Some artists build a visual world around their music. Nevmore feels more like someone who has built an entire character and then let the music live inside it. I first came across his work through filmmaker Azim Miah, and what caught me immediately was that there was clearly more going on than just tracks. The videos, references, humour and slightly surreal presentation all felt connected. The more I looked, the more curious I became about the person behind it – or, as it turns out, the person hiding somewhere behind Nevmore.
Because Luke Nevett and Nevmore are, apparently, very different people.
“Luke Nevett is a hermit,” he tells me. “He goes to his 9-5 job, goes home, watches movies and TV and rinse repeat.” Nevmore, on the other hand, was born in Kingsthorpe in 2017 when Luke was given the nickname by his university sports team. Where Luke describes Wellingborough as “hell on earth”, Nevmore sees Northampton as “a playground” – something to explore, exaggerate and turn into material.
That relationship between reality and character has become central to the way he creates.
Photos by @coldnotwet
Music was already everywhere before Nevmore existed. Growing up, Luke heard a real mix at home – boom bap, soul, R&B and alternative music, alongside the sounds he discovered for himself later. Hip-hop first properly connected through his siblings’ bedrooms, where artists like Nas, Jay-Z, MF DOOM and Kanye would play alongside Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Kano.
“The bars and the production were something I always dug,” he says. Hearing UK artists in particular made the idea of making rap himself feel slightly closer.
He started writing properly in sixth form in 2015, initially as little more than a way to kill time. He would take instrumentals from songs he already loved and write his own versions over them, slowly learning how words could sit against rhythm. Before long, he was trying the bars out wherever he could – sixth-form common rooms, university buses and, occasionally, at pre-drinks.
“I will not lie, I did it at pres to try and impress the girls,” he laughs. “It obviously did not work at all.”
At that point, he imagined maybe releasing one song someday. He didn’t expect it to become anything bigger.
Then lockdown happened.
With nowhere to go, Luke gave himself a reason to keep writing, and the project that eventually became Mindsets began to take shape. What had once been a party trick slowly became something he wanted to treat more seriously.
But even now, he resists describing Nevmore as having one neat sound.
“I wouldn’t say I found my own sound really,” he says. His influences span rap, film, comedy and whatever happens to capture his attention at the time. Tyler, The Creator and the early OFWGKTA era have had a particular impact on the humour in his work, alongside Earl Sweatshirt and the more introspective side of hip-hop.
That combination explains a lot about Nevmore. The writing can be reflective, but it rarely takes itself too seriously for long. Drinking crops up frequently. So does failing spectacularly with women. There is an awareness that his life doesn’t resemble the exaggerated version of success sometimes presented in rap, and rather than pretending otherwise, he makes that part of the joke.
“Nevmore loves a drink,” he says. “He likes talking about how much he likes to drink and failing to talk to the ladies.”
Underneath the comedy, though, there’s a more private person who doesn’t always find vulnerability easy. When I ask how much of Luke makes its way into the music, Nevmore answers in character.
“Luke doesn’t like sharing personal stuff with anyone. His own parents don’t even know that he makes music through me.”
That tension between hiding and revealing feels important. Nevmore gives Luke somewhere to exaggerate parts of himself, say things differently and build a world around experiences he might otherwise keep quiet.
His 2022 mixtape Wellingborough Road took that world and rooted it directly in place. The title connects Wellingborough and Northampton through one of the town’s most recognisable stretches – Welly Road, known to generations for nights out and pub crawls.
“I was trying to give the listener a view of the street through my eyes,” he says, “and show how the street shaped me.”
Northampton has done far more than provide material. It’s also where Nevmore found the community that helped turn writing into something sustainable. He credits meeting Leo in 2020 as one of the biggest turning points in his journey.
“If I never met Leo, I don’t think I’d be doing this interview or anything musically right now.”
Through him came connections with Hxrmz, Riice, Napps, Har-Q and Leon at LAYITDOWN, placing Nevmore inside a wider local scene that he speaks about with genuine appreciation. “There’s a little something for everybody in NN,” he says. “Rap, alternative, folk, pop. It’s a very diverse scene.”
Those relationships have stretched beyond music too. His creative partnership with Azim began in perhaps the least dramatic way possible – “I just gave him a DM” – but has become integral to the visual identity around Nevmore.
“He is a bloody genius,” he says.
Azim, alongside PHOTOMAFIA, helped shape the visual world around the TOYA project in 2025. Nevmore is heavily involved in those ideas himself, pulling from his obsession with films to make videos that add another layer to the music. Good Morrow, for example, incorporates protests and a hostage situation into the visual narrative.
“The films add more to the story,” he explains. “They give the listener a clearer visual of who Nev really is.”
That world-building takes work. Like most independent artists, Nevmore is effectively operating as musician, marketer, creative director and content department all at once.
“It’s a pain in the bloody arse,” he says plainly. “But it has to be done.”
His strategy, strangely enough, sometimes involves disappearing. Nevmore vanishes for a while, Luke goes back into ordinary life, and whatever happens during that period eventually becomes new material. When he returns, the visuals shift, the marketing changes and another version of the character emerges.
There have already been plenty of moments that have made the effort feel worthwhile. Supporting artists including Dirty Dike, KiLLOWEN, Farma G and Verb T carried particular weight after growing up listening to that world, while collaborating with Black Josh through BLAH Records on CANTONA felt similarly surreal.
Nevmore & Leo shot by @shots.by.cas
But the moments that matter most are smaller.
“Seeing someone recite your bars back to you literally means the world,” he says.
There’s something very Fleckies about that. However impressive a support slot or collaboration might look on paper, sometimes one person knowing every word tells you more.
Right now, Nevmore is experimenting again. His latest track, 8 to a 10, leans into niche pop-culture references spanning Sinners, Wayne Rooney and Clipse, while the wider sound is becoming more mellow. He’s keeping future collaborations deliberately quiet, and even hints that Neville Moore might not be the last character to step out from the shadows.
Success, if he could design it entirely on his own terms, sounds suitably Nevmore.
A steady income. Academy shows. Eventually an O2 retirement gig surrounded by friends and family, finishing with SWIM SWIM while everyone sinks a pint. And, naturally, an annual pub crawl with the fans to see who can actually handle it.
For anyone starting out in Northampton, though, his advice becomes much more practical. Go to LAYITDOWN. Meet people. Learn from other artists. Put yourself in rooms where someone might give you the first chance.
That perhaps sums up Nevmore better than the character would ever admit. Beneath the jokes, pubs, film references and exaggerated alter egos is an artist whose career has been built through curiosity, community and actually showing up.
Luke might prefer staying home watching films.
Luckily, Nevmore keeps finding reasons to come back out.
Listen and follow Nevmore:
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https://linktr.ee/nvemore
