Surimanese / Dutch artist néomí releases new EP 'Crunchy, Sad and Strangley Happy' via Nettwerk + new single "I Wish I'd Never Met You"
PRAISE FOR NEOMI
“néomí has been quietly building a name for herself over the past few years, releasing a string of gentle, introspective folk-pop EPs that favour emotional depth over big production." – DORK
"Intricate, intimate, texturally spare, lyrically observational and arresting, the six songs are like snapshots that capture your attention and draw you in." - SUNDAY TIMES 'Breaking Act'
"Surinamese-Dutch artist néomií has been consistently impressive since her 2022 emergence, and shows superb artistic progression with a terrific new single. Sublime harmonies, intricate instrumentation and a rousing chorus mean “somebody’s daughter” is an undeniable success." - WONDERLAND MAGAZINE
"néomí has shared a beautiful, introspective release “skipping stone”. From the raw lyricism to the artist's somber delivery and angelic harmonies, this release is just as captivating as its storyline." - THE LINE OF BEST FIT
"Singer/songwriter néomí dives into the heartbreak, the healing, and everything else that went into her breathtakingly vulnerable and beautifully raw sophomore EP 'after.'" - ATWOOD MAGAZINE
"Recording under the moniker néomí, Speelman crafts soul-stirring chamber pop and ethereal folk"
- UNDER THE RADAR
"Harnessing her vocal power and injecting her inherent talent for hooking you in with the winding narratives, néomí is an artist who deserves to be noticed and adored." - EARMILK
*****
Surinamese-Dutch singer-songwriter néomí releases her new EP ‘Crunchy, Sad and Strangely Happy’ on September 18th via Nettwerk, completing a turbulent, deeply personal chapter with its only previously unheard song, “I Wish I’d Never Met You”.
Written across Nashville, Los Angeles, London and Rotterdam, the EP emerged during a period néomí describes as both “an absolute disaster and a treat at the same time”. It’s a fitting contradiction for a collection concerned with precisely that emotional middle ground: those periods when life can somehow be wonderful and terrible simultaneously.
“I Wish I’d Never Met You” provides its final word. Tender, rueful and deliberately unresolved, the song addresses the kind of relationship that leaves you questioning not simply what happened between two people, but who you became while it was happening.
For néomí, its title isn't an expression of anger. There’s no villain at the centre of the song, nor any attempt to rewrite a complicated relationship as something entirely bad. Instead, it wrestles with the uncomfortable possibility of caring about somebody while wishing the relationship itself had never existed.
“It’s about that one person you wish you’d never met, not necessarily because you dislike them, but because you dislike who you became with them, how you treated them, or how they treated you. It’s a question mark aimed at love itself and why it always gets so complicated. Nobody wanted to hurt anyone, but what’s done is done. So you try to move on and sometimes still wish you’d never met them :)”
And that ambiguity runs throughout ‘Crunchy, Sad and Strangely Happy’. Rather than dividing experiences neatly into heartbreak and happiness, néomí allows both to occupy the same space, capturing a period in which some of the most difficult moments of her life arrived alongside some of its most beautiful.
The EP's unusual title came from a writing session in Nashville with producer Micah Tawlks. Attempting to explain the peculiar feeling of being hungover and sad while simultaneously having the time of her life, néomí was met with a single description: “crunchy.” The word stuck.
What began as a joke gradually became an unexpectedly accurate summary of the project.
“Maybe I even experienced the most beautiful moments of my life while actually feeling the worst.”
Previous singles including “Didn’t I”, “Close” and “For a Minute” approach relationships, attachment and emotional upheaval from different angles, moving between vulnerability, warmth, frustration and néomí's increasingly prominent streak of dark humour.
But ‘Crunchy, Sad and Strangely Happy’ also represents a broader turning point beyond the relationships documented within its songs.
For néomí, the process of making the record coincided with becoming increasingly comfortable naming the different parts of herself rather than presenting the safest or simplest version. Her identity as a queer, half-Surinamese woman, her humour in the face of difficult experiences and the contradictions within her personality all become part of a project that feels less interested in tidying itself up for easy interpretation.
That growing self-assurance marks an important progression for an artist whose work has always thrived on intimacy.
Since emerging in 2022, néomí has developed a distinctive space between ethereal folk, chamber-pop and confessional songwriting. Her releases have earned praise from The Sunday Times, Dork, Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, Atwood Magazine, Under The Radar and EARMILK, with her delicate arrangements and emotionally precise storytelling drawing comparisons to artists including Laura Marling, Phoebe Bridgers and Daughter.
Following the EP's release, néomí will take the new material on the road for a run of Dutch headline shows throughout October.
LIVE DATES
17.09.26 – Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg – tickets
03.10.26 – De Vegafabriek, Nijeveen – tickets
08.10.26 – Patronaat, Haarlem – tickets
10.10.26 – EKKO, Utrecht – tickets
16.10.26 – Hall of Fame, Tilburg – tickets
17.10.26 – Rotown, Rotterdam – tickets
18.10.26 – Doornroosje, Nijmegen – tickets
22.10.26 – Trix, Antwerp – tickets
24.10.26 – Prachtwerk, Berlin – tickets
If earlier néomí releases documented the process of trying to understand difficult emotions, ‘Crunchy, Sad and Strangely Happy’ feels more comfortable accepting that some things simply refuse to make perfect sense.
And in “I Wish I’d Never Met You”, she finds perhaps the EP's clearest expression of that idea: you can love somebody, regret what happened, dislike the person you became, understand that neither of you intended the damage, and still occasionally wonder whether life might have been easier had your paths never crossed.
Messy, funny, painful and strangely beautiful, it is an appropriately unresolved ending to an EP that finds néomí embracing contradiction rather than running from it.
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