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UM Interview: NIIVA

Bulgarian born, England raised, and now Canadian based, NIIVA has found her home with music. The singer/songwriter serves up organic modern-pop hymns wrapped up in a digital bow. After moving to Canada, she used her unique influences and different cultures to refine her sound and songwriting abilities to further develop her career. To date, NIIVA has released three singles including “Love Games” which she released earlier this year. The single has reached over 176K Spotify streams in the first four months since being released in April of 2020

Amandah Opoku sat down with NIIVA to talk about her new single “Trigger”, favorite song lyric, the music industry and more!

Amandah Opoku: NIIVA, thank you for doing this interview today! Before we kick off please tell our readers about yourself and one random fact people do not know about you NIIVA: Thank you guys for having me! In a nutshell, I’m a Pop/R&B artist based in Toronto who’s apparently had an obsession with purple hair dye for the past 5 years. Something people might not know about me is that I love art and graphic design, and one of the first things I ever wanted to be is an animator for Disney.

AO: When you moved to Canada at the age of 15 was when you began working on your sound and songwriting as an artist. What inspired you to pursue a career in music? And why choose Pop/R&B as your genre? NIIVA: I was born in Bulgaria and lived there until my family and I moved to England when I was about 9, and although my parents gave us an amazing childhood, as an immigrant there’s just different priorities. It wasn’t until moving to Canada that I think we all felt settled and able to explore the choices that we didn’t necessarily have before. So, it wasn’t that I was inspired to pursue a career in music because music has always been my passion, but it finally felt like a plausible reality, which was amazing. In regards to genre, I love and listen to so many different types of music, but I always seem to gravitate to Pop/R&B. It showed in my writing as well, because when I first began writing I wasn’t consciously thinking “Okay I’m going to write a pop/r&b song”. I think whatever comes out naturally in your writing is the genre that fits best with you.

AO: If you could describe your music in three words. What words would you choose and why? NIIVA: “Full Taurus Mode”. Especially for this collection of songs that will be on my upcoming EP haha. There’s fire, there’s passion, there’s sarcasm. In my personal life and in my writing I gravitate towards dealing with things head on as opposed to beating around the bush, or waiting around and letting sadness be the final emotion in difficult situations.

AO: You’ve worked with some of North-America’s top songwriters and producers including Kuya, Jimmy Harry and Matt Beckley. How was it working with these individuals and did it shape your music and artistry? What did you take away with working from these individuals? NIIVA: I have been so incredibly blessed to be in the same room as these guys, and I don’t take it for granted for a minute. Every single one has taught me so much about the industry as a whole. I’ve become a better writer, a better singer, a better recording artist. When you’re around people who have been in the industry for so long, you absolutely have to absorb as much as you can from them because the experience they have is so valuable.

AO: What is one piece of advice you received since you began pursuing music, that has aided you on your path? NIIVA: To move to Toronto - that’s been a huge one. When I moved from Vancouver to Toronto all things music related for me went from zero to a hundred because everyone and everything is here. Personally, if I were to echo any piece of advice that’s been given to me it would be to go to where the action is.

AO: What artists have inspired you musically? NIIVA: This may be a cliche answer, but it’s just impossible not to be inspired by everything Beyonce comes out with because it’s always such a complete, rounded, fleshed out, thought out, original vision. Love her. We don’t deserve her.

AO: You released your new single “Trigger” last week, what inspired the song? NIIVA: Essentially it’s a dare to your partner to try you one more time and see what happens haha. It’s about those days when everything seems to get on your nerves and you just know you’re about to fight someone and it’s just gotta be done.

AO: What was the writing and recording process like for “Trigger”? NIIVA: I wrote the song with Sammy G from Kuya Productions here in Toronto, and it actually originally sounded very different. We kind of wrote two songs out of the same subject matter, even a lot of the lyrics are the same, but the first iteration was a lot more upbeat and happier sounding. We ended up feeling like it just needed to be something else, and rewrote it to be this smooth, sexy, a little ominous sounding number, which I truly truly love. One of the most exciting parts about this song to me is that I recorded the vocals with Matt Beckley in LA when I was down there for a writing trip. He’s an amazing vocal producer and I loved working with him. Our senses of humour really meshed and he’s a fellow Disney nut so obviously it couldn’t have gone wrong.

AO: Did the writing and recording process for “Trigger” differ from the process you undertook for your single “Love Games” which was released earlier this year? If so, how? NIIVA: Actually, thinking about it now the recording process for both songs couldn’t have been more different. For “Love Games” we literally ended up using the scratch vocals done on a little USB microphone in the final iteration of the song because we just captured the perfect feel when we were writing it. And then for “Trigger” like I said I was all the way on the other side of the continent, recording the vocals in the same booth that Camila Cabello recorded “Havana” (I’m putting that on my tombstone, by the way), so vastly different process haha. But, you know it just goes to show that there’s no right or wrong way to do this.

AO: From the songs you’ve released to date, what would you say is your favorite lyric and why? NIIVA: It’s hard to pick, but one of my favorite lines is actually from “Trigger” and it’s in the chorus. “Go ahead and walk the line, strike the match and light the fire, ooh you better run for cover, why’d you have to pull my trigger”. I love the melody of those lines as well, I love how eerie and sexy it is at the same time. Someone actually said something about this song that I find really funny, and if it’s inappropriate I’m sorry, but they said “what I like about this song is that as the listener I don’t know if you wanna f*ck me or fight me, but I wanna find out”. Iconic.

AO: For new fans who come across your music, what would you like them to take away from your music? NIIVA: To me, the best thing about music is the connection it can bring, and the sense that you will never be the only person in the world feeling what you’re feeling and going through what you’re going through. Whether it be good or bad, a huge life event or a small moment, there’s always someone else who is sharing in that emotion with you. So, I hope that whoever listens to my music feels that.

AO: As you pursue a career in music, what have been some of the challenges you’ve faced? And how did you overcome them? NIIVA: My biggest challenge is always me. I’m always trying to practice not getting stuck in certain negative or unproductive mindsets, or getting distracted by things that don’t matter. When those moments happen, I try to remind myself of all the good things I have going for me, all my achievements, all the ways I’ve grown as an artist and a writer, and I remind myself that those things are there for a reason, not by some fluke. And I don’t mean for that to sound self-indulgent or cocky, but we have to get ourselves out of negative ruts sometimes by noticing and celebrating the victories, big and small.

AO: For other individuals who may also be interested in pursuing a music career, what would your advice be to them? NIIVA: Just do it, do it all the way, and even though it’s scary and uncomfortable to leave things behind, most of the time it’s to step towards something even better. Don’t let the little voice of your fear or other people’s fear scare you with “what if it fails?” because it’s an invalid argument. What if it doesn’t fail?

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

AO: With “Trigger” out now, what can fans expect from you next? NIIVA: I cannot begin to explain how excited I am to be bringing out an EP. It’s coming before the end of this year, and I can’t wait to give people an actual body of work that I’m incredibly proud of, and that I truly hope they’ll love as much as I do.

AO: NIIVA, thank you for sitting down with me! Before we close this interview is there anything you want to say to your fans and our readers? NIIVA: Thank you so so much for giving me a platform to talk about my music and be a little emo :) I just want to thank everyone who takes the time to follow me, to watch my videos, to stream and download my songs, and to share it with their friends. It means the world to me. And if you don’t follow me yet… come in. Join us. We have fun here <3

Connect with NIIVA on the following websites: https://itsniiva.com/ https://twitter.com/itsniiva https://www.instagram.com/itsniiva/ https://www.facebook.com/itsniiva https://www.youtube.com/NiivaOfficial

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