The story of Nep begins in Daytona, Florida, a place of endless motorcycle rallies, sticky summers, and the kind of small-town culture she always knew she’d leave behind. Growing up surrounded by Bike Week and Biketoberfest, she felt both shaped and alienated by the noise of her hometown. “Beaches are fucked, Daytona sucks,” she sings on Biketoberfest, mocking and mourning the place that raised her.
It’s that push and pull, the desire to escape and the need to memorialize, that fuels her debut album, Noelle. Written during her senior year at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, Nep crafted the record with her best friend and collaborator Jake Sonderman. Between classes, late-night studio sessions, and college parties that often bled into the lyrics themselves, the pair built an album that feels both diaristic and cinematic: raw experience refracted through sharp, infectious indie-pop.
Each track on Noelle pulls from a different corner of Nep’s lived experience and explores a different sonic palette. All Around Beauty captures the heartbreak of running into an ex at a college party, blue tongues, Jell-O shots, tears in the bathroom. The title track, Noelle, sets aching strings against lyrics of rage and betrayal: “I was a kid / You were a guy / It’s not fair / I was a girl.” Black Car begins as a delicate piano ballad before erupting into a punk track with a heavy metal guitar solo, memorializing a summer defined by grief and family rituals. Scar leans into a bluegrass inspired folk arrangement that detonates into a harsh rock ending, tracing the way friendships can wound and mark us permanently. By the album’s end, July opens into a bigband sound with horns dominating the track & points toward renewal: “I think I might love life again.” The final track, Florida Girl, closes the record with an anthem of self realization, a defiant chant that reclaims her roots while refusing to be defined by them.
Nep has been building an audience for years, long before any records were even finished. Short clips and demos posted to TikTok racked up over 5 million likes, drawing fans to her mix of sardonic humor, brutal honesty, and a quirky charm that makes even her darkest songs feel oddly uplifting. She quickly translated that online energy to the stage, selling out early headline shows in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago, and touring alongside Ricky Montgomery, mxmtoon, and Grent Perez.
With the release of Noelle, Nep is not just putting out an album; she’s leaving Florida behind. After years of translating Daytona’s beaches, bike rallies, and heartbreak into song, she’s moving to Los Angeles, a new chapter, a new landscape.
Even so, traces of home are everywhere in her songs: in the defiance of Florida Girl (“You can never break a Florida girl”), in the humor and heartbreak of I Will Always Love You, Alright, and in the unflinching intimacy of The Soundtrack.
Noelle is both an origin story and an emancipation. It documents the mess of youth and the catharsis of finally walking away. In Nep’s world, scars become anthems, heartbreak becomes punchlines, and growing up in Daytona becomes the stuff of unforgettable songs.
