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Nuha Ruby Ra is hard to pin down, and that’s exactly the point.
The London-based artist doesn’t make music that fits neatly into genres or moods—instead, she creates visceral sonic worlds that live somewhere between industrial grit and raw no-wave vulnerability. Her sound is physical, confrontational, and deeply human, drawing from tension rather than harmony, from honesty rather than polish.
After releasing a series of EPs that established her as one of the most compelling voices in the UK’s alternative underground, Nuha Ruby Ra is now preparing to release her debut full-length album—a conceptual work she describes as her most immersive and outward-facing yet, centred around a mysterious mythology called NOWSYN. With recent single “Fetish 2 Forget” offering a taste of what’s to come, she’s pushing her sound to new extremes while exploring themes of transformation, survival, and the sacred within struggle.
Before her appearances at Taverne Tour, we caught up with Nuha Ruby Ra to talk about art school origins, the messy in-between states that fuel her work, and what it means to create music that’s both a confession and a ritual.
PAN M 360: We don’t know too much about you! How did you get into making music, and what inspires you?
Nuha Ruby Ra: I didn’t intentionally get into music, I went to art school and studied Fine Art. Along the way, I realized that music is the most potent form of art, so I chose to focus on it then. I care the most about communication of feelings and worlds, as a way of survival for me. I started out by making things out of whatever I had. Noise, tape recorders, cheap gear, home-made instruments, my voice. It was never about learning the right way; it was about getting something out of my body. Music felt like the only place I could be completely honest and truly strange at the same time. I’m inspired by tension more than harmony, late nights, concrete warehouses, loneliness, cinema, performance art, confessions, and people on the edge. Anything that feels raw and human.
PAN M 360: Your music is dark, experimental, gritty, and carnal. Is this purposeful?
Nuha Ruby Ra: Yeah, absolutely, but not intentionally. I’m not interested in polishing things unless it’s so you can feel it. Life isn’t clean or symmetrical—it’s messy and physical and emotional. I want my music to feel like that, too. I want you to hear my breath, broken distortions, and mistakes. Dark isn’t an aesthetic choice, it’s honesty. I just follow the truth of a feeling.
PAN M 360: You have a few EPs out already, but we hear you’re working on a full-length LP. What can you tell us about it?
Nuha Ruby Ra: It feels like growth. The EPs were very internal, very much me processing things on my own. Now the album feels outward-facing. Made for connection. There’s still a lot of personal intensity, but I’m thinking a lot about connection now. What happens when people are in a room together, when sound is communal, not just private. I used to think the way I wanted people to listen to my music the most was in headphones, like I am their thoughts and secrets. Now I want to be in the room with them and we all feel it together. It feels less like this is mine and more like this is ours. There’s also a bigger world around this record. A kind of mythology running through it. NOWSYN. I’m not giving too much away yet, but it’s definitely the most conceptual and immersive thing I’ve made.
PAN M 360: Is “Fetish 2 Forget” a taste of some of the sounds on it?
Nuha Ruby Ra: Yeah, I’d say it’s a doorway. It’s taken that physicality of sound and turned it up to 11! But the album moves through a lot of different moods. Some tracks are utterly visceral, confrontational and industrial, others are incredibly vulnerable, low fi, almost hymnal. So it’s a taste, but not the whole picture.
PAN M 360: What other forms of art inspire your writing?
Nuha Ruby Ra: Film, performance art, poetry, fashion. I think in visions and feelings first, like scenes. Directors like David Lynch, early Cronenberg, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, and a lot of messy or conversational underground cinema. I love focused human conversation and surrealism, and work that leaves space for interpretation. Worlds you’re happy just to be in.
PAN M 360: If your upcoming album were an animal, what would it be and what would it sound like?
Nuha Ruby Ra: Probably something half-feral that roams the streets. I’d have a mix of the same really adorable, gentle soft meow of my cat Cilla and a sky-shaking roar of Thor.
PAN M 360: Are there any specific themes you gravitate towards in your music and lyrics?
Nuha Ruby Ra: Transformation. Survival. Rebirth. How do you rebuild yourself after things fall apart? Finding something sacred inside the struggle. It’s not hopeless music, it’s actually very defiant.
PAN M 360: What stories or emotions are you trying to capture that aren’t being told elsewhere?
Nuha Ruby Ra: The messy, in between states. Not pure heartbreak songs or party songs, but the complicated feelings underneath everything while you’re heartbroken and partying. Shame, lust, desire, rage, devotion, obsession.
PAN M 360: What’s it like being part of the current UK alternative music scene?
Nuha Ruby Ra: It feels exciting and scrappy! There’s less gatekeeping now, people are building their own worlds and communities instead of waiting for permission. It’s very exciting when you don’t feel like you’re drowning, because surviving as a musician in the U.K. right now is damn hard. I feel truly supported by my music community in London, there’s a lot of us in it and it gets bigger and bigger, we’re helping each other all the time. In the right places it feels more like a movement of outsiders than a scene, which I like a lot.
PAN M 360: What’s the most misunderstood thing about you or your music?
Nuha Ruby Ra: People sometimes think dark means negative or cold. But it’s actually very emotional and very human. There’s a lot of heart in it. People also think i’m scary and intimidating, i can be, but mostly i’m actually incredibly sweet.
PAN M 360: How do you translate your recorded work into live performance? Band or backing track? What can we expect at Taverne Tour?
Nuha Ruby Ra: It’s physical and intense. I use a hybrid setup, live elements, electronics, playback, sometimes musicians, but it’s very performance-led. It feels closer to theatre or ritual than a traditional gig. Expect something immersive and a bit unpredictable.
