#48 - Niia

Bending Brains

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.