The Muse Series: Sappho London

Neusha, our London-based muse

I lack attention to detail at times. Does that make me a terrible lover? Debatable.

For context, I met Pink Sappho’s London-based muse while on a date with someone else. Balancing attention between my date and the magnetic pull of someone who left me in awe was not easy. The guilt ate at me, but I had a job to do; Observe, and maybe, fall a little bit in love with the moment.

Especially since that date was the reason I met her in the first place.

Meeting Neusha

Neusha Gray, a Scorpio through and through, pranced around a loft-style recording studio in Camden, North London. Her hair was a fiery nest of blonde box dye that somehow made her Persian features glow even more. She radiated the kind of chaotic calm only true artists seem to master.

Fifteen minutes before her performance, she stood outside in the nippy London air, cigarette in hand, or what the Brits would call “hash,” questionably mixed with tobacco. Who smokes hash before singing? Apparently, Neusha.

Her voice carried a light rasp, textured and warm. She seemed fully present. Not the rehearsed kind of “carefree” artists sometimes perform, but genuinely at ease in her own rhythm.

It was my first time meeting anyone in that circle, but the space felt welcoming, intimate, and effortlessly expressive. There was no divide between audience and artist. It felt like being invited into someone’s living room to witness the exact moment something beautiful takes shape.

Neusha’s Music and Lyricism

Neusha performed six songs that night; all originals, three unreleased. The complexity of human emotion runs through her lyrics like blood through veins. She’s a songwriter who turns communication struggles into art, and it shows.

When “I just want your love, you just want compliance” rang through the studio speakers, I felt it in my chest. She later told me, “You enjoy being loved by me but don’t feel the same way. It’s a prayer; either love me fully or leave me alone.”

There’s a tenderness in that kind of honesty. It’s why I compare her to RAYE. Yeah, sue me. Both women write from a place that isn’t performative; it’s lived.

She also sang an unreleased song that wove Farsi and Portuguese, her voice moving between languages as if emotion itself had dialects. She didn’t just sing for the room; she sang to honor the experiences that inspired the song.

Maybe that’s what sets her apart. In the West, live shows often feel like being talked at. In London, or maybe just with Neusha, it felt like conversation. Reciprocal and alive.

Art, Connection, and Friendship

When I asked her where inspiration comes from, she gave a coy smile as if caught in a guilty truth.

“It’s easy for me to find inspiration. My brain doesn’t shut up. I always have something to yap about, and in my music, I yap to the audience.”

That kind of transparency carries into her friendships too. She told me she’s lucky. Lucky to have good friends, some she’s known for nearly a decade. When I asked what keeps them close, she shrugged, “We actually like each other,” then laughed.

“They know me fully. As someone who struggles to communicate my feelings sometimes... writing is how I communicate. I’d be a shell of a human if I didn’t write. Writing gives me soul.”

That sense of trust, of creative intimacy, is what makes her magnetic. She builds connection through authenticity, which just happens to be one of Pink Sappho’s core pillars. Neusha doesn’t make music unless it’s honest. And maybe that’s why it connects so deeply.

Our Muse

Education plays a part in most creative journeys. Whether you’re self-taught or classically trained, Neusha’s path sits somewhere in the middle. She studied composition and songwriting at ACM, the Academy of Contemporary Music. University education gave her structure, but what really shaped her were the studio sessions and collaborations; the living practice of music. 

Having access to supportive studios and producers in her home city helped her grow into herself as an artist. That’s a quiet secret to success no one talks about enough: unwavering community. It’s crucial to thrive.

If I had to describe her, I’d say she’s a lover girl who turns heartbreak into melody. But even that doesn’t quite cover it. She’s self-aware and deeply layered. 

Watching her perform that night reminded me why Pink Sappho exists; to celebrate sapphics who embody connection to self, to art, to each other.

That’s what makes her a muse.