Indie Music Women’s Featured Artist of the Day is…
NIAA (@whoisniaa)
Photo credit: Bethany Rogers (@heyworldbethany)
“Something happens when an artist is really true to themselves and they don’t try to write for the top 40, they don’t try to write for the masses,” says NIAA producer, Sean Rogers. “They write to tell their story.”
With the 2020 release of her debut EP, Crash, NIAA aims to establish herself as one of Nashville’s brightest indie-pop acts and as a storyteller that a songwriting town would be proud of. With four out of five songs on Crash written solely by NIAA, and five out of five clocking in at just over the four-minute mark, the release makes it clear that the singer/songwriter is not willing to compromise, by telling an abridged version of her story.
In her first venture, Crash strikes a delicate balance between the glossy and brazen textures of her pop and alternative influences (Lorde, Broods, Imagine Dragons) and the organic and intimate emotion behind artists like Sara Bareilles and Lori McKenna. In the near term, following her debut in November 2020, NIAA has her eyes set on crafting a tantalizing live show and an alluring personal brand that will help build her audience and tell her story.
“I am at a point in my life where I am unwilling to do things half-heartedly,” says NIAA in regard to what her debut, Crash, means to her. “Everybody has a purpose and storytelling is mine.”
-Bio courtesy of NIAA
NIAA shared with me what it means to her to be an indie music woman artist:
“To me, being an independent female artist is one of the most vulnerable things you can be. As women, we are so often criticized for “feeling too much” or having “too many emotions”, and yet it is my job to feed those emotions into my work. How terrifying is it to be told how you should look, talk and act, and then be told to also be your truest self as an artist? There are a lot of societal and industry standards you have to ignore before you can be the woman and person you truly are. All I can do as an indie female artist is be as honest and real as possible and hope that there are people out there who can resonate with that. It’s a really freeing and beautiful thing when you get to create art out of your true emotions and use them to connect with others, rather than a means of passing judgment. I think now, more than ever, it is so important to support female artists, who for so long have been secondary in the industry to men. I will continue to support my female peers in every way I can to ensure their voices are heard, instead of criticized.”
