Growing up in Truckee, Sierra Bohnet never thought she fit in. 

“I didn’t vibe with the mountain culture at all,” she says. “I felt like I didn’t belong here.”

Post-high school, Bohnet left town and moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. Upon changing majors from songwriting to music production, she released her fantasy-inspired debut EP “Ëradøn” in 2020. 

Her first LP, Astral (2021), delved into the primal psyche of Gen Z, revealing a more complex side of the artist. Rather than writing from experience, Bohnet crafted the songs from her mind’s eye.

“My imagination is out of this world,” she says. “I like to collect magical things. I’m really into reading fantasy books. I’m creating my own world. I have a map. Each part of the map is a part of me.” 

By 2023, Bohnet changed her stage name to Nomé Naku (no-may nah-koo). Like David Bowie becoming Ziggy Stardust or Beyoncé’s Sasha Fierce, it was a sign of a distinctive artistic vision beginning to coalesce.

“It’s a little bit both me and a character,” Bohnet shares. “I feel it’s me at my purest form, and that’s also a persona I can step into.”

After Berklee, Bohnet moved to Los Angeles, where she now lives in Burbank nearby Universal Studios. 

“I chose L.A. for the music industry,” she says. “I’m still figuring it out. I made a few cool connections so far, nothing crazy. If anything, it’s taught me that I can do what I want to do from anywhere.”

Bohnet has collaborated with artists like Saint Mesa, zfromthealphabet, Shrimpnose and Cloudchord, lending grace, power, and depth to their work. But 99% of the time, she works alone.

“I am self-produced,” she says. “It’s a big part of my artistic identity. The whole sound is crafted by me.” 

The music’s swirling and expansive yet precise aural tapestries seem woven from the ineffable threads of her primordial being. Based on the raw range of emotions felt in the music, it’s clear that it’s not always easy stepping into the role. The fact that Bohnet is willing to connect with these feelings on such a deep level is a testament to her vision and courage — all made whole through her transformation into Nomé Naku. 

When she’s not making music, Bohnet works as a pet groomer to help pay the bills. “I give dogs haircuts,” she laughs.

Bohnet also has an Instagram channel that alternates seamlessly from intense sonic-visual journeys to silly confessions about her wall of fairytale hand-drawings to the quirky intricacies of her makeup routine.

After the move to L.A., a two-year barrage of singles releases followed, eventually leading to the self-titled LP Nomé Naku (2025). The album cover features a red-lit image of Bohnet, shot from behind as she wears dragonfly wings with a fire burning inside her chest. The epic feel of the music rides lush-layered vocal harmonies, heavy synth melodies, and tribal percussion, evoking ethereal artists like Aurora, Banks, and Florence + the Machine. 

“The new album is a little bit darker, a little more mature,” Bohnet says. “The theme is being a woman … I like my songs to work for whoever is listening. Here and there, I make it very specific, but generally I’ll write about the feeling itself.”

And where do these transcendent soundscapes come from? 

“There are so many levels,” she says. “The first level is the actual inspiration for the music. I’m a highly sensitive person, so I feel very deeply. I need a way to channel that. In this lifetime, it’s been music.”

This year, she’s releasing singles in anticipation of her next LP. In the intricate music videos she produces for the songs, Bohnet undulates fluidly into her character — or maybe it’s just deeper within herself.

“It comes from nowhere,” she says. “I have no background in dance or any training whatsoever. That’s how I naturally move to my music.” 

The artist recently scored a short film, Transcend the Sword. Some of the songs are sung in her own language, Laroo, for which she’s developed a personal dictionary. 

“I have really vivid dreams where I am in different worlds,” she shares. “I had a dream where I witnessed the destruction of a planet in fast motion. Then I wake up and I’m like, ‘Where am I?’”

On weekends and breaks, Bohnet often travels back home to her roots at Lake Tahoe. It’s the place where the dreams began, at least in this world and lifetime. 

“As soon as I’m no longer here,” she muses, “I realize — I am a mountain girl. I was raised in Tahoe, but I had to grow into my mountain-ness.”

Listen, and learn more, at nomenaku.com.