Nia Ray is a singer/songwriter/rapper from Miami, Florida. She prides herself on not conforming to the norm as evident through her purple locks. The “Purple Hair Princess” cannot be forced into one lane and readily breaks genre lines demonstrating her versatility. Regardless of the sound, Nia Ray wears her heart on her sleeve and isn’t shy about being vulnerable with her fans. The soon-to-be superstar’s EP, “What’s Love Anyways,” is sure to close out 2020 with a bang.
The Hollywood Tribune had the pleasure of getting in touch with Nia Ray to talk about her new EP “What’s Love Anyways”. You can read the full interview below!
Could you tell us a little about your musical journey and how you got into music?
So I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember.. in my room, behind closed doors. I didn’t actually muster up the courage to start singing in front of people until high school when I was in the theatre program and my friends just forced it out of me really, and that gave me the courage to go onto school to study commercial music and start working on my own!
What were your thoughts while producing your latest single ” What’s Love Anyways”
While producing the single I just thought about the question “what is love?”. Throughout my relationships I’ve found myself wondering “is this love?” and then I wondered, what am I basing my answer off of? Material expectations I see on the internet, or what your parents tell you to look for in a partner?
You hear all these opinions on love and relationships when you’re growing up, and we’re given all of these expectations through media and society. At the end of the day, nobody is really permanent in your life and I think you get the privilege to love people for a period of time, and it doesn’t always go good or bad or perfectly, but that doesn’t mean love wasn’t present.
That’s what my intentions were with the song, basically saying “at least I got the chance to love”.
Do you have any new music coming up that you’d like to talk about?
What’s Love Anyways is the title track of my project, What’s Love Anyways, which is coming out on October 21st. The entire project is about the journey through love and your emotions while in a relationship.
What kinda songs/artists do you listen to?
I listen to a lot of different music, but mostly R&B, old and new. All the classics are rotated daily on my playlist, and I love newer artists like Kehlani, SZA, and Jhené Aiko.
What do you have to say to the aspiring artists who have just started out or are about to start out on their musical endeavours?
Do it because you want to and you love it because that’s the only way you’ll make it through. If you do it and try to cater to what you think people want not only will it not be genuine, but you’ll start to lose faith if you don’t always get the response you want, and chances are in the beginning it’s not going to be the response you want.
Not many people just go viral and blow up overnight, you have to keep working. A lot of artists work for years before getting their first hit, so you need real love and passion for the art to really carry you through.
Check out ‘What’s Love Anyways’ below!
That’s all for this Friday’s Feature and we hope to have you back next week! See you then.
Don’t forget to share this because everyone should listen to ‘What’s Love Anyways’ at least once. We bet, they’ll put it on repeat. And as always, stay tuned to The Hollywood Tribune for more awesome song recommendations, music videos, and Exclusive Interviews of super-talented musicians and artists! For more exclusive content, head over to THT EXCLUSIVES and subscribe to updates!
