Nuxx: A New Era of Sound, Confidence, and Chaos

Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder) - Nuxx @ Dickens.

Nuxx is in the middle of a metamorphosis. Formerly known as Nuxx Vomica, the NYC-based artist is stepping into a new era—dropping the last name, sharpening her sound, and embracing reinvention. Her most recent release Bird Brain, is a five-song EP and snarling declaration of intent: she is not fucking around.

Behind the strobes and the pounding basslines is an artist who thrives on connection. REVERIE caught up with Madeline Seely, the artist behind the moniker Nuxx, after her Friday night set at Terminus.

REVERIE: You recently dropped Vomica from your name? What sparked that artistic shift? 

Madeline: Yes, I just felt like Nuxx has so much more play to the name! It can be a verb. I like that it's like a verb now. It just seemed appropriate to just drop the Vomica and be Nuxx. I'm shifting into a new sound and a new experience live. And it felt appropriate to be on a first name basis with listeners.

REVERIE: You have a really commanding stage presence. How did you adopt that?  

Madeline: I'm a true believer that people are there to see a show and there needs to be some sort of element that separates a live show from listening to the music in your room, or listening to it alone. I'd rather be an entertainer than anything else. I would much rather give people a good show than necessarily even hit all the notes correctly. That's sort of my mentality when I go into performing live. I think in the beginning it was maybe a little bit of overcompensating for not being super confident in my music. But as I've continued growing, I feel like it's actually something that really helps my set stand out from other performances. 

REVERIE: You mentioned on stage that you recognized fans that travelled to see the show! Do you feel like you're creating a community around the project? 

Madeline: It's crazy to think about because I'm just ‘little old me’ at the end of the day. The reason why I think it's so meaningful for me is that I am just truly making things that I think are cool and I'm being a weirdo alone in my room. To have people respond to that makes me feel less alone in the world and I think it's just so beautiful that other people are able to appreciate the things that I think are cool. So, if that means I'm gathering a community of people together, I think that's so beautiful and incredible. I don't know how large or small it is, but it's beautiful nonetheless to me. 

REVERIE: How many times have you played in Canada? Do you notice anything particular about the shows here?

Madeline: I love Canada. I would say pretty much every time I've played Canada, people have turned up and gone hard. People spend their money, they support artists here in a way that's really incredible. Whenever I come to Canada, I know I'm going to be taken care of.

I remember we played Calgary in 2023. I was on tour with The Mall and we played the Palomino Smokehouse. I remember walking in and I was like, ‘Am I playing fucking Applebee's right now? What is happening? There are children here!’ Then the owner comes up to me and says ‘We've had 90 presales and I thought he said 19, and I was like ‘That's great, I'm gonna play to 20 people at this Applebee's’ and then it turned out that there were like 200 fucking people there and it was crazy! It was so sick and it was one of the coolest shows that I've played. So I've been really excited to come back to Calgary since. 

Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder) - Nuxx @ Dickens.

REVERIE: Are there any inspirations or points of reference that you look to for your own music?

Madeline: Oh for sure. Some of them are questionable in terms of people, but I really like M.I.A. Peaches was a huge inspiration for me with my most recent music. I think that's probably fairly apparent. I obviously love The Prodigy. I love The Crystal Method. I think those are a lot of the big inspirations. Azealia Banks was obviously a huge inspiration too.

REVERIE: What are some of the inspirations for your songwriting?  

Madeline: I feel like I never necessarily go into songwriting with the same mentality. A lot of the time I would say a phrase or an idea will hook me and I'll sort of start from there. Another thing that I do, which is kind of actually probably not the correct way to go about things, but I'll try to cover a song and I'll do such a bad job at it that it's a new song. Like my song, “Easy Go,” I was trying to cover “Papa Don't Preach” by Madonna and I don't even think there's the same note in there. But I’ll just start out with an idea. I'll just try to cover a song and then I'll be like but what if we change the bassline? What if we change this? What if we change the key? What if we change the whole fucking melody and now we have a whole new song? 

REVERIE: That's really cool. Do you have any other combinations like that, where you started off with a completely different track?

Madeline: I actually am working on a song  that was sort of a cover of Dolly Parton's “Dumb Blonde,” but I haven't finished it yet.

REVERIE: Do you have any plans for new music coming out?  

Madeline: I don't have anything that has been announced to be released yet, but I am working on a lot of different things. I've got some collaborations that I'm really, really excited about. I'm collaborating with Jeff in Leather on a lot of stuff, and it's so sick. I can't wait to get it out to the world. Then I've also got an EP that's pretty much done in the works and coming down the pike.

REVERIE: I also love that you say your name so much in your songs! It's almost like we can see you build your confidence and it makes us in the audience feel more confident too. When you finish your set, what feelings do you want the audience to leave with?

Madeline: Empowered. The one thing that I want to give to people is energy. If I can give people energy and they can feel it, that's a job well done to me. I think it's really empowering to see a woman on the stage who's clearly done all of the work herself. I feel like there weren't that many role models when I was younger. So it's nice to at least attempt to be that for other people.

Nuxx is headlining the REVERIE Magazine showcase at Purple City in Edmonton this September. Tickets are now available for the showcase on Saturday, September 6 featuring Nuxx, Slash Need, Night Ritualz, Jehova's Princess, SILKRØAD, Ceremony Shadows and MORRISMORRIS at The Y Afterhours.

Terminus continues at Dickens in Calgary, AB until Sunday, July 27. Limited day passes are available at the door.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.