In Conversation with Nora Mae: The glamour, the grit, the growth.

Keeping the momentum going after her powerful debut EP, ‘Mad Woman’, Nora Mae has returned with the announcement of the release of her upcoming debut album, ‘Fin’. Expected to be a melodramatic, cinematic soundscape which mixes pop and rock with jazz, we found out more about the major influences behind her music, the process of creating ‘Fin’ and the inspiration behind the album’s debut single ‘The Avoidant’, which is set to be released on June 27th.

For music fans who have not listened to your songs before, what three words would you use to describe you and your music?


Cinematic. Timeless. Fantastical.
And playful — I’m much sillier and more laid back than my music might suggest, but I love getting to step into a heightened version of myself when I create. It’s like a glamorized caricature.

Your first EP, ‘Mad Woman’, is bold, feisty and has obvious tones of frustration. What personal experiences inspired this project?


Mad Woman came out of a chapter of deep personal reckoning. I was starting to see patterns — in love, in career, in the way I responded to the world — and realizing how much of it was tied to old conditioning. It felt like I was moving through the stages of grief: denial, anger, acknowledgment, ego death, and finally, surrender. It wasn’t so much that everything had fallen away yet — it was that everything was surfacing during my Saturn return, and it became impossible not to see it anymore. That project was a turning point in my self-discovery — a way of documenting the chaos and clarity of waking up to myself.

How do you transform your experiences into catchy tunes? What’s your songwriting process?


It usually starts with me journaling, or a voice note, or a melody I can’t stop hearing. I’m a visual thinker, so I tend to see moments like scenes in a film, and the music becomes the score. I let the feeling lead and when I get into the studio with my producer, we come at it from play. No rules. That’s why the songs often live in this fluid space between genres, but always with a cinematic spine.

‘Mad Woman’ is such a powerful and cinematic song and sounds as though it should be in a movie, maybe even a Bond film. If you could get an actor to play you in a film of your life, who would you choose?


Thank you so much. I mean, that would be a dream. Maybe Eva Green. She has that haunting elegance and emotional depth — strong, sensual, and mysterious. There’s a kind of stillness in her that feels charged. She’s elegant, old Hollywood, and entirely her own — which is something I deeply admire.

‘Croissance Lente (Interméde)’ stands apart from the other songs in your EP. What inspired this intermission and the use of the French language? And for those who aren’t French speaking, what is the track exploring?


French culture plays a huge role in my life and artistic inspiration — and a lot of my music has been written in France, or derived from my time there. Croissance Lente means “slow growth,” and it was born from a poem I wrote about reconnecting with nature and truth. It’s about slowing down and watching the world in order to better understand yourself. It felt like the natural place for an interlude — a pause for breath and reflection in the middle of the storm, because that’s when it came for me.

Your music merges pop and jazz elements. What artists would you name as your biggest influences?


Of course, my grandmother Eartha Kitt. Adele, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Lana Del Rey, Norah Jones, Stevie Nicks, and Raye. I’m drawn to artists who blend beauty with emotional depth — whose voices feel lived-in and whose music creates a world. I also love a dramatic, cinematic arc, so artists who lean into that kind of storytelling really speak to me, like Lady Gaga.

With your grandmother being the legendary Eartha Kitt, you must have grown up surrounded by good music. How has she had an impact on you and your sound?

She showed me that presence is power. She didn’t need to raise her voice to command a room — she embodied elegance and defiance in equal measure. There’s so much theatricality and intentionality in her work, and that’s something I carry with me. She also taught me that your story is enough, if you’re brave enough to tell it honestly.

It’s clear it’s only the beginning for you and your music career, what has been your highlight so far?

Hearing how the songs have made people feel — that’s been the biggest highlight. When someone says they felt seen or understood through a lyric or how something struck them, or even just that they felt transported into a different world – an escape, that’s everything. 

Your upcoming single, ‘The Avoidant’, is being released on June 27th and continues with the cinematic and theatrical theme that is entangled in your music. What is this single about to you and were there any obvious influences to the sound?

The Avoidant explores emotional disconnection and longing — that dance between craving closeness but being afraid of what it brings up. Sonically, it’s a blend of cabaret and jazz meets indie/alt cinematic pop. It’s dramatic, a little seductive, and emotionally charged.

‘The Avoidant’ is part of a bigger, exciting project– the release of your debut album ‘Fin’. Can you tell us a bit about the process of making and creating this album?

Fin is a conceptual album structured like a cabaret — there’s an opening number, an intermission, acts, final bows. It follows the emotional journey of a woman waking up to herself, stepping out of fantasy and into truth. Writing it was transformative — it felt like truly stepping into my power through my heartbreak.

You’re clearly inspired by not only music, but also film. What music were you listening to and what films were you watching during the making of this album?

I made a reference playlist while writing that included Adele, Amy Winehouse, Billie Holiday, Fred again.. & Brian Eno, Stevie Nicks, Lana Del Rey, Raye, and Norah Jones. I was also listening to a lot of score — Max Richter, Ludwig Göransson... Film-wise: La La Land, Past Lives, Once, Wicked, In the Mood for Love, Phantom Thread. The album lives in that space between reality and reverie — intimate, cinematic, and a little dreamlike.

Why did you choose ‘The Avoidant’ to be the first single and the listeners first insight into ‘Fin’? 

Because it drops the listener right into the world — sonically and cinematically. It’s where the theatrics begin. The Avoidant sits at the collision point between fantasy and reality, where disillusionment sets in but the seduction hasn’t worn off yet. There’s tension, playfulness, and truth — all of which are core to the world of Fin. It felt like the right door to open first.