Q&A: NoMBe Chats Intuitive Cooking, His Grandmother and His New Single “Best Friend”
STRETCHED OUT IN HIS LOS ANGELES HOME — next to his dog, Breakfast, NoMBe told me about the chicken lentil soup he made earlier that day.
“I added too much turmeric and lemon and it became super, super zesty,” he said. “It wasn’t bad, I just needed to balance it. So I threw in some coconut milk. I didn't originally want to make a coconut dish, but it's pretty dope. And I'll probably make it in the future now.”
NoMBe follows a similar organic process with his music, many of his songs coming from “happy accidents.”
And the “accidents” seems to be working — NoMBe has over 1B streams total, was featured in NPR and PAPER Magazine, and even played at Frank Ocean’s 30th birthday party.
Drawing on influences as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Daft Punk, Lenny Kravitz, and James Blake, NoMBe prioritizes evolving his music alongside his personal growth.
His new single, “Best Friend,” was originally meant for an earlier album, but he realized that it wasn’t the right fit. Now, the track has found its proper home on NoMBe’s titular EP, Noah, out May 2024. Inspired by his friendship with his grandmother, “Best Friend” serves as a breezy reprieve from the general malaise of the past few years.
Yet NoMBe’s escapism is grounded in reality. “It’s the end of the world, it’s a hell of a scene,” he sings in the first line of the song. In the cover art, smoldering flames are visible behind the artist and a presumed lover as they sit on a convertible next to a beautiful spray of flowers.
Read on below to learn about “Best Friend” and NoMBe’s evolution.
LUNA: Congrats on the release of “Best Friend”! The song describes "cruising with your best friend." Can you share more about the story behind the song and its connection to your grandmother?
NOMBE: Lyrically, I always envisioned just cruising with my grandma while there's these space invader aliens and we're having ice cream. I think at some point I thought it was interesting to write the lyrics a bit more ambiguously, where it could be about a love interest or whoever your best friend is.
My grandma passed away two weeks ago and it’s so weird that the song is the one that's coming out… I didn’t plan for that. My grandma was so formative with my musical upbringing. She was the one that always played music in the house — a lot of classical music — and made sure I got my piano lessons. But I'm glad I waited until now to put it out. I feel like she's still with me now, and the song's intention is there.
LUNA: I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother, thank you for sharing. If you feel comfortable answering, how has your relationship to the song changed in the wake of her passing?
NOMBE: I'm definitely more emotional when I sing the song. Nowadays, with a song like this, I have to make a lot of content. So I'm singing the song every other day and performing it acoustically outside, or in my kitchen or wherever, and making different versions.
I'm confronted with the song and the lyrics a lot, which is partly cathartic and partly just sad… I was performing a song the other day with one of my videographers and I had to really try not to cry because we were filming, and maybe I should have just cried, but it just didn't feel like appropriate at that time. I didn't want to interrupt the shoot and then everybody gets quiet and awkward. I didn't want that. But, in an ideal world, that's what music's for, right? To be able to make something that can soothe you and remind you, that's the beauty of art.
You know, usually I do it for other people. It's rare that it actually serves me in that way.
LUNA: You've previously described this upcoming EP, Noah, as a “road trip album.” Can you speak a little more about that concept?
NOMBE: The one thing the songs have in common is, when I [listen] to them all together, they all feel like they would make a good mixtape for a road trip. There was this idea of movement. And when I closed my eyes, all of the videos, I kind of just envisioned me singing in the car or going somewhere with my loved one. That was an idea that formed while I was living in Hawai‘i, driving down the coastline.
There’s a team of creative directors I work with and they're so good. I told them about the road trip thing; this idea of escapism. So we started talking about how a road trip is not just getting away, but it's also the transitional period to arriving somewhere else. And so I think that was huge, because I am kind of rebranding sonically. I think visually, we're just trying to depict that idea of movement.
LUNA: Your forthcoming EP marks your return after taking a break during the pandemic. How did this time away influence your creative process and your overall sound?
NOMBE: Since the pandemic, I left my old record deal and needed to regroup. I was asking myself questions like, “Who am I outside of this infrastructure, this world that I live and work in, this network of alternative [music]?” And so I kind of wanted to just make stuff. Every time I have an idea, I'm gonna just make it and not think about it, not think where it's going to go.
The EP is almost a bridge to an album that would really answer this question better. That album is more so soul, funky stuff, tapping into my love for ’60s and ’70s Black music. But I had also been carrying these other demos around, like “Best Friend,” and I was like, “Man, these have to come out too.” So for this EP, I really wanted to do songs that were really simple stories of my life, not overthought.
I think this journey has been one of completing old cycles, and embracing what's to come. I think I'm creating more freely than ever. I feel very authentic in this space.
LUNA: That's great. I really like what you said about this EP being a home for some songs that have been with you for a while, and the next album being this next step in your journey of finding your authentic self. Could you speak a little more on this process of realization? Were there any specific triggers or incidents that happened?
NOMBE: No, not at all. In a way, my taste just got more refined. It's not like what I used to like, I don't like anymore. There are some artists I love because they take up that space in my heart and my soul, and I never want them to change. And then there are artists that I love because they reinvent themselves every time and they show me something. I love their approach to things.
And so, for me, I would say I'm more in the second category. I never intended to be like, “This is who I am” with the first album. I knew really early on in the process that the next album will be very different. And if I don't get to [evolve] I don't really want to be a musician. Because for me, the fun part is chasing that new thing. I get very bored of myself. So as I grow as a person, the music changes, my experience changes. It wouldn't make sense to me to make the same record over and over.
It works for some people; I admire it. It's basically trying to make a marinara sauce 40 different ways. But for me, it wouldn't make sense. Nowadays for marketing purposes though, it’s harder for people to understand [artists evolving].
LUNA: Yeah, for sure. I feel like an artist evolving over time reflects the general human process of growth. So it makes a lot of sense. But you’re right, it's especially hard nowadays because people like to pick a brand and stick to it. I want to know, especially with this social media–first environment we’re in, how has your relationship with your audience changed, and how much do you write with your audience in mind?
NOMBE: That's a good question. I don't think it's changed. I see my audience as my peers; I think of them as people that listen to the same music I listen to. There's no way of knowing that, but I do make music for myself. And I, in that, hope that people will like it, appreciate the same sort of taste.
I'm not one of those artists where I'm like, “Oh, I never think about the audience.” That's not true. It's actually a really philosophical thought exercise because in reality it's like, I create my audience because I make it for myself. If you do something that you believe in, you get good at it and that’s attractive and that’s what brings people in. That's why you essentially are creating for the audience.
So, good cooking reference again: what's the point of being a chef and having a restaurant if your intention is not to feed people? But what you're not going to do is interview every person in the street, what their favorite food is, and then based on that make a restaurant. The philosophy I have with my art is to not give people what they want but to give them what they need, because they might not know what they need.
But on the marketing side, you say, okay, people like Coca Cola. So let’s keep making Coca Cola or find something that's just different enough so that because we know they already are going to like that, right? But that's not necessarily an artist's job. In the music industry, that's where those two ideas meet, right? And so that’s the crux of marketing as an artist, and trying to sell something that is not really intended to be sold.
LUNA: Lastly, I wanted to ask you also about your experiences performing live. You've collaborated with artists like Bonobo and alt-j and performed at major festivals. What has your relationship been with performing live and what do you like and dislike about it?
NOMBE: I love being on stage, for sure. Which is funny because when I was a kid, I had the worst stage fright ever. All tours are stressful, but in the end it's worth it. The joy of people when a show goes well, when you give it your all, like that is truly a high that I'm very lucky to experience.
A lot of people are like, “It’s just a money gig,” but for me, [I really enjoy] going out, seeing that people actually showed up, and that this night made their week. Maybe they'll remember it, and it will be a special thing in their life.
There is something really traditional about stage performance. Entertaining goes back to, like, us sitting around a campfire or something, you know — it's thousands of years old.
And I think that's a very, very special thing… and I hope it never goes away. As I get older I’m like, “Ah, I used to be a dancer, now my legs are messed up and all this stuff.” But that's also me being ungrateful. So you know, it is a beautiful thing we get to do.
