#48 - Niia

Niia is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. She submerges herself in deep extremes on her 2022 project, Mouthful of Salt. As if born again in the wake of a tsunami’s destruction, the Los Angeles-based jazz/R&B artist slips in and out of oceanic calm like waking from a delicate afternoon dream. She carefully assembles thirteen tracks buoyed by cinematic ambience, airy piano, and vocal echoes. This album is a turning point for Niia - she made the record mostly alone with her engineer in her LA apartment, an old church converted into a haunting living space. Since trading New York for Los Angeles in 2015, she has quietly enchanted audiences, tastemakers, and peers with albums—I [2017] and II: La Bella Vita [2020]—and the If I Should Die EP [2021]. Beyond acclaim from American Songwriter, WORDPLAY, NOCTIS, and more, Rolling Stone hailed If I Should Die as “some of Niia’s stickiest work,” and Clash declared, “her musical influences span across various countries and cultures to form a sensuous style that’s evocatively smooth.” Along the way, she collaborated with the likes of Jazmine Sullivan, Gallant, Boogie, and Girl Ultra, just to name a few. Following her 2021 project If I Should Die, she evolved once again. “It’s the closest I’ll get to a religious experiment,” she smiles.