’s ‘Frequency’ on Instagram was spotted by acclaimed songwriter-producer Raphael Saadiq, who contacted her by direct message.
“I was like, ‘If he thinks I can sing, I don’t have anything to worry about!’” she recalls. Her momentum increased when she was invited to work with Tennessee rapper Isaiah Rashad, contributing layered vocals to the chorus of ‘Headshot (4r Da Locals)’—a credit later identified by keen fans online.
“Nomi. is the version of myself who’s carefree, fearless, confident, and wants to be a vessel for these songs”
Those early opportunities were not without challenges. “I was trembling in that studio; I used to be so shy,” Nomi says of recording with Rashad, and the experience allowed old doubts to resurface. “I kinda gave up on music for a while,” she admits. “I just couldn’t see the end result. I could only see the fear.”
Nomi. eventually made her way back south and took a demanding nine-to-five job in Alabama. The work was exhausting, but it prompted a decisive realization: “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.”
Over time, the singer—who still prefers not to disclose her real name—overcame crippling stage fright by creating the alter ego and artistic persona Nomi. She drew the character from the cult film Showgirls, in which the ambitious Nomi travels to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream of becoming a dancer.
“I thought it was just so cool that somebody would take a chance on themselves, you know?” she reflects. “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.”
Nomi. is now preparing to release her debut LP, ‘This Wolf May Cry’, a deeply personal collection tied to a title that came to her in a dream more than five years ago. The finished set brings together tracks developed over that period, presenting the kind of body of work shaped by love, loss, uncertainty and hard-earned truth. Reframed through the familiar fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the project offers an unexpected route into her story.
“The motif of a wolf presents this strong, resilient figure, but we don’t necessarily hear their side of the story,” she explains. “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.”
The journey, however, is still unfolding. Asked what she wants next, Nomi. answers without hesitation: “I wanna get better with time. I want people to grow with me on my journey as I continue experimenting and making new art.” Her certainty is followed by a familiar animated smile and one audacious possibility. “And, you know, five years from now? It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple Grammys. Just saying.”