August 1, 1983
Here I lay alone in bed somewhere between 67th and 68th street in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and all I am able to do is think. My body now thin and frail, will not allow me to do anything else, and the chairs beside my bed remain empty and forlorn. AIDS has taken over and I do not know how much time I have left here on this planet Earth. A lot of people do not understand this disease. I can see hesitance and fear in their eyes each time they step to approach me, but I understand. Sickness and death is a terrifying thing. Though I know my time here is coming to a close, I choose to look at the past years with only appreciation and gratefulness for the freedom I was given to create, experiment, and live my temporary life here in my truest form.
Back in Germany, I walked in quite different shoes. As Klaus Sperber, I worked as an usher at the Deutsche Opera and sang part time at Kleist and Casino, but was always torn between opera and pop. It was only until I moved to New York in 1972 that I was able to reinvent and express my true self.
I remember when I took on the name, Nomi. I saw the cover of the American sci fi magazine, Omni, flash before my eyes from its stand in the convenience store. With a simple rearrangement of the letters, “Nomi” rolled out of my tongue so naturally. I feel as though the fantastical and surreal visions of these other worlds ring truer to me than the life of human normality. I believe that I am an alien from another planet, only taking temporary residence on Earth, because when I express my true self, I feel otherworldly.
I knew I found my place when I gave my first performance at Irving Plaza’s New Wave Vaudeville Series. Something huge was happening in the downtown arts culture, and little did I know that I was going to turn from part time pastry chef and small time Broadway performer to a member of Club 57 and a part of the New Wave movement. I however, like to call it “Now Wave,” because the future is now. The future has begun. There are no more rules to music and though New Wave is the opposition to punk and mainstream “corporate” rock, it encompasses quite an array of styles while generally taking on a lighter pop quality. I would take pop hits that I heard all over the radio and twist them into avant garde productions of opera arias. I needed drama in my performances in not only my appearance and presence, but my music as well. I trained my voice to take on intense shifts in octave, allowing my voice to carry through extreme highs and lows. I gave the audience nothing they had ever seen before.
I breathe easier on stage when I don my Kabuki style white face paint and black eyeliner and lipstick. I do not hide behind my face of makeup and giant tuxedo suit, it is only what feels natural; I love a good bit of plastic on my body. Inspiration for my retro sci-fi outfits came from David Bowie’s magnificent black plastic tux from our performance together on SNL with my dear friend, Joey Arias. The high shine and cubismic structure of the garment struck me, so I have adopted the style ever since. It seems as if he does not mind because I have not heard from him ever since that night. I was fortunately adopted to Bowie’s label, RCA, but I have not been able to have direct contact with him to this day. Though loose, he did promise future performances. Nothing can be done now, as I am constrained to this room, awaiting my death and transition to another world.
Landoly, Kathy. “The Curious Career of Klaus Nomi.” The Pitch. Published on December 10, 2015. https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/970-the-curious-career-of-klaus-nomi/.
Cvejic, Zarko. “Theorizing Gender, Culture, and Music: “Queer Vibrations” – “do You Nomi?”: Klaus Nomi and the Politics of (Non)Identification.” Women & Music – A Journal of Gender and Culture 13, (2009): 66-75.
Gdula, Steven. “Catch a Fallen Star: Klaus Nomi Pioneered New Wave Music Until AIDS Intervened. A New CD Captures His Magic.” The Advocate no. 794 (Sep 14, 1999): 63.
Rascher, Matthias. “Klaus Nomi: Watch the Final, Brilliant Performance of a Dying Man.” Open Culture. Published on August 12, 2011. http://www.openculture.com/2011/08/klaus_nomi_the_brilliant_performance_of_a_dying_man.html
