We were lucky to catch up with Eva Nomikou recently and have shared our conversation below.

Eva, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

When I was 6-7 years old, my friends and I would sell things on the street outside my house in Santorini, we called it “magazaki” which means “little shop” and we would draw on rocks, make jewelry or perform to people that passed by. That was the first money I made as a creative.

Eva, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Athens, Greece where I was introduced to music and dance at a young age. While in school, I mostly played the piano and sang at home, until I found a group of classmates -actually a bit older than me- as passionate with music as I was and started playing shows around Athens, and the greek islands. At the same time, I was lucky enough to be part of some huge musical theatre productions (the Sound of Music, The Addams Family and MAMMA MIA!) and that’s how I decided I was going to study musical theatre. So I went to New York to chase my dream.

After 2.5 years in NY, I realized that I wasn’t as passionate as I thought about Musical theatre and decided I wanted to sing, arrange and write music. So I moved to Los Angeles and got a Bachelors degree. After I finished school I stayed in LA and played shows with Eirini Nomikos, Jacob Luttrell, Jules Duke and joined the Mystic Braves with whom I went on a US and EU tour while doing studio sessions and releasing covers with Reda Haddioui. After that, my visa ended and I had to go back to Greece.
Now I am on the process of releasing some originals with my new band TooManyMichaels -with Spencer Porter and Scott Rollin- and hopefully move back to LA.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Well it’s really rewarding to be able to do what you love for a living, and not hate going to work.. but apart from that, the feeling I get when singing is unique and magical. I can’t compare the joy and thrill to anything else. Or that feeling after a show when the audience comes to thank us because we touched them in some kind of way, made them feel something.

That along with the fact that you are your own boss and you have the freedom to plan your work however you like.
Being able to express myself and get things out in a creative way is therapeutic.
I feel blessed to be able to do the thing I love for a living.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Respect them in the same way they respect every other occupation. A lot of people -especially back home- neglect artists and their time. I wouldn’t really say that this applies to the LA community but it’s something that is on my mind every time I’m in Greece.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evanomikou/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-nomikou-7647a21a0/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0oXZ5BcOpZwezSlgplCRJt?si=IMq3Sv6VRRu_O7-Efr9zgA

Image Credits
Xena Peterson Sherman Chen