NAYM’s debut album, You Know Me Better Than I Do, is a genre-fluid deep dive into heartbreak, self-reflection, and everything in between
With influences ranging from Owl City to Stromae, Chappell Roan to David Kushner, NAYM wears his inspirations on his sleeve while crafting something distinctly his own.
Whether he’s turning an AI-generated beat into a Nessa Barrett-style banger (City), channeling childhood nostalgia with Rain From The Ceiling, or making an anthem for the friend-zoned (Treat Me Like A Lover), the album plays like a coming-of-age diary set to moody synths and punchy hooks.
Now, NAYM takes us track by track through You Know Me Better Than I Do—breaking down the sounds, stories, and sonic rabbit holes that shaped it.
Fly
That song is one of the exceptions on the album with almost no inspiration from a specific song. The only thing I did, was trying to put in a David Kushner vibe with NAYM elements too of course.
Good Night, Sleep Well
I once saw an Instagram video of Noah Floersch promoting his song „The Bird Song“ and I immediately fell in love with the cinematic but relaxing switch from staccato to legato and tried to combine with my previous idea of making a lullaby type song.
City
This one is actually pretty interesting. I discovered a website to create beats with AI and was curious what it could do. So I asked the AI to give me a Dark Pop type beat. I listened to it and had an Idea. I took only the first 14 seconds of the AI generated beat and based on that melody, I was adding my own stuff trying to make it sound like a Nessa Barrett type beat (So everything you hear after the 14 seconds is manmade don’t worry). I think the closest sounding song by Nessa Barrett would be „dying on the inside“ especially the upbeat at the end.
Rain From The Ceiling
That’s my absolute favorite vibe out of all songs on the album. Probably because its sound is pretty much inspired by one of my all time favorite songs called „Fireflies“ by Owl City. Of course it got a little NAYM-touch to it as well but that was defintely my kind of reference song while making it.
Rest Of My Life
I was visiting a friend in the UK for a week and one day we were on a pier in Blackpool and „Pink Pony Club“ by Chappell Roan was playing. I didn’t know about the song until then. When I got back home to germany, the first thing I did was turning my lyrics about self- improvement/reflection into a Chappell Roan type song, since it matched from the vibe perfectly.
Treat Me Like A Lover
After my experience of being friendzoned a few years ago I had this one line: „Why would you treat me like a lover and now just drop me like it was never anything“ but I had no idea what to do with it back then… Until „icantbelieveiletyougetaway“ by aldn dropped. I realized I could start off my own song in a similar way and let the rest of it be something more of my own ideas.
The World Is Still Spinning
I’ve been listening to Stromae my whole life and when I had a phase again I wanted to make a similar song too. Especially with a similar message. I’d say the sound is pretty much inspired by „formidable“ while the context is more „Tous Les mêmes“ critisizing the love-life of nowadays.
You need me
This song is strongly Artemas influenced especially by the song called „Babydoll“. Since the album represents phases of growing up you can’t exclude the growing interest in sex etc. so I decided to make a more „sexy“ song.
Nobody Knows
When „Cradles“ by Sub Urban came out, I was impressed by every detail of the song. The production, the lyrics just everything and I always had it as a goal to make a similar song. At the end of 2023 I saw that dark pop is doing good on my account so I was thinikin’ it’s the perfect time to create this song. I then decided on keeping it in my files until I’ll release the album instead of doing it early.
Dead To Me
That song is more like a sequel to an earlier song of mine called „I’M WRONG AND YOU’RE RIGHT“ which is pretty much the only inspiration for me to create this song additionally to personal experiences.
Burn
This song is mix of a few songs by a german artist called „Berq“. He recently dropped an album including songs like „Pirouetten“ and „Schleierkraut“ which I used to listen to on repeat. I thought I’d bring this type of style in to english music so I created Burn.