In partnership with BandLab
For the third year in a row, NESYA dropped a new album on the Friday of Halloween. “It’s become a tradition. My fanbase pretty much expects it now because my music is kind of spooky,” says the singer-songwriter, who recently moved from Los Angeles to Gilbert, Arizona. “Spooky” is certainly one way to describe NESYA’s shapeshifting sound, which can ricochet mid-track between frenetic hyperpop hooks and goth-coded atmospherics inspired by The Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees.
“I’d maybe call it post-apocalyptic punk-pop electronic darkwave,” suggests NESYA, who until a couple of years ago was working as a primary school teacher. Her latest Halloween LP, ‘K!LL NESYA’, lives up to her multi-genre description with a string of unsettling but infectious alt-pop gems. “I’ll kiss your rage with lips like knives,” she sings on the chugging new wave nugget ‘When The Vampire Tamed The Lion’.
The album is being released through new LA-based label Double Down, but NESYA is a proudly DIY artist who taught herself to record and produce on BandLab, then built her following online. “When I was teaching, I was posting five times a day on five different accounts,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Somehow I’m gonna find a way to make money off of music.’
NESYA’s determination paid dividends when her frantic banger ‘Delulu’ – think Gaga gone darkwave, then twist it a bit – went viral in 2024. It’s since been streamed 40 million times on Spotify alone, giving NESYA the confidence and financial grounding to quit teaching and become a full-time musician. And now, she’s been selected for BandLab and ’s Get Featured initiative, which gives emerging artists a chance to be heard by ‘s global audience of music fans. Here, she talks about her remarkable journey to becoming the “goth popstar” of her dreams.
NME: Hi NESYA! So, why did you name your new album ‘K!LL NESYA’?
“I mean, I had to kill my old self to get where I am now. I had to go through a divorce with my husband – I found out he was a two-time felon. The police raided my apartment! My whole world was blown apart, for a little bit anyway, and I felt hella scammed and confused. And at the same time, I was dealing with the music industry, which was so scary as a first-timer. So this whole album is about killing the pain. I’m killing the old NESYA who couldn’t stand up for herself, who would let other people talk for her in a room.”
‘Return To Sender’ feels like a real album highlight – it’s such a goth-bop. What’s the story behind that song?
“I’m in the goth community. I know a lot of witchy girls – and one of my friends did a return-to-sender ceremony where we burnt some of [my ex-husband’s] stuff and read poetry. It felt very therapeutic and helped me get the demons out of my life and cleanse the apartment. I just love that song. It’s raw emotion. I literally made it the day he was arrested.”
Is writing songs the way you process any demons or darkness in your life?
“Oh yeah, it’s like when you’re hungover and need to throw up to feel better. Whenever I’m stressed or sad, I’ll just write a song. It literally is my therapy and it really did save my life. I mean, I was a third-grade teacher, super-depressed, [drowning] in student loan debt and music is what got me out of that situation. I never knew that it would become my full-time job or anything, but now I’m addicted to it. And I’m really trying to progress and elevate my music. This isn’t stuff that I made in my closet anymore. This album is fully in the studio, really big production stuff – and I’m proud of it.”
You only started releasing music three years ago. What made you take the plunge?
“Really, my sister encouraged me. My dad was a pastor, and I used to sing at church – like, I would lead the worship. My sister would always be like, ‘You have such a cool, unique voice. When are you gonna start making music?’ And I was always like, ‘I don’t know how,’ but then one day she sent me this TikTok of some kid making music in his closet. Before that, I never knew you could make music at home. So I bought a super-cheap microphone, hooked it up to my computer and started doing it. I mean, some of my songs with a million streams, they were [made by] me messing around on my Apple headphones.”
Did you find that the songwriting process came pretty naturally to you?
“Honestly, writing music and coming up with melodies has always been easy for me. I just didn’t know how to actually record or mix vocals. So I used BandLab and found it all super-easy. And then once I got that [process] down, it was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna make 60 songs in a year now because it’s all just coming out of me.'”
How much of a game-changer has ‘Delulu’ been for your career?
“I mean, what happened with that song, none of it makes any sense to me! This guy in prison – I don’t even know how he got a phone in prison – but he posted ‘Delulu’ on TikTok and it blew up. I’d only been making music for a year at that point, so I had like 100,000 monthly listeners across all platforms. And then I woke up and saw, like, ‘Wow, now I have a million monthly listeners.’ All these big creators were posting my song. I mean, the NFL posted my song over footage of Taylor Swift at a Chiefs game. I was living at my mom’s apartment at the time and I remember freaking out because it was all happening so fast.”
Finally, how do you see your purpose as a musician?
“I’m not trying to be corny, but my dad used to do exorcisms and I would come with him. And now, I feel like I’m kind of an exorcist musician. Like, the comment I’ve gotten so many times from fans is ‘your voice is haunting, you’re dragging something out of me’. I feel like that’s what my music is for: it’s rageful, it’s sad, you can cry to it. But at the same time, you can also twerk and dance to it. It’s music to help you get the demons and pain out of your body.”
‘K!LL NESYA’ is out now via Double Down Records